AsiaElec: Japan’s geothermal potential brought up at G7 meeting

Representatives of Japan and the US met on the sidelines of the recent G7 meeting in Hokkaido to take step one in cementing a much needed research and development deal in one of the former’s underused sources of renewable energy: geothermal power.

The ‘memorandum of commitment’ signed during the gathering of global leaders on Japan’s northernmost island will see both governments come together to take geothermal beyond the most public current demonstration of its use, hot springs.

As popular as ground-powered hot spas are up and down the Japanese archipelago, it is a “renewable energy technology that the United States and Japan can work together to advance” according to Yasutoshi Nishimura.

The head of Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) signed the deal alongside US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

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