Mitsubishi Materials Corp, Electric Power Development Co, or J-Power, Nittetsu Mining Co Ltd and Kyushu Electric Power Co are stepping up efforts with the help of Tokyo to make more geothermal power stations.

Why not? Japan has more than its share of active volcanoes. And Japan needs a home grown source of energy. What’s more, geothermal power plants emit far less CO2.

Mitsubishi and J-Power will dumb Y40billon ($420m) to construct a georthermal power plant in Yuzawa in Akita. The facility will tap hot water and steam around 2000 meters below the surface by 2016.

Japan’s METI has set up a group to figure out how to help these companies to their thing, including financial support.

In the 70’s - think oil crisis - geothermal plants got a hot spurt, but nuclear power stations won out.

Japan has 18 geothermal plants that account for about 0.2% of electicity in the country. Japan!? Can you say Iceland?

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So, I wonder. How many points does Google want for throwing pocket change at an alternate fuel technology? The giant search engine machine pledged “10 million U.S. dollars in Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) technology, as part of its Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal initiative. ”

Two geothermal tech start-ups and a university will benefit from the grant. “EGS expands the potential of traditional geothermal energy by orders of magnitude,” said Google.org. EGS has the potential to provide clean renewable electricity 24/7, at a cost cheaper than coal.

AltaRock (cool name will get you money) Energy will get $6.25 million and Potter Drilling will get $4.25 million. SMU will get a grant of $489,521 (nice round number). Australia, Germany and the European Union are the technology leaders.  All 50 states have thermal resources accessible by EGS. Just gotta dig down and plug in. Or we can Iceland and/or Mitsubishi to see how they do it.

But, $10 million from a company that makes a profit of over $1 billion quarterly. That’s like a man with $4,000 to do go with giving away just $10 and hoping to make a difference.

I am as surprised as the next guy. I didn’t think anybody could make Greenpeace content about anything. However, the environmental extremists have pronounced their blessings on Beijing for their 2008 Olympic Games preparations.

“We are glad to see that Beijing has improved its infrastructure in preparation for the Olympics,” says Greenpeace China’s Campaign director. It has made public transport more convenient, upgraded home heating systems, improved water treatment and, to some degree, reduced its reliance on fossil fuels.”

Greenpeace acknowledged Beijing’s

1. increased use of energy efficient technologies
2. use of renewable energy
3. use of geothermal heating systems
4. increased employment of wind and solar power
5. expanded public transportation system
6. cooperation with Coca-Cola and Samsung to meet specific environmental commitments.

“This is a huge leap from the polluting technologies currently used in the developing world. Beijing has shown that, when a concerted effort is made, change is possible,” Lo said.

Beijing missed out on

1. complying with internationally recognized timber procurement policies
2. use of zero-waste treatment

Can’t win them all. Greenpeace says the rest of China needs to learn from Beijing. Perhaps they would if the rest of the cities in China could take turn hosting the Olympics. All of Beijing’s advancements came with a price tag.

source

I love it when a plan comes together. I love it more when countries work together to make the world a better place.

In this case, Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will be working together with the Iceland Power Company, Reykjavik Energy, to build five 45-megawatt geothermal power plants in the small country to the north of the European continent. The new plants will begin operating in about two years, October, 2010 and the whole project is expected to be complete by February 2012.

Blessed with a high volume of volcanoes (for those who consider this kind of thing a blessing) and geothermal energy options, Iceland already has five geothermal plants and cover over 87-percent of the country’s heating and hot water requirements through them.

I need to check my math, but if five plants provide 87-percent of the heating and hot water needs, then how many more plants are needed to meet the other 13%? Seriously, how cool is it that Iceland can get so much energy in this way? ICan they bottle it up and export it, to the US? That would be cool.

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