China Eyes Geothermal Power To Reduce Coal Usage

After its monumental success in solar and wind energy sectors, China is now looking at increased pace of development in the geothermal power sector.

Chinese officials at a conference recently indicated that development in the geothermal power sector would increase significantly as the government intends for a more secular growth across all renewable energy technologies. China has set a target to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to 15% by 2020.

China targets 530 MWh of electricity generation from geothermal power plants by 2020; this should enable the country to offset use of 72.1 million tonnes of coal and 177 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.

Development of geothermal power is expected to be concentrated around Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei; the first two also have active emissions trading schemes.

Development of geothermal power sources close to the cities would prove highly advantageous when compared to other renewable energy sources like wind and solar that are concentrated in remote but resource-rich regions of China. Wind and solar power project developers often complain about the lack of transmission capacity to export power to main demand centres.

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