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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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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