Marubeni to go into geothermal power business

Plans to tap the heat powering volcanoes as an alternative to nuclear energy.

Marubeni Corporation, the biggest investor in electricity generation among Japan’s trading houses, hopes to harness pools of underground heat with potentially twice the current capacity of geothermal projects operating worldwide.

That could help Japan move away from atomic energy that provided 30% of its power before the Fukushima crisis.

Marubeni plans to conduct a geothermal survey in the Daisetsuzan National Park in Hokkaido, perhaps this May.

The study of geological formations will take place in the Shiramizusawa area. Surveyors will work a year before officials decide whether to conduct test drilling. The next step will be to determine whether the site is suitable for a plant.

Marubeni’s study is possible because only the government last year relaxed rules to allow geothermal projects in protected national parks, part of an effort to boost supplies of renewable energy.

More than 80% of Japan’s geothermal reserves are in national parks, said the Geothermal Research Society of Japan.