Geothermal energy promises to turn defenders into strikers

"As the country pays more and more attention to deep geothermal energy, the future geothermal energy is expected to change from the original 'guard' to 'center' or 'forward'." Pang Zhonghe, director of the Geothermal Resources Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, recently said in an interview with the China Science Journal.

Previously, researchers from Florida University of Technology and other universities in the United States published a paper in the European Journal of Physics, saying that the geothermal efficiency obtained through shallow Wells will gradually decrease over time, and may become ineffective within decades, if technology and funding allow, deeper drilling should be considered.

However, Pang Zhonghe pointed out that in terms of high-temperature geothermal power generation and deep geothermal energy development and utilization technology, developed countries such as Europe and the United States have studied for nearly 50 years, while China has just started, and there is still a gap with foreign countries.

"To catch up, you have to strengthen basic research on the one hand, and make basic research work for industry on the other." Pang Zhonghe said.

Earth "Charging/Hot Treasure"

In the face of the goal of "reaching the peak of carbon before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality before 2060", geothermal energy as a clean non-carbon-based renewable energy has ushered in unprecedented development opportunities. Recently issued the "State Council on accelerating the establishment of a sound Green low-carbon circular Development of the economic system Guidance" clearly pointed out that to develop geothermal energy according to local conditions, speed up the development and promotion of large-capacity energy storage technology.

In order to further promote the development of geothermal geology and deep geothermal energy in China, the joint launch meeting of the Strategic research project "Geothermal Geology and Deep Geothermal Energy" of the National Natural Science Foundation of China was held at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences on March 19. The meeting was chaired by Wang Jiyang, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Many experts jointly "feel the pulse" of China's geothermal energy efficient use and sustainable development.

As the project leader of "Research on Earth Science Issues of Deep geothermal energy", Pang Zhonghe pointed out that underground "energy storage" is one of the important directions of the future development of geothermal energy, and through the recharge of various waste heat to underground space storage, geothermal energy can effectively play the role of continuous and stable base load. "It is like changing the original disposable battery to a rechargeable cycle battery to solve the problem of large-scale long-term storage of energy."

Li Kewen, a professor at China University of Geosciences in Beijing, put it bluntly: "It is difficult for China to achieve carbon neutrality within the specified time by relying only on current clean energy such as wind and solar energy. We must vigorously develop and use geothermal energy."

In fact, as early as 2018, Li Kewen's team proposed the concept of "zero carbon China", also studied the feasibility and technical route of realizing "zero carbon China", and started the relevant research on zero carbon buildings on the basis of technologies such as thermal volt power generation, and obtained the relevant national invention patent authorization.

According to the white paper "China's Energy Development in the New Era" released by The State Council Information Office, China's geothermal industry currently ranks first in the world in terms of total heat utilization, and by the end of 2019, the construction area of shallow and medium deep geothermal energy heating in China exceeded 1.1 billion square meters. "One square meter of geothermal heating area per capita is still too little, and there is still huge room for development in the future." Pang Zhonghe said.

Conduct prospective studies

In 2017, the "13th Five-Year Plan for Geothermal Energy Development and Utilization" jointly prepared by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Land and Resources and the National Energy Administration was officially released, and China's geothermal industry ushered in the "second spring" and gradually embarked on the road of high-quality development.

"For the development and utilization of geothermal energy, it is not only necessary to break through the current technical bottleneck, but also to explore the technologies that may be 'stuck' in the future from now on." Li Kewen told reporters.

Pang Zhonghe said that the realization of geothermal curve overtaking can not carry out repeated simple research, we must find out the world's frontier problems, find out the current major demand and bottleneck problems of geothermal in China. In addition, we should make good use of the existing research capabilities and recognize the actual situation of our geothermal research team, platform and research accumulation.