Located on the “Ring of Fire,” Japan has 10% of the worlds active volcanoes, which provides the country with significant geothermal activity. Geothermal hot spring baths, known in Japan as onsen spas, have been a part of Japanese culture for thousands of years and are a popular getaway for locals and tourists to soak up the warm mineral-rich waters of Japan’s active landscape. More than 27,000 hot spring resources exist in Japan with over 3000 onsen spa resorts.

By utilizing access heat from an onsen spa’s geothermal well, it is possible to produce renewable electricity which can support the resort operations or be sold to the local community’s electrical grid.

The Kitsune power plant is a hot spring binary power plant connected to the Japanese onsen spa, Midori, in the village of Okuhida in the Gifu region of Japan. Using the spa’s geothermal well water heat to produce electricity gives the spa a reliable source of renewable electricity, while maintaining stability in the water supplied to the onsen spa.