| Abstract |
Chinese government has been making effort to save energy and reduce CO2 emissions. Since the “Law of Renewable Energy” was brought into effect in 2006, the development of geothermal energy, as other renewable energies, was encouraged. Under the market economy, investors are willing to invest in geothermal development. In direct use applications, geothermal space heating has continued a steady increase of about 10% annually. The sum of geothermal district heating area has exceeded 30.2 million m2 in the country. Traditional hot spring baths and medical treatments have been raised into health care, health preserving and relaxation progressively. It embodies human nature and reflects the connotation of hot spring culture. Looking back at the lack of increase of geothermal power generation in past 20 years, the 1970s’ idea of “infeasible economically” for geothermal power generation is recognized as a historical warp. In 2008, a 1MW screw-expansion power generator had been installed in Yangbajain geothermal power plant to use waste thermal water for further electrical production. Geothermal heat pump usage has shown very rapid growth since 2004. Its annual increase is about 20-23 million m2 of heating (with partial cooling) area. The GHP installed capacity will reach about 5,210 MWt in 2009 compared to 383 MWt in 2004. In addition, research on the resource potential of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) in China was started in 2007. Accompanying the progress on the research project of the medium- to long-term strategy for energy development in China, traditional fossil energies with the main body being coal would be restricted. Geothermal development shows commercially competitive cost and steady running hours of over 6,000 hours/year at least without seasonal and weather effects. Geothermal energy will see more steady growth in the future. |