| Title | A centennial review of geothermal resources exploration and development in China |
|---|---|
| Authors | Aimin Wu, Huang Wang, Guiling Wang, Tingshan Tian, Dongguang Wen |
| Year | 2023 |
| Conference | World Geothermal Congress |
| Keywords | Geothermal resources exploration; important progress; historical review; China |
| Abstract | China has a history of thousands of years for the utilization of hot springs. 2000 years ago, Classic of Mountains and Rivers described the characters of hot springs. In the last hundred years, the exploration and development of geothermal resources in China has experienced three stages. Hot springs investigation promoted direct use: The first document of hot springs by TIAN Beihu (1908) recorded 140 hot springs. 500 and 972 hot springs were recorded by ZHANG Hongzhao in 1926 and 1956 respectively. The first research team for geothermal resource was established by Ministry of Geology in 1956 and compiled the first map of Geothermal Water in China in 1959. The first geothermal exploration report was completed by 904-Team of Ministry of Geology in 1958. From then to 1980s, a series of geological surveys of hot springs was carried out, and 3398 hot springs were documented in 1986. These exploration findings provided the technical foundation for the direct use of the geothermal resources mainly in the manner of bathing and spa. Geothermal water exploration supported diverse utilization: In 1970, the Ministry of Geology promoted the exploration and development of geothermal resources in China, particularly the geothermal exploration in Tianjin and the geothermal power station in Fengshun, Guangdong. Since then, provincial geothermal water survey and typical geothermal filed exploration were carried out gradually, especially in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. The first nationwide geothermal resource assessment was conducted by CHEN Moxiang and WANG Jiyang (1994). These research findings significantly promoted the diverse utilization of geothermal resources in China. The first high temperature geothermal field was gradually explored at Yangbajain, Tibet, then the first high temperature geothermal power station was built successfully in 1977. The building area heated by geothermal water has reached 40 million m2 in Tianjin, ranking top 1 in China. The house heating area has reached 2.7 million m2 in Xiong county, Hebei, known as Clean Heating City. Integrated geothermal energy exploration accelerated efficient development: Since 2000, comprehensive geothermal energy exploration was implemented by China Geological Survey for supporting Sustainable Development Strategy and Beijing Green Olympics. The investigations showed that the total shallow geothermal resource in 336 major cities, the total geothermal water resource in 31 provinces, and the total potential HDR resource within the depth of 3~10 km mainland China were equivalent to 700 million, 1.86 billion, and 856 trillion tons of standard coal, respectively. The world largest integrated energy system of ground source heat pump was built in Beijing’s Sub-Center, the total heating and refrigeration area reached 2.4 million m2. A high-temperature HDR well (236℃ at 3705m) was drilled in Gonghe basin, Qinghai Province. It has realized technological innovation from exploration to experimental power generation. Several high-temperature geothermal fields also has been explored in Xiong'An, Tianzhen, Huizhou, etc. China Geological Survey will speed up to promote geothermal resources exploration and utilization, to support the national energy security and Carbon Emission Peak and Carbon Neutrality. |