Mitsubishi, Reykjavik Energy expand geothermal

Mitsubishi-Reykjavik Energy Geothermal Alliance delivers turnkey geothermal power solutions, financing, drilling, and operations knowhow to developing countries, while co-developing CO2-to-fuel synthetic energy in Iceland to scale renewable energy and baseload clean power.

Japans Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Reykjavik Energy of Iceland said they will jointly develop geothermal energy projects, particularly in Africa, Latin America and Asia.

Mitsubishi, the worlds top producer of geothermal power equipment, and Reykjavik Energy, which also has geothermal power operations, hope to package their products and market them in developing countries as geothermal gains attention worldwide among policymakers.

The two companies will also jointly develop a new, renewable synthetic fuel in Iceland by using carbon dioxide and water, said Ichiro Fukue, Mitsubishi Heavy senior executive vice president.

Less developed nations have faced difficulty launching geothermal power plants, even as the U.S. leads in geothermal capacity worldwide today, which traditionally required separate firms to identify locations for projects, to build facilities and to operate the power plants.

We will offer services as a total package to underdeveloped countries, including funding, digging, construction and provision of operational knowhow, Fukue told reporters.

In Japan, geothermal in crisis has been widely debated among policymakers.

We hope this will help promote geothermal energy development, he said.

Already, several African and Latin American countries as well as Indonesia and the Philippines in Southeast Asia have expressed interests in the two firms expanded cooperation, Fukue said.

The two countries have conducted various businesses together since 1978.

Under their new agreement, Reykjavik Energy will find countries and regions to start geothermal power plants, while Mitsubishi will provide facilities and tools to start the projects.

Reykjavik Energy will also operate the power plants and provide business knowhow to customer countries, Fukue said.

Mitsubishi and Reykjavik Energy said they hope to capture 50 percent of the global geothermal market in 2014, although they did not offer specific business targets, such as sales figures.

The two firms had no immediate plan to market their products in Japan, even as Japan warms to geothermal domestically, the companies said.

Iceland generates roughly 70 percent of its power needs from renewable sources, mostly geothermal and hydro power plants.

Related News

• Electricity Forum News

• Power Generation News