The Horizon of Biomass - A Budding Regional Cycle in Kushiro, Hokkaido, Japan 1998-2003

The Horizon of Biomass - A Budding Regional Cycle in Kushiro, Hokkaido, Japan 1998-2003

At the end of the 1990s, Kushiro was under pressure to simultaneously revitalize the region after the closure of its coal mines and shift to a new energy source. In 1997, the government enacted the Act on Special Measures for the Promotion of New Energy Use, etc. (Act on Special Measures for the Promotion of New Energy Use, etc.) to provide subsidies for the introduction of renewable energy, and in 2003, the RPS system required electric power companies to procure renewable energy. In Kushiro, too, the possibility of using leftover forestry products and livestock waste and of combining heat and electricity was studied, and the idea of "local production for local consumption of heat" to heat public facilities and tourist attractions with local resources sprouted up.

The entry point for implementation was - heat demand close to home. In the Lake Akan Onsen area, the effective use of hot spring heat and the utilization of heat during unused hours were identified as targets for study, and the design of heat supply in combination with lodging and roadside station functions were discussed. In parallel with this, the optimal regional arrangement of boilers and piping that use wood chips and livestock biomass as heat sources was explored, and the supply to public facilities and bathing facilities was materialized. The "hybrid" of hot spring exhaust heat and biomass heat was an implementation context unique to East Hokkaido.

At that time, Kushiro was shifting from a resource to be burned to a resource to be turned. In the "Biomass Industrial City" concept presented by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) in the 2010s and later, Kushiro was also planning to incorporate both material and energy use, such as utilization of raw garbage from hot springs, composting of feed residues, and conversion of marine biomass into feed and fertilizer, into the city's functions. The attempts made around the year 2000 have been carried over to later strategies.

The most recent city strategy also clarifies the room for utilizing livestock manure and unused materials, the potential of low-temperature heat and waste heat from the Lake Akan area, and the challenges of becoming independent from dependence on imported biomass. In other words, the idea of "using local resources to turn a profit" from around 2000 still lives on today as the core of Kushiro's basic strategy for renewable energy.

In short, Kushiro's biomass concept was a leading local model supported by the 1997 New Energy Law, the 2003 RPS system, and the visualization of heat demand in a hot spring resort area. The self-sufficiency of heat connected the public, tourism, and agriculture and ranching industries, and became a prototype for the regional energy cycle that later became common to the FIT period.