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China highlighting the tremendous role of geothermal heating for the country

China highlighting the tremendous role of geothermal heating for the country 2016 China Geothermal International Forum, Beijing (source: thinkgeoenergy)
Alexander Richter 6 Jan 2017

In connection with the release of the 13th 5-year plan for energy, China's National Energy Authority highlights the great importance and role geothermal energy can play for heating and in specific provinces of the country.

In a recent interview following the publication of China’s 5-year energy plan, Liang Zhipeng, Deputy Director of New Energy at China’s National Energy Administration talked about geothermal energy, its role and prospects for China.

In the overall context of renewable energy development, one can say that development has been relatively fast but not as much so for renewable energy heating applications, something that can also be seen internationally.

Changing today’s energy structure and change the mode of production and consumption of energy the promotion of heating might have a more significant and more direct impact with greater social benefits and geothermal energy is the most important form of renewable energy heating.

China possesses great geothermal energy resources, mostly in two forms. First, the resources for the use of shallow geothermal energy heating, including the surface of the soil, underground water extraction of energy, including ground water and even air can use shallow geothermal energy out. Second, more than 1,000 meters deep in the deep water heating. In the past few years, these two methods have been developed in China relatively fast, technology has become more mature, such as in Hebei Xiongxian, where deep geothermal resources have been utilised for district heating schemes. There is though also significant growth on the use of shallow geothermal energy.

Our country’s geothermal energy resources are very rich, shallow geothermal resources can be extracted per year equivalent to 700 million tons of standard coal, in the depth of geothermal exploitation of resources equivalent to 1.9 billion tons of standard coal. The current geothermal utilization is relatively small, but reached a total of 500 million square meters of geothermal heating. In the “Thirteen Five” period, by 2020 geothermal heating can reach 1.6 billion square meters, a net increase of 1.1 billion square meters. Geothermal heat supply is an important aspect of renewable energy heating. Especially in the environmental requirements are relatively high and the current pollution is more serious in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River region, geothermal heating will play a significant role.

According to the current development of geothermal energy planning, in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, by 2020 geothermal heating area will reach 450 million square meters, the amount of heat in the Beijing-Tianjin region which accounts for about one fifth. In other regions where geothermal energy resources are abundant, geothermal energy is also an important form of energy. Geothermal energy also has many other applications, such as agricultural production of greenhouse heating. Geothermal energy in rural heating can also play a very important role. In the 13th five-year period, our country in geothermal heating to develop a series of policies to support geothermal heating.

Source: National Energy Administration of China