A Lot of Hot Water, but Not Much Is Being Used to Produce Electricity(Andrew Pollack)

I think the problem is that Japan should have been running on geothermal energy instead of nuclear. As a result of the many earthquakes and the following tsunami in March 2011, Japan has lost all most of their energy due to the shutdown of the nuclear plants. Most people were questioning Japan’s reliance on nuclear power plants and use the geothermal to lead to a clean renewable energy. So far very little of the geothermal energy has been harnessed. There are only 18 geothermal power plants throughout Japan and all together that equals 0.3 percent of Japan’s electricity production. The geothermal power plants are the easiest to manage because it is basically water and steam and it could be managed from up to one hundred miles away. Then the Earth Policy Institute argues that the geothermal energy could produce as much as eighty thousand megawatts of capacity in Japan, compared to the current five hundred thirty five megawatts now.

The way geothermal works is that there is water that is beneath the earth’s crust. The water is heated by the magma currents that are inside of the earth. When the water is heated the steam is trapped under ground. Then the energy company may go and dig it up by sticking a pipe inside of the earth and the steam goes through the pipe, spins a turbine and the result of the spinning turbine produces energy.

The water that is left over from the steam that has condensated can be used for a couple of things. One way it can be used is to heat home by drawing the water up from under the earth and running it through a pipe. Then the water releases heat as it runs through the pipe. Then the water that has cooled down will be used for either drinking water, gardening water or they just put it back into the earth. Unlike solar or wind energy, geothermal energy cannot be developed quickly because it takes years to explore and develop a field analogous to prospecting for oil. Geothermal power, while considered clean energy, is not always perfectly renewable because a hot water field can be tapped more quickly than it can be renewed. The power plant here, which opened in 1995, is rated at 65 megawatts of capacity, but production has fallen to only half that level. There is one problem with putting it back into the earth. The Japanese fears that if they put the water back in to the earth it will start a series of earthquakes again. Then most geologists are saying that if they have the necessary resources they can go ahead and put the water back because they have so many hot springs that is would be the best idea to do at this moment.

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