China plans geothermal exploration push in its new 5-year plan
Smog over Beijing, China (source: flickr/ gmetrail, creative commons)
Alexander Richter
22 Oct 2012
China is expecting to accelerate the utilization of geothermal energy in its new five-year plant, to help reach the goal of non-fossil fuel energy becoming a larger share in its energy mix.
Chinese Officials are looking at ways to implement more clean energy resources to decrease the country’s dependence on coal.
As reported locally, “Liu Qi, deputy director of the National Energy Administration said that in order to reach the goal of non-fossil energy accounting for only 15 percent of all primary energy consumption by the year 2020, the state is accelerating the exploitation of geothermal resources during the Twelfth Five-Year plan.
The National Energy Administration has authorized Sinopec to set up a research and technology application center, which aims to promote related technological development and distribution from exploitation points. The process, which sounds easy enough, generates power from the hot water and steam that flows deep in the earth.
According to local media, the quantity of the current found geothermal resources distributed in 287 cities is equal to 351 million tons of coal, and can decrease 500 million carbon dioxide emission.
Official figures from Ministry of Land and Resources show that there are resources about equal to 860 trillion tons of coal–26 times of China’s current annual energy consumption.
Though resources are abundant, China’s geothermal exploitation is still at the preliminary stage. Zheng Keyan, director of Research Center of Geothermal Resources in the China Energy Research Institute, said that the development of China’s shallow ground geothermal resource is only 160 million square meters, which is a far cry from the goal of 500 million square meters by 2015.
Zhou Xiujie, an energy consultant with China Investment Corp said that China’s equipment is outdated and there is also a lack of exploitation capability, while the commercial value of geothermal resources have not been developed.
“Now the underground and ground projects are respectively managed by the Ministry of Territories and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, while the National Energy Administration is also involved in management, and the National Reform and Development Commission is responsible for subsidy criteria. Multiple sources of management may cause inefficiency in the industry,” Zhou added.
Source: Morning Whistle
