A geothermal well has been drilled to a depth of 3406.8 meters in Hunan Province, China, which will be used to supply heat to Terminal 3 of the Changsha Huanghua International Airport. With a measured bottomhole temperature of 104.2 ºC, the well has broken the records for both geothermal well depths and temperatures in southern China.
A total of six medium-depth geothermal wells have been drilled as part of a green energy project for the Changsha Airport. Each well is constructed with coaxial closed-loop heat exchange technology which allows for the extraction of heat without extracting water. Preliminary calculations indicate that once all six wells are operational, the total heat extraction capacity will reach 4,391 kW.
With an expected annual heat supply of 6.578 million kWh, the geothermal energy station will meet about 35.2% of the heating load of Terminal 3 during the heating season. Combined with photovoltaic power generation, the renewable energy utilization rate of Terminal 3 will exceed 24%, making it among the leading terminals in China.
The project is being jointly executed by the Hunan Airport Ground and the Hunan Energy Group.
Geothermal is increasingly become an energy source of choice for many airports worldwide, with notable examples in Poland, Hungary, the United States, India, and France. Airports are major energy consumers and need an energy source that can provide heating and/or cooling that works regardless of weather and seasons.
Moreover, experts from the Hunan Provincial Institute of Geology believe that the Changsha Airport Green Energy Project has laid a solid foundation for clarifying the region’s geothermal geological conditions and filled the gap in medium-deep geothermal exploration and extraction in southern China. The knowledge gained from the drilling campaign can help promote the large-scale of medium-depth geothermal energy technology in this region, thus providing clean energy for industrial parks, public buildings, and residential units.
Source: Hunan Today
