The 280-kW Minami Tateishi geothermal power plant took about six years to fully develop and officially started its commercial operations in October 2023. The plant utilizes an ORC power generation unit from TICA and sells its output to Kyushu Electric Power. It has a total annual power generation of about 2,300 MWh.
BLD Power Stations is a company primarily specializing in solar power generation with more than 30 solar power facilities all over Japan. Its three geothermal power facilities are all located in hot spring-rich Beppu City – Beppu Minami Tateishi (280 kW), Beppu Tsurumi (2 x 125 kW), and Beppu Ogiyama. Beppu is a well-known hot spring town with more than 3000 hot spring sources.
Shoko Chukin Bank came to the decision to grant the Green Loan to the project following a thorough business feasibility evaluation with on-site visits and dialogue with management. This also represents the first project financing provided by Shoko Chukin Bank for geothermal power generation. With this decision, Shoko Chukin Bank affirms it commitment to supporting sustainable management efforts by small and medium-sized enterprises for the betterment of society.
Most of the geothermal power plants in Japan are considered small, with capacities ranging from 20 kW to 250 kW. The number of small geothermal power plants has surged starting 2010 owing to a high FiT price of JPY40/kWh compared to only JPY26/kWh for power plants with capacities of 15 MW or larger.
As a testament to this phenomenon, two geothermal power plants in Japan have started commercial operations within the period of January to March 2024 – the 2-MW Mori Binary Power Plant in Hokkaido, and the 14.9-MW Appi Geothermal Power Plant in Iwate. In addition to those, construction had recently been completed for the 5-MW Oguni Machiokoshi geothermal power plant in Kumamoto, while construction has just started on the 5-MW Waita No.2 geothermal power plant, also in Kumamto.
