Make geothermal energy hot



In Dali, Yunnan Province, the hot spring treatment project attracts many tourists; In Xiongan New Area, Hebei Province, geothermal energy has replaced coal, and the heating capacity has exceeded 10 million square meters. The cumulative power generation of Yangyidi thermal power Station in Lhasa, Tibet exceeded 500 million KWH, and the annual emission reduction of about 420,000 tons of carbon dioxide was achieved. Geothermal energy has been widely used in many places.

Geothermal energy is a kind of abundant reserves, wide distribution, stable and reliable renewable energy, which can be used for power generation, but also for hot springs, heating and cooling, agriculture and other non-power generation end. It is estimated that geothermal energy accounts for about 66% of the world's total renewable energy, which is about 170 million times the global coal reserves.

According to the report released by the World Geothermal Congress in 2023, the scale of direct utilization of geothermal energy in China has ranked first in the world for many years. By the end of 2021, China's geothermal heating (cooling) capacity will reach 1.33 billion square meters, with an annual utilization capacity of 6,665 megawatts for hot springs and 1,108 megawatts for geothermal agriculture.

"Developing the geothermal industry is not only of great significance for adjusting the energy structure, saving energy and reducing emissions, and improving the environment, but also conducive to nurturing emerging industries and driving the development of related equipment manufacturing and engineering technology businesses." Ma Yongsheng, honorary director of the organizing committee of the 2023 World Geothermal Congress and chairman of Sinopec, told reporters that the geothermal heating capacity of Sinopec is expected to exceed 100 million square meters this year, and the service area will increase to more than 60 cities in more than 10 provinces.

Although China's geothermal industry has formed a certain scale, there is still a lot of room for development compared with the "double carbon" target requirements, especially in geothermal power generation.

"Compared with other renewable energy sources, geothermal energy is not affected by natural conditions such as seasons, climate, day and night, and can provide uninterrupted power with good stability; The operating time can reach more than 8,000 hours per year, much higher than the more than 2,000 hours of wind power and more than 1,000 hours of photovoltaic." Geothermal energy Science and Technology (Dali) Research Institute president Zhang Dawei said.

Deng Zhuang, executive president of Nanjing Tianjia Energy Technology Co., LTD., introduced that geothermal power generation has high requirements for geothermal temperature, which generally needs to be above 120 degrees Celsius, and China's high-temperature hydrothermal geothermal resources are mostly distributed in western Yunnan, southern Tibet and other regions, which are different from the distribution area of the main consumption market of electricity; In addition, the geothermal power generation projects in these areas have a long exploration and development period and large investment, and currently need policy support in terms of on-grid pricing.

Zhang Dawei believes that in order to achieve larger scale and higher quality development and utilization of geothermal energy, it is necessary to continue to find out the bottom of geothermal resources, increase research efforts on key technologies for geothermal development and utilization, and crack technical bottlenecks such as deep geothermal exploration and development and dry hot rock thermal storage transformation projects. Recently, Sinopec deployed in Haikou City, Hainan Province, China's deepest geothermal scientific exploration well - Fushenhot 1 well successfully started drilling, drilling depth will reach 5,000 meters, the follow-up will be based on core and logging data, verification of deep geothermal exploration and evaluation of key technologies, to help the large-scale development of deep geothermal resources.

In order to improve the efficiency of geothermal energy utilization, some places are actively exploring the cascade development and utilization of high, medium and low temperature geothermal energy. In Midu County, Dali, Yunnan Province, the geothermal power generation and the comprehensive demonstration project of stepped utilization has been promoted in an orderly manner, and the residual hot water temperature after geothermal power generation is about 80 to 90 degrees Celsius, and the energy station is focused on heating agricultural greenhouses. "Now the greenhouse covers a total area of 500 mu, and the annual cost of natural gas and electricity is about 6 million yuan, and the energy cost is expected to be reduced by 1/3 after using geothermal heating." Dali spring Muyuan agricultural technology company deputy general manager Qu Jian said.

The "Several Opinions on Promoting the Development and Utilization of Geothermal Energy" issued by the National Development and Reform Commission, the National Energy Administration and other ministries proposed that by 2025, the geothermal energy heating (cooling) area will increase by 50% over 2020, a number of geothermal power generation demonstration projects will be built in areas with good resource conditions, and the installed capacity of geothermal power generation will double over 2020. With the development of a series of policy measures, China's geothermal industry will continue to release potential.