| Abstract |
Nagqu Prefecture is located in the North Tibet Plateau at an average altitude of above 4500 m above sea level; it has a total area of and a population of This means that the population density is less than 1 person per square The administrativeoffice of this prefecture is set up in Nagqu town which is a political, cultural, economic and traffic centerof the North Tibet plateau. Close by the Qinghai-Xizang highway and petroleum pipeline, Nagqu town has made much progress during the last years. Its permanent inhabitants have increased up to 15,313. This town begins to take shape, in which two elementary,one middle and one pedagogical and a nurse's school have been established, animal husbandry, handicraft and the country fair trade have developedalso to some extent. Nevertheless, the problem in the local energy enterprise still remains unsolved, due to the past socio-historical and natural factors. There are only 10 diesel generators with a total nominal capacity of 1.68 MW. The electricityfrom these units can only satisfy the lighting needs of the local organization and some only 4 to 5 hours every night due to high production cost. The others have to light their houses with candles or buttered lamps. This shortage seriously restricts the further progress in local economy. For this reason, the energy problem in Nagqu must be solved as a strategical one, and the Government of Xizang Autonomous Region has invested RMB 6 millions for Nagqu's geothermal exploration and drilling. This has yielded some positive results. Recently the UNDP intended to a 1MW geothermal binary-cycle demonstration unit in Nagqu Town,which is greatly welcomed by the local inhabitants. We hope the combined investments from UN and Chinese Government may reap rich fruits, and would like to summarizethe feasibleand practical conditionsfor constructinga geothermal demonstrationpower plant as follows: |