Can the development and utilization of geothermal energy reproduce the era of "Yangbajing"?

Our geothermal energy development can be said to be "thunder and no rain." For more than 30 years, the only project in China's geothermal world that can “take out” is Yang Mijing.

At present, the installed capacity of geothermal power in the United States exceeds 3,000 megawatts, and the Philippines is close to 2,000 megawatts. At the end of 2014, the total installed capacity of geothermal power in China was 27.28 MW. Currently, there are 24 countries using geothermal power in the world, and China ranks 18th. The main reason for China's geothermal power generation lags behind other countries is that the research and investment in development and utilization is insufficient, and the development of geothermal utilization technology is unbalanced, especially the core technologies such as resource exploration and high-temperature geothermal well drilling.

According to the Xinhua News Agency, after eight years of exploration and evaluation, the Xinjiang Land and Resources Department recently confirmed that two geothermal resources with a total area of ​​15 square kilometers were discovered in the Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County in the Pamirs of Xinjiang.

Among them, the high temperature geothermal field in Quman Village of Ta County is large, with an area of ​​8 square kilometers. The geothermal fluid temperature is around 100 °C, and some is above 140 °C. It is recognized as the second only to Tibet in terms of geothermal resource range and heat storage conditions. Yangbajing, ranking second in the country; in the low-temperature geothermal field on the west side of Taxian County, the area is 7 square kilometers, the geothermal fluid temperature is 36 °C, and the highest temperature is 54 °C.

The discovery of geothermal fields in Xinjiang has really inspired the industry and has also triggered a series of reflections:

• How much do you know about geothermal energy in China?

• What is the status quo of its development and utilization, and why is geothermal power generation not faltering?

• Under current policy, the environment, multiple positive market, the development of geothermal energy can reproduce "YBJ style" golden age?

Yangbajing Geothermal Power Station

Not long ago, the China Geological Survey Development Research Center authorized the China Mining News Agency to publish the "Analysis of the National Geological Survey Situation and the Future in the First Half of 2017" report, showing that with the deepening of China's economic restructuring, the demand for different mineral resources In the continuous differentiation, the investment in strategic emerging minerals and unconventional energy mineral exploration has risen steadily, and it is judged that the mineral exploration of geothermal and three rare strategic emerging minerals will be further emphasized. At the same time, it is recommended to increase the green transformation of geological exploration and firmly establish The “green” concept actively promotes the strategic structural adjustment of geological exploration, strengthens the investigation of mineral resources of low-carbon, environment-friendly and strategic emerging minerals, and promotes the investigation and evaluation of geothermal and tri-sparse resources.

In fact, geothermal resource survey evaluation and exploration have already been included in the planning schedule of the Ministry of Land and Resources and the China Geological Survey. During the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, the China Geodetic Bureau organized the investigation of 336 shallow-level geothermal energy in cities above the prefecture level, and surveyed underground hot water resources in 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), and initiated investigations on dry-hot rock resources. The conditions, distribution characteristics and development and utilization status of geothermal resources in China are preliminarily evaluated, and the amount of geothermal resources in China is preliminarily evaluated. Its preliminary evaluation of the results of the country's geothermal resources show that China's exploitable geothermal resources in the amount of standard coal equivalent to about 26 million tons, now only mined 21 million tons of standard coal equivalent, huge development potential.

Relevant statistics show that China is a country with relatively abundant geothermal resources. The total amount of geothermal resources accounts for 7.9% of the world's total, and the recoverable reserves are equivalent to 462.65 billion tons of standard coal, mainly based on medium and low temperature geothermal resources. Among them, high-temperature geothermal resources (heat storage temperature ≥150 °C) are mainly distributed in southern Tibet, western Yunnan, western Sichuan and Taiwan provinces; medium and low temperature geothermal resources are widely distributed, almost all over the country, mainly distributed in Songliao Plain, Huanghuaihai Plain, Jianghan Plain, Shandong Peninsula and southeast coastal areas.

According to the reporter, during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, the Ministry of Land and Resources:

• It will carry out 10,000 meters of shallow geothermal resources to detect major scientific and technological research, and provide technical support for the comprehensive exploration and development of geothermal resources;

• Based on the survey and evaluation of the shallow geothermal energy of 336 prefecture-level cities, the scope of investigation and evaluation of shallow geothermal energy will continue to be expanded;

• On the basis of the geothermal resource exploration in key areas in the past and the national census of geothermal resources, we will strive to set up a special geothermal exploration project at the national level to find out the total amount of geothermal resources in the central city;

• Conduct dry-hot rock surveys in key areas, delineate target areas, evaluate development and utilization potential, and initially build 2~3 dry-hot rock exploration and development demonstration bases in 3~5 years;

• Organize the implementation of the third round of mineral resources planning, promote the demonstration and recycling of clean energy, innovate the development and utilization model, increase the proportion of geothermal resources utilization, and promote the exploration and development of geothermal resources into the scale-up stage;

• Cooperate with relevant departments to vigorously promote the development and utilization of geothermal resources, formulate relevant laws and regulations, improve the technical standards for geothermal resource exploration and development, continuously standardize the exploration and development of geothermal resources, ensure the scientific and rational development and utilization of geothermal resources, and strive to significantly increase the scale and level of geothermal resources development in China.

Accordingly, the China Geological Survey launched a geothermal resource survey and evaluation project to strengthen the work related to shallow geothermal energy, conventional geothermal and dry hot rock during the 13th Five-Year Plan period.

