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In the sub-center of Beijing, geothermal energy replaces coal, and the heating (cooling) area exceeds 10 million square metersIn Dali, Yunnan, the hot spring recuperation project attracts tourists from all over the world;**Lhasa, Yangyi Geothermal Power Station has generated more than 500 million kWh of electricity and reduced carbon dioxide emissions by about 420,000 tons per year......
With the vision of carbon neutrality reaching a wide consensus around the world, the low-carbon transformation of the energy industry and the promotion of green development have become the general trend. As a renewable energy source with abundant reserves, wide distribution, stability and reliability, geothermal energy is of great significance to ensure national energy security.
At present, the large-scale and high-quality development of the geothermal resources industry has ushered in a period of strategic opportunities under the guidance of "double carbon". As a "dark horse" of energy utilization, geothermal energy needs to be "supported" on the road to the development of the new energy industry: it is necessary not only to explore the reserves, overcome technical difficulties, and complete the "hard transformation" of development and utilization, but also to improve policy supervision, enhance public awareness, and achieve a "soft landing" for popularization and popularization.
The construction site of the geothermal project in the sub-center of Beijing. Courtesy of Beijing Geothermal Institute.
Geothermal energy supply
The energy industry is now a "dark horse".
The twilight of the year is cold, and the clouds make snow, which is the time of ice and snow in the north.
On the west side of the government affairs service center of the sub-center of Beijing, in the hall of the real estate registration center of Tongzhou District, which was rebuilt from an old factory, Zhang Zhiqiang, a citizen who came to handle the transfer of second-hand housing, took off his heavy down jacket as soon as he entered the door: "I didn't see the air conditioner, radiator, chimney, boiler room, where did this heat come from?""The heat came down from the ground. Stomping on the floor, Liu Shaomin, vice president of the Beijing Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration, solved the question, "The interior of the earth is like a big boiler that keeps burning, and it contains huge heat energy. When the geological conditions are mature, thermal energy will be aggregated in the form of hot steam, hot water and hot dry rock, and it will become geothermal energy when it reaches the conditions for development and utilization. Zhang Zhiqiang may not have imagined that the land under his feet "has a lot of things inside" - a 44-kilometer-long pipeline that winds and turnsMore than 10,000 sets of heat exchange tubes criss-cross each other, and the two regional energy stations run non-stop, forming a "green air conditioner" covering nearly 2.4 million square meters, ensuring that the administrative office area of the sub-center of the city is warm in winter and cool in summer through geothermal energy supply. "Geothermal energy is a kind of abundant, widely distributed, stable and reliable renewable energy, which can be directly used for heating (cooling), hot springs, agricultural breeding, and can also be used for power generation through energy exchange. Wang Guiling, deputy chief geologist of the Institute of Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences and director of the Technology Innovation Center for Geothermal and Hot Dry Rock Exploration and Development of the Ministry of Natural Resources, said, "China is rich in geothermal resources, accounting for about 1 6 of the world's geothermal resources, and has great potential for development and utilization. At present, China's installed capacity of direct geothermal energy utilization and geothermal energy utilization rank first in the world. Liu Shaomin introduced that when the Olympic Village was built in 2008, Beijing adopted the reclaimed water heat pump cold and heat source technology to achieve "zero" emissions of heating (cooling) in the Olympic Village. In the following years, geothermal energy was used for key projects and major projects such as the Shanghai World Expo Park, the Beijing Garden Expo Park and the Beijing Daxing International Airport. 
Staff of the Beijing Municipal Institute of Geological Survey inspect the outdoor heating pipe network. Courtesy of Beijing Institute of Geological Survey.
Winter solstice, count "nine" looking forward to the return of spring. Walking into Xiong'an New Area, Hebei Province, every household is as warm as spring. From the urban areas of Xiongxian, Rongcheng and Anxin counties to the villages and towns (townships), the smoky boiler heating scene no longer exists, and is replaced by clean energy heating such as geothermal heat exchange stations and air source heat pumps that "take heat but not water". According to the relevant person in charge of the Natural Resources and Planning Bureau of Xiong'an New Area, the heating area of the three counties is currently more than 7 million square meters, which can replace 160,000 tons of standard coal and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 400,000 tons, which is equivalent to planting 220,000 trees. Among them, the geothermal heating area of Xiongxian County exceeds 95%, becoming the country's leading heating "smoke-free city". "We have also demarcated about 35 acres of test area in the new area to carry out a pilot project for the comprehensive utilization of geothermal energy. Wang Guiling told reporters that about 110 percent of the underground hot water is used for power generation, about 80 percent of the waste heat is used for heating, and about 50 percent of the water is used for greenhouse planting. On the north side of Shuitongsi Village, Guqianbao Town, Tianzhen County, Datong City, Shanxi Province, the transparent glass curtain wall of the Shanxi High-temperature Geothermal Resources Development and Utilization Scientific Research Demonstration Base separates two worlds: the outside is ice and snow, and the shed is full of greenery. The strawberries and rape in the greenhouse are growing well. "The base uses geothermal energy as the heat source, and uses the ground and roof pipes for indoor three-dimensional heating, realizing the organic combination of geothermal resources and modern agriculture. Guo Wei, the manager of the base, said. In March 2020, the Shanxi Provincial Department of Natural Resources made a major breakthrough in the "Pre-feasibility Exploration Project of Hot Dry Rock Geothermal Resources in the Yanggao-Tianzhen Area", and the water temperature was as high as 160 when the exploratory hole was drilled to 1,624 meters underground2. It has become one of the hot dry rock resources with the highest temperature, the largest self-flow and the shallowest depth in the central and eastern regions of China. According to the relevant person in charge of the Shanxi Department, the geothermal resources discovered in Tianzhen County this time are equivalent to the electricity consumption of 130,000 households for one year. "In the next step, we will rely on the scientific research demonstration base and take the cascade development and utilization technology of geothermal resources as the core to form a sustainable industrial cycle chain and continuously expand the new energy industry cluster. The person in charge said. Along the geothermal resource distribution map to the south, Eryuan County, Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province is an unavoidable coordinate point, which is the source of Erhai Lake and the hometown of hot springs. In October 2022, seven departments, including the Department of Natural Resources of Yunnan Province and the Provincial Development and Reform Commission, issued the "Yunnan Provincial Mineral Resources Master Plan (2021-2025)", which requires the rational use of geothermal resources, the acceleration of geothermal and other mineral resources exploration, and the use of geothermal energy to drive the development of tourism and health care industries in key areas. Nowadays, geothermal resources have made the hot spring cultural tourism industry in Dali, Xishuangbanna, Diqing and other places flourish and flourish. According to a report released by the 2023 World Geothermal Congress, China's direct geothermal utilization scale has ranked first in the world for many years. By the end of 2021, China's geothermal heating (cooling) capacity reached 13300 million square meters, the annual utilization capacity of hot springs is 6,665 megawatts, and the annual utilization capacity of geothermal agriculture is 1,108 megawatts. At present, the basic pattern of the development and utilization of geothermal resources in China is power generation in southwest and south China, heating and breeding in north and northeast China, and health care in eastern, central and northwest China. In the future, geothermal clean heating in northern China, geothermal heating (cooling) in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and geothermal power generation in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and its surroundings will still be hot spots for industrial development. On November 7, 2023, Beijing ushered in its first heating day, and the city's geothermal and heat pump heating area reached more than 3,700 square meters. Among them, the scale of the Beiyuan Jiayuan geothermal heating project ranks first, with a geothermal heating area of 400,000 square meters and a domestic hot water supply area of 500,000 square meters. On November 15, 2023, 3,000 meters underground, water heated by geothermal heat traveled up the pressurized pipe, and through the heat exchange station, it was fed into the intelligent microgrid for community heating, which is about 3530,000 square meters of heating. This is the result of Beijing's first medium-deep ground source heat pump heating pilot project, and it is also an extension of the geothermal energy supply scene from the office building in the sub-center of the city to the community residence. The era of "dual carbon".
Drawing a blueprint for geothermal development
In recent years, changes in the economic structure and social development led by "decarbonization" have begun. Some experts believe that as the world's largest developing country, China's total energy demand is large, the proportion of fossil energy is high, from "carbon peak" to "carbon neutrality", the key is to gradually replace fossil energy with non-fossil energy. Under the changing situation, energy security is of great importance. "Solar, wind, and tidal energy, compared to the intermittent and fluctuating nature of these new energy sources, geothermal energy is a stable and reliable renewable energy source. Wang Guiling told reporters. In the context of the "double carbon" oriented era, geothermal energy has become a "seed player" to help achieve the "double carbon" goal. Entering the era of "post-coal reform", from the construction period of "rapid progress" to the operation and maintenance period of "long-term operation", clean heating has entered the "20 times". In April 2023, the "2023 Energy Work Guidance" was issued, requiring the improvement of the long-term mechanism of clean heating, the steady and orderly promotion of new clean heating projects, and the steady improvement of clean heating in the northern region in winter. Wang Ke, a researcher at the National Institute of Development and Strategy of Chinese University, believes that it is necessary to build an energy system characterized by clean and low-carbon, reasonably control the total energy demand, improve energy efficiency and management level, and gradually realize the decoupling of energy growth and carbon emissions. In November 2023, ten departments, including the Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission and the Beijing Municipal Planning and Natural Resources Commission, issued the "Implementation Opinions on Comprehensively Promoting the High-quality Development of New Energy Heating Supply", supporting the application of various new energy heating technologies in public buildings, residential buildings, industrial parks, agriculture and rural areas, and encouraging the expansion of the application of new energy heating technologies in new infrastructure and other scenarios. In mid-December, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region encountered a wide range of cold waves, rain and snow, and the temperature was "cliff-like"**The lowest temperature in many places was below minus 15 for many days, and energy supply was facing a test. In this ** cooling, geothermal energy has contributed to ensuring urban heating and protecting people's livelihood temperature. "From a global perspective, Beijing is one of the few capitals with geothermal resources, and the available mid-deep hydrothermal geothermal resources are mainly distributed in the plains (including the Yanqing Basin), including 10 geothermal fields such as Fangshan Liangxiang, Shunyi Lisui, and Changping Xiaotangshan. Therefore, Beijing has good innate resource conditions to promote the large-scale development of geothermal energy supply. Yang Junwei, director of the Beijing Geothermal Survey Institute, said. As early as 2017, the "Beijing Urban Master Plan (2016-2035)" proposed to enter the stage of "reducing quantity and improving quality development". In the past six years, the construction of the capital has been changing with each passing day in the adjustment of energy structure and industrial transformation and upgrading. Liu Shaomin believes that the use of geothermal energy has become a "hard bar" for the development of some megacities represented by Beijing. In 2021, the Beijing Mineral Resources Master Plan (2021-2025) emphasized that geothermal resources will become the most important mineral for the development and utilization of mineral resources in the capital. In April 2022, the "14th Five-Year Plan for Energy Development in Beijing" further proposed to vigorously promote the integrated development of the application of new energy technologies and urban and rural planning and construction, and vigorously promote the integrated development of heating and cooling technologies such as shallow ground source heat pumps and reclaimed water source heat pumps and conventional energy heating systems, and by 2025, the new renewable energy heating area will be 45 million square meters, accounting for more than 10% of the renewable energy heating area. Today, in the city's Green Heart Forest Park, which is across the river from the administrative office area, the "three major buildings" of Beijing's sub-center theater, library and museum all use geothermal energy supply, becoming a model of green and low-carbon development. In June 2023, the Key Laboratory of Shallow Geothermal Energy of the Ministry of Natural Resources (hereinafter referred to as the Laboratory) was inaugurated, aiming to continuously enhance the development and innovation capabilities through the combination of industry, academia, research and application, and develop into a scientific and technological innovation platform for scientific research, system integration and display of shallow geothermal energy in China, serving natural resource management and economic and social development, and promoting the realization of carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals. 
Workers sample and process rocks in the geothermal project area in the laboratory. Photo by Chen Chen.
In recent years, relying on natural endowments across the country, a "road map" has been drawn for the development and utilization of geothermal energy - on the heat map of geothermal resources distribution in China, the first region is "red", located in the famous "Mediterranean-Himalayan tropics", and the cumulative power generation of Yangyi geothermal power station has exceeded 500 million kilowatt hours, and the annual emission reduction of carbon dioxide is about 420,000 tons. According to Dorjee, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the Yangbajing geothermal power station is the highest geothermal power station in the world, creating an international precedent for the use of medium and low temperature geothermal power generation. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, we will vigorously cultivate the geothermal energy industry, protect the ecological environment, improve the energy consumption structure, and transform the advantages of geothermal resources into industrial advantages. 
The staff of Yangyi Geothermal Power Station checks the condition of the equipment. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Jimei Dorjee.
During the uplift of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, treasures were buried in the Qinghai Republican Basin. In 2017, the China Geological Survey drilled a special "stone" at 3,705 meters underground - 236 high-temperature dry hot rock mass. This is the first time that the hottest hot dry rock mass has been drilled in China, and it has achieved a major breakthrough in the exploration of hot dry rock in China. "Some people say that the discovery of this 'stone' can change the map of China's energy structure, but it is actually an expectation for the prospect of hot dry rock power generation. Wang Guiling said, "Hot dry rock power generation technology is not restricted by seasons and climates, and from a cost point of view, its power generation is more advantageous than wind and solar power generation." "In the southwest region, Guizhou Province has released a blueprint for geothermal development, and by the end of 2025, the province's geothermal energy heating and cooling area will reach more than 25 million square meters. Yunnan Province proposes to innovate the development and utilization mode of geothermal resources and increase the proportion of geothermal energy utilization. Explore geothermal power generation and promote the popularization and utilization of experimental generators in hot dry rocks. The Natural Resources and Planning Bureau of Yantai City, Shandong Province issued the Special Plan for Geothermal Development and Utilization in Yantai City (2021-2025), which clarifies that by 2035, the development, utilization, management and protection mechanism of geothermal resources will be completed and improved, and the dynamic monitoring system of geothermal water will cover the whole city. Kaifeng City, Henan Province, has made it clear that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, 14 million square meters of geothermal heating area will be added. The Natural Resources Bureau of Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province issued the "Nanchang Mineral Resources Master Plan (2021-2025)", which is expected to reach 1.5 billion yuan by 2025. At the 2023 World Geothermal Congress, the relevant person in charge of the China Geological Survey introduced that the current green and low-carbon transformation has become a global consensus, and the large-scale and high-quality development of the geothermal resources industry has ushered in a new round of strategic opportunities. According to reports, in recent years, the China Geological Survey has continued to strengthen the exploration and development of geothermal resources and scientific and technological innovation around supporting and serving the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the planning and construction of Xiong'an New Area, the construction and development of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the construction of national clean energy bases, exploring deep high-temperature geothermal resources in multiple regions, and realizing breakthroughs in hot dry rock exploration and experimental power generation in the Qinghai Gonghe Basin, laying a solid foundation for promoting the formation of a new pattern of geothermal diversified utilization.
