Current situation and prospect of China׳s geothermal resources

Abstract

Abstract At present, countries around the world set off a round of upsurge of exploitation and utilization of geothermal energy. As one of renewable energy resources, geothermal energy has the advantages of great resource potential, low carbon emissions, widespread distribution, easy development and so on. China׳s geothermal resources are enormous and have huge potential for exploitation. However, due to the lack of reasonable industry planning and policies support, and lag of technologies, the industrial development speed and scale are far behind the wind, solar and biomass energy. The 12th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People׳s Republic of China explicitly issues that in future China will vigorously develop the geothermal energy and provide more policy support for geothermal industry development from medium to longer term. This paper describes China׳s geothermal resource potential and status quo of geothermal industry, and analyzes the obstacles of the industry development. Then, it accordingly puts forward the development pattern of China׳s geothermal industry and gives out related countermeasures. At last, it outlines the prospects in this field.