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Especially considering how blatantly false it is, Japan is literately covered in volcanoes/hot spring sources; hence why Onsen is such a big part of their cultu

Especially considering how blatantly false it is, Japan is literately covered in volcanoes/hot spring sources; hence why Onsen is such a big part of their culture. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onsen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onsen My cousin is a Mechanical Engineer with a concentration on renewable energy sources, and while at school for his masters he was telling about his professor he was working under who had his work halted after 3/11 (Tsunami and Fukushima meltdown) on exploring the viability of steam powered turbines to offset energy needs for Nuclear, which by the way at its peak never exceed 30%. I as a anti-nuclear activist was dismayed to hear that. It was going well with promising leads, apparently he still needed gather like 3 more years of data to present to the Japanese government before he got grants and permission to move forward with projects and proofs of concept. Sadly, it never happened.

cthalupa 7y ago
That onsen culture is exactly why geothermal is a nonstarter as a panacea for Japan - the sites where people are willing for plants to be constructed are limited and many of them still only allow for small plants. Onsen tourism is the primary source of income for many of these locations and these communities worry that large geothermal plants will kill the tourism industry. There have been a handful of plants opened post Fukushima with more planned, but opposition to large scale geothermal has been fierce in the prefectures that could supply the sites. I'm sure we'll continue to see plants built, but I'll be shocked if it happens on a scale that can reverse Japan from being a net importer of energy.