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The market potential is yet to be tapped
As a new type of energy, geothermal energy has been led by the national level to explore reserves and has achieved frequent results, but there is still a long way to go for large-scale popularization and application. The continuous expansion of the scale of the geothermal energy industry has reduced the construction cost year by year, but compared with other new energy sources, the market potential of its development and utilization still needs to be tapped. In terms of policy funds, the development of geothermal energy still needs to be "supported". According to Yang, there are many challenges in the exploration and development of geothermal resources, mainly including the need for high upfront investment, some risks associated with exploration, and local policy restrictions. At present, it is necessary to continue to increase the intensity of resource exploration, combine the fine exploration and evaluation of shallow geothermal energy with urban planning, grasp the status of shallow geothermal energy resources that can effectively support urban construction and development, and rationally deploy the comprehensive utilization of resources. "Technology is the key to the efficient development of geothermal energy. Wang Guiling told reporters that all geothermal projects need the support of drilling technology. The differences and complexity of geological conditions influence the choice of geothermal development technology. Therefore, it is necessary to promote integrated solutions to better promote resource identification, surface exploration, exploration drilling, production drilling, power plant construction start-up, etc., to continuously reduce the risk of geothermal projects. Geothermal energy transmission, energy storage methods, huge pipeline layout, and operation and maintenance costs are all "sunk costs" of the initial investment. For companies, this is a challenge that has become a major factor in the development and application of geothermal energy for many years. 
The construction site of a geothermal project under construction. Courtesy of Beijing Institute of Geological Survey.
Deng Zhuang, CEO of Nanjing Tianjia Energy Technology Co., Ltd., said frankly: "Some domestic enterprises have relatively mature geothermal power generation technology and related equipment, and some have also laid out geothermal power generation projects overseas. However, due to the lack of support policies and the slow progress of domestic geothermal power generation, everyone does not dare to enter the track easily. "Therefore, many enterprises are waiting for policy preferences in supporting innovative investment and financing models, investment subsidies for new and renovation projects, and fiscal, tax and electricity subsidies for system operation to reduce input costs. When participating in the geothermal project in Tianzhen County, Dorjee pointed out that the preferential policies for the development and utilization of geothermal energy introduced by Shanxi Province are relatively "powerful", which has encouraged the confidence of enterprises to invest. "In practice, we have found that the feed-in tariff subsidy policy for geothermal power generation in some provinces is transparent, and the approval of prospecting rights and mining rights is clear, which has brought convenience to enterprises to 'travel lightly'. Wang Guiling said. In the process of technological innovation, capital investment and industrial development, special management methods for the development and utilization of geothermal energy are also about to come out. A number of interviewed experts said that China should carry out standardized management in resource exploration, space access, planning and utilization, monitoring and supervision, etc., and introduce guiding and normative laws and regulations at the national and provincial levels as soon as possible to form a complete regulatory mechanism to promote the safe and sustainable use of resources. In addition, public awareness, recognition, and acceptance are also important factors influencing the application of geothermal energy. Although geothermal energy is clean and green, will it bring hidden dangers to the underground space in the process of mining, transmission, use and recharge?Liu Shaomin explained that the development and utilization of shallow geothermal energy can achieve no pollutant emissions. The laboratory has studied the long-term monitoring data of 90 stations in Beijing, and its development and utilization have little impact on the geothermal field and groundwater quality, and have not caused environmental pollution. The geothermal industry has great potential and is an important force to ensure energy security and people's livelihood and well-being. However, the road ahead for the development and utilization of geothermal energy is not a smooth road, and the future development still needs to "pass the pass" - not only to vigorously explore the reserves, overcome technical difficulties, and complete the "hard transformation" of development and utilization, but also to continuously improve policy supervision, enhance public awareness, and achieve a "soft landing" of popularization and popularization. Author: Chen Chen, Duan Jinping Text Editor: Chen Chen.
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