Role of energy finance in geothermal power development in Japan

Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary (), Aline Mortha, Hadi Farabi-Asl, Tapan Sarker, Andrew Chapman, Yosuke Shigetomi and Timothy Fraser

International Review of Economics & Finance, 2020, vol. 70, issue C, 398-412

Abstract: The Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011 drastically changed the energy consumption pattern of Japan. Not being able to rely on nuclear energy, the country turned to fossil fuels and attempted to increase the share of renewable energy in its electricity generation mix. This paper will explore why geothermal energy is stagnating in Japan, despite the availability of resources and technologies. The paper first analyzes the various barriers to geothermal energy deployment in Japan from social, legal, economic, financial and technical viewpoints. The major contribution of this study is the quantification of the magnitude each barrier and supportive policy has on the development of geothermal power, with a special focus given to energy finance measures. The analysis is performed using a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) using data from 1974 to 2017 and identifies the existence of a long-term relationship between variables, public research and development expenditures and the Feed-in-Tariff scheme. The latter appears to be the most efficient stimuli to foster geothermal power generation. Subsidies in their current form, on the other hand, have mixed results both in the long and short term. Environmental concerns and social opposition appear to be among the major barriers in both the short and long term.

Keywords: Geothermal energy; Energy finance; Vector error correction model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1059056020301258
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:reveco:v:70:y:2020:i:c:p:398-412

DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2020.06.011

Access Statistics for this article

International Review of Economics & Finance is currently edited by H. Beladi and C. Chen

More articles in International Review of Economics & Finance from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().