As an important part of China's "Deep Earth Exploration Program", China's geothermal exploration and geothermal energy utilization programs have also been drafted. According to the scheme, deep geothermal resource exploration will reveal the mechanism of deep geothermal resources, form a geothermal resource detection and development and utilization technology system, evaluate geothermal resources, build a geothermal resource science development and utilization platform, and propose a strategic layout of regional geothermal resources scientific development and utilization. Promote the large-scale development and utilization of geothermal energy in China and its industrialization; its goal is to establish a set of technologies for geothermal energy exploration and scale development by 2030, and break through the core technology of efficient use of dry heat rock, accounting for the total primary energy consumption of geothermal energy. 3% provide technical support.

As an energy resource integrating water, mine and heat, high-temperature geothermal energy in geothermal energy is mainly used for power generation. Medium-low temperature geothermal is usually used directly for heating, industrial and agricultural heating, aquaculture, medical and bathing. The Quman geothermal field discovered in Xinjiang is a high-temperature geothermal field. According to the geological structure and long-term temperature measurement and pressure analysis, it can be stably produced for more than 100 years. It has the characteristics of shallow depth of thermal storage and easy mining. It is suitable for drying, power generation and heating. Medical, bathing, greenhouses, etc., and the low-temperature geothermal field on the west side of Taxian County can be used for hot spring therapy and tourism development. It is understood that Ta County has invested 197 million yuan to build heating facilities, with a heating area of ​​400,000 square meters, which will solve the problem of heating around 12,000 people.

For high-temperature geothermal, the common view among the industry is that geothermal power generation is the most important way of geothermal utilization, and high-temperature geothermal fluid should be used first for power generation. When it comes to high temperature geothermal, I have to mention Tibet. Tibet is located in the global geothermal enrichment area, with abundant geothermal resources and good quality. There are more than 600 geothermal display areas (points), and high-temperature geothermal resources account for 80% of the total geothermal energy in the country. The Yangbajing geothermal field is located in Yangbajing Town, Dangxiong County, Tibet. It is one of the world's most famous large geothermal fields with an area of ​​14.62 square kilometers. In 1977, the first megawatt geothermal generating unit in mainland China successfully generated electricity in Yangbajing.

According to the academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Dorje, who worked in Yangbajing for more than 30 years, in the 1970s and 1980s, China's geothermal utilization was synchronized with the international level. Technically, the power generation capacity ranked eighth in the world, low temperature. At 70 degrees Celsius, it can generate electricity. Even at an altitude of more than 4,000 meters, the temperature and heat frequency can be generated without power. This has no precedent in the world.

It is understood that the Yangbajing geothermal field thermal storage resources can be divided into shallow thermal storage and deep thermal storage. At present, the main production for electric power is shallow thermal storage. Yangbajing geothermal power generation company has a total installed capacity of 24,000 kilowatts. It has been officially put into operation so far, with a total generating capacity of 3 billion kWh. Currently, 16 wells are normally put into operation. Yangbajing is not only the largest geothermal power station in China, but also the only power plant in the world that uses geothermal latent heat storage for industrial power generation.

It can be said that the Yangbajing Thermal Power Station has opened up the golden age of geothermal power generation in China and has become a representative of China's international reputation.

Geothermal heating (refrigeration) has also become a major direction for geothermal development and utilization. Among them, ground source heat pump technology is highly praised because of its relatively low cost and technical difficulty, and has achieved rapid development in China. Some people have compared the ground source heat pump to the cave of "White Deer", which is warm in winter and cool in summer. Similar to the principle that the cave dwellings use the soil characteristics in the thick “soil layer”, although the buildings served by the ground source heat pump are all above the ground, the cold and heat source for the indoor heating and cooling is from Underground. The ground source heat pump uses the pipeline system buried deep in the building to “take out” the heat in the building in the summer and release it into the water or soil to achieve the purpose of cooling the building indoors in the summer; It is through the ground source heat pump unit to “extract” heat from the soil or water source and send it to the building for heating.

According to statistics, at the end of 2015, China's shallow geothermal heating area reached 392 million square meters, and the national hydrothermal geothermal heating area reached 102 million square meters. At present, geothermal heating in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has reached 10% of the total energy utilization rate. It is estimated that the annual utilization of geothermal heating will reach 40 million tons of standard coal in 2020, and the annual utilization of geothermal energy in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region will reach about 20 million tons of standard coal. .

To be sure, as of now, China's shallow and hydrothermal geothermal heating technologies have been basically mature, and the application of shallow geothermal energy has been extended to the whole country, 80% of which is concentrated in North China and the southeastern part of China.

According to the "13th Five-Year Plan" for the development and utilization of geothermal energy, the new geothermal (refrigeration) in China during the 13th Five-Year Plan period includes the addition of shallow geothermal heating (refrigeration) area of ​​700 million square meters, and the addition of hydrothermal type. The geothermal heating area is 400 million square meters; the newly added geothermal power generation capacity is 500 MW. By 2020, geothermal heating (refrigeration) area will reach 1.6 billion square meters, and geothermal power generation capacity will be about 530 megawatts. It is foreseeable that with the further development of the geothermal energy market, geothermal energy will provide district central heating for residential buildings, making this clean, efficient and cheap energy into an indispensable source of economic energy for daily life.

In addition, planting, aquaculture, tourism and vacation have become important areas for the comprehensive utilization of geothermal development.

"China's geothermal resource reserves are quite huge, and only a small part of it is being excavated," an industry source said.

It is worth noting that the Yangbajing Geothermal Power Station in Tibet is currently the only geothermal power station in China that continues to generate electricity. "For more than 30 years, the only project in China's geothermal industry that can 'take out' is only Yangbajing." Academician Doji said that at present, the installed capacity of geothermal power in the United States exceeds 3,000 megawatts, and the Philippines is close to 2000. Megