Current situation and future trend of geothermal energy development and utilization in China

Geothermal energy is a green, low-carbon, recyclable renewable energy, with large reserves, wide distribution, clean environmental protection, stable and reliable. China is rich in geothermal resources, the market potential is huge, and the development prospect is broad. The development and utilization of geothermal energy is not only of great significance to the adjustment of energy structure, energy conservation and emission reduction, and the improvement of the environment, but also has a significant pulling effect on the cultivation of emerging industries, the promotion of new urbanization construction, and the increase of employment. Geothermal energy is usually divided into shallow geothermal energy, hydrothermal geothermal energy and dry thermal rock geothermal energy.

Resource situation

Shallow geothermal energy. 

Hydrothermal geothermal resources.  Hydrothermal geothermal resources in China are mainly medium and low temperature, supplemented by high temperature. Controlled by factors such as structure, magmatic activity, stratigraphic lithology and hydrogeological conditions, the distribution of hydrothermal geothermal resources has obvious regularity and zonality, and can be divided into sedimentary basin type and uplift mountain type geothermal resources according to tectonic origin.

Uplift mountain type medium and low temperature geothermal resources. It is mainly distributed in mountainous and hilly areas such as the southeast coast, Jiaodong and Liaodong Peninsula. Upland high temperature geothermal resources are mainly distributed in Taiwan, South Tibet, west Yunnan, west Sichuan and other regions. Because China is located in the intersection of the western Pacific island arc plate marginal tropical zone and the Mediterran-Himalayan land-continental collision plate marginal tropical zone, controlled by tectonic activities, this area is pregnant with a large number of hydrothermal activities, and is the most important high-temperature hot spring intensive zone in China. The annual recoverable capacity of hydrothermal geothermal resources in Southwest China is equivalent to 15.3 million tons of standard coal, and the power generation potential of high-temperature geothermal resources is 7.12 million kW.

Hot and dry rock resources. Hot dry rock exists in the interior of the earth, but the resources of hot dry rock with potential development are distributed in the new volcanic active areas, thin crust areas and other plate or tectonic body margins. The amount of dry hot rock resources within 3 ~ 10km underground in China's land area is equivalent to 856 trillion t of standard coal. According to the international standard of hot and dry rock, 2% of it is considered as recoverable resources, which is about 4000 times the total energy consumption of the country in 2015. In view of the difficulty of exploration and development of geothermal energy in hot dry rock and the trend of technological development, geothermal energy in hot dry rock buried in shallow 5500 meters will be the key field of exploration and development of geothermal energy in China in the next 15 to 30 years.

Development status

Development of shallow geothermal energy

China's shallow geothermal energy utilization started at the end of the 20th century. With the Green Olympics, energy conservation, emission reduction and climate change actions, shallow geothermal energy utilization has entered a stage of rapid development, and the scale of shallow geothermal energy utilization has ranked first in the world since 2015. During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, China has built a number of significant shallow geothermal energy development and utilization projects, and the maturity and reliability of shallow geothermal energy technology has been verified and recognized.

The Beijing International Horticultural Expo uses deep geothermal + shallow geothermal + water storage + boiler peaking methods to provide heating and cooling services for 290,000 square meters of buildings; Using ground source heat pump + deep geothermal + water storage + auxiliary cold and heat source, Beijing City sub-central Office area takes the lead in creating a "near zero carbon emission zone" demonstration project through heat pump technology, providing summer cooling, winter heating and domestic hot water for 2.37 million square meters of buildings; As an important part of "Green Airport", the ground source heat pump system of Beijing Daxing International Airport provides cold and hot energy for 2.57 million square meters of buildings in Daxing Airport.

By the end of 2019, the scale of shallow geothermal energy development and utilization in China was 840 million square meters, mainly distributed in the urban areas of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Liaoning, Shandong, Hubei, Jiangsu, Shanghai and other provinces.

The annual utilization energy of geothermal direct utilization ranks first in the world, accounting for 29.7% of the world; The equipment capacity of geothermal direct utilization ranks first in the world, accounting for 25.4% of the world; The annual utilization of shallow geothermal energy by ground source heat pump ranks first in the world, accounting for 30.9% of the world; The annual utilization of geothermal heating ranks first in the world, accounting for 38.2% of the world. Development of hydrothermal geothermal energy.