Akihabara News (Tokyo) — New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern devoted part of her visit to Japan to the promotion of geothermal energy ties between her Pacific nation and Japan.
“New Zealand has doubled its geothermal power generation in the past ten years and has complementary capabilities to support geothermal exploration in Japan,” the prime minister said.
As a concrete manifestation of this intent, Ardern attended a launch event for the establishment of a Tokyo office that will serve as a platform for the combined local efforts of New Zealand government-affiliated research institute GNS Science and the North Island-based geothermal innovation company Geo40.
Also at the launch event, GNS Science Chief Executive Ian Simpson stated, “New Zealand shares many similarities to Japan, including a shared vision for zero carbon economies, which is driving strong investment in renewable energy in Japan, including sixty new geothermal power stations planned. More renewable electricity being produced means less fossil fuel consumption, which helps address rising global greenhouse gas emissions.”
He also contended that New Zealand has “expertise that can make Japanese geothermal power stations produce significantly more electricity more efficiently, reduce or eliminate the small amount of emissions from geothermal generation, and extract value out of by-products. Not only does the coalition’s research and expertise provide value for global geothermal customers, it helps ensure energy resilience, affordability, and sustainability.”
The Tokyo office of the GNS Science-Geo40 alliance will most likely focus on making partnership agreements with Japanese firms which are already working within the geothermal industry.
Japan is believed to possess the world’s third-largest geothermal potential, and the government aims to triple the country’s geothermal power output by 2030, making it account for about 1% of Japan’s total energy generation.
Throughout most of the past decade, geothermal’s contribution to Japan’s total energy generation has remained stable at about 0.25%.
