Global geothermal is "hot" green future will come

Global attention to the development and utilization of geothermal energy is increasing

● Rozzo County

Studies have shown that nearly 50% of the share of energy consumption is related to the construction industry, the production and transportation of various building materials, the construction and operation of buildings are energy consumers. Among them, the energy consumption of the building operation link accounts for about 20% of the total energy consumption, the specific link includes heating and cooling, building lighting, internal cooking, etc., and heating and cooling energy consumption accounts for the majority. Whether it is a commercial building or a residential building, the heating and cooling condition is an important sign to evaluate the running quality of the building, and the energy consumption generated by it has typical characteristics of rigid demand. From the development trend, economic development and the improvement of people's living standards will further expand the scale of building operation energy. Once energy consumption rises to a certain level, it is almost impossible to bring it down, because consumption is irreversible. At the same time, driven by the global goal of "carbon neutrality", energy conservation and emission reduction have become the preferred targets of energy management policies in various countries. Under the dual constraints of low carbon energy saving and increasing energy consumption, it is an inevitable path for buildings to choose renewable energy for heating and cooling. In this situation, geothermal, as a rising star of the renewable energy family, is becoming an important choice for building energy.

The energy shortage caused by geopolitical conflicts has strengthened the determination of Europe and the United States to develop green and low-carbon energy

The "Geothermal Vision: Harnessing the Heat Beneath Our Feet" industry plan released by the U.S. Department of Energy's Geothermal Technology Office believes that geothermal resources throughout the United States can be widely used for heating and power generation, helping to increase the diversity of U.S. energy and further improve energy security. The US Department of Energy estimates that by 2050, by effectively improving the development level of geothermal technology, the scale of shallow geothermal use in the United States is expected to expand from 2 million to 28 million households, accounting for 23% of the US residential air conditioning market in 2050. The U.S. Department of Energy has proposed five key technology areas and key process plans, including resource assessment, subsurface signal detection, geothermal drilling and wellbore, geothermal resource recovery, and monitoring, modeling, and management of geothermal resources and facilities. After the introduction of US President Joe Biden's New Deal, the development of new energy, including geothermal, has accelerated significantly.

In recent years, the European Deep Geothermal Technology and Innovation Platform has released the deep geothermal strategic research and innovation agenda, proposed the Deep geothermal Energy Implementation Roadmap, clarified the tasks, objectives and work content of the European Union's geothermal development before 2030, and the realization of the European Union's deep geothermal development vision by 2050. The "Advance Plan" for the development of high-performance, low-cost and sustainable deep geothermal technologies is expected to meet 50% of Europe's projected electricity demand and 80% of its heat demand by 2050.

In view of the current low energy utilization efficiency of buildings and the limited distribution of deep geothermal resources, the European Union's geothermal development priority is to fund relevant projects to develop shallow geothermal systems with special potential, and to promote them on a large scale after their success. The European Union is currently carrying out the shallow geothermal development and utilization project GEOCOND, led by the Technical University of Valencia in Spain, and the joint participation of scientific research institutions in Turkey, Israel and other countries is a typical example. Supported by seven countries funded by the European Union, the main objective of the GEOCOND project is to reduce the cost of using geothermal energy. According to the public information, the progress of the project has basically reached the expected goal.

At present, 75% of the EU's building stock has the potential to improve energy efficiency, and the potential for building energy conservation is huge. The improvement of building energy operation efficiency is of great significance to the green decarbonization of the EU economy and the response to global warming. Geothermal power projects are currently being built in the UK to accelerate the decarbonisation transition and supply energy to communities, with 360 geothermal plants expected to be built by 2050, generating 15,000 gigawatt hours of electricity per year. The French Bureau of Geology and Minerals estimates that geothermal energy could meet 70 percent of France's heating needs in the future, up from just 1 percent today.