[O-08] Poster presentations by senior high school students

[O08-P77] The approach to present conditions and problems that utilization of geothermal power generation based on field surveys

*Nozomi Kawaharata¹, *Yusuke Oba¹, *Minato Kikuchi¹, *Shoki Yashima¹ (1.Furukawa Reimei Senior High School)

Keywords:geothermal power generation

While Japan's geothermal resource reserves are among the highest in the world, the ratio of geothermal power generation to per capita is very small. Thermal power generation accounts for the majority of domestic power generation, even when compared with other power generation from the total amount of power generation in Japan. We are conducting research and experiments on the effective use of geothermal resources in Japan from a scientific point of view, and conduct this research with the aim of finally improving the ratio of geothermal power generation in Japan. During this research, we visited five geothermal power generation facilities located in Tohoku, and also investigated the commercial and social use of geothermal energy in the surrounding area. First, the current state of geothermal power generation in Japan. Since Japan's geothermal resource reserves are distributed near national parks and national parks, geothermal resources cannot be developed due to the rules of the National Park Law. That is, large-scale development for geothermal power generation is restricted by law, so businesses cannot develop geothermal power generation. This law was amended in 2017 by the Japanese government's policy shift regarding base load power sources, and is currently only permitted for development outside the national park. Even under these circumstances, the fact that geothermal power generation has not progressed is due to the fact that generators have not been produced domestically. For this reason, if a defect is found in the power generation device, it will take time to repair it because the equipment cannot be procured in Japan. With this, it is very difficult to recover the equipment cost within the duration of the feed-in tariff system. This is also one of the reasons why geothermal power generation does not develop. Similarly, poor understanding of binary power generation is another reason why geothermal power generation does not penetrate. This is where we approach from the experimental side. We are spreading binary power generation, which uses a relatively cold heat source to generate electricity. This requires the understanding of hot spring operators. Therefore, we would like to practice education to deepen the understanding of geothermal power generation for local elementary and junior high school students, including local hot spring operators, using the geothermal power generation model. Currently, we are developing a dry steam geothermal power generation model, which is one of the geothermal power generation methods, and since the power generation efficiency was poor, we are thinking of dealing with this problem from a multifaceted perspective.