International Journal of Environmental Science and Development

Abstract—The present work is intended to evaluate renewable energy potential in Northern-Tohoku area and Tokyo metropolis and reveal possibility of supplying renewable energy from Northern-Tohoku area to Tokyo metropolis. For this purpose we conducted potential evaluation of renewable energy and analyzed the plan of wind energy use with geographic information system (GIS). The renewable energy potential evaluation consists of three processes with GIS. The first process is simulation of the meteorological parameters such as river discharge and direct solar radiation. The second process is extraction of potential areas with restrictions such as meteorological conditions, geographical features and social environment. The third process is calculation of annual energy production. The evaluation result shows that renewable energy potential in Northern-Tohoku area is 101,904 GWh/year, which contains 58,655 GWh/year of wind power, 10,507 GWh/year of mini-micro hydropower, 356 GWh/year of solar power, 30,854 GWh/year of geothermal and 1,532 GWh/year of biomass. It is possible for the renewable energy potential to satisfy electricity demand not only in Northern-Tohoku area but also in Tokyo metropolis. The analysis result of wind energy use in Aomori prefecture indicated that hopeful wind energy potential of 3276 GWh/year exits in Kamikita area, Shimokita area, Seihoku area and Sanhachi area.

Index Terms—renewable energy potential, GIS, solar, wind, mini-micro hydropower.

Tatsuya WAKEYAMA is with Laboratory of Geothermics, Department of Earth Resources Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan (phone: +81-92-802-3324; fax: +81-92-802-3324; e-mail: tatsuya-wakeyama@mine.kyushu-u.ac.jp).
Sachio EHARA is with Laboratory of Geothermics, Department of Earth Resources Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka, 819-0395, Japan (e-mail: ehara@mine.kyushu-u.ac.jp).

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Cite: Tatsuya WAKEYAMA and Sachio EHARA, "Renewable Energy Potential Evaluation and Analysis for Use by using GIS- A Case Study of Northern-Tohoku Area and Tokyo Metropolis, Japan," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 1, no. 5, pp. 446-453, 2010.