| Abstract |
In this paper, the State-of-the-Art and future development of geothermal energy in China for the past 5 years have been reported. As a Country Update Report, some statistics are given and some figures are outlined. With economic development and demand for high environment quality, geothermal energy develops rapidly with annual increase of 12% in the past 10 years. By the end of 1998, geothermal space heating reaches an area of about 8,000,000 m2; geothermal green house, 700,000 m2; geothermal aqua-culture, 3,000,000 m2; spa & sanatorium utilization of thermal water, >1600 sites. In total, the capacity of non-electrical utilization of geothermal energy in China equals 4,310,000 t standard coal. The installed capacity of geothermal power plant in China as of 1999 exhibits 29MW, among which Yanggbajing geothermal power plant of 25MW produces 100 million kWh annually. During the past two yeas, intensive geothermal exploration has been carried out in Daiqing oil field of Songliao basin in Northeast China with high latitude & sever winter, and in Yingchuan area of Ordos basin, Northwest China where watershortage causes big problem. Results indicate that geothermal resources in these two areas and basins are quite large. In Tengchong Cenozoic volcanic area of Yunnan Province, remote area of SW China, exploration for high temperature geothermal resources is under the way, which will provide the necessary parameters for construction of geothermal power plant with single unit of 10MW. In downtown area of Beijing, thermal water with temperature up to 88?C has been discovered recently which will contribute a lot to reduce the environmental problem in the capital of China provided that these resources been utilized intensively. Currently, State-Projects on the science & technology development and industrialization of new & renewable energy for the period 2001-2010 are under consideration and it is obvious that rapid development of geothermal energy in China can be anticipated for the next century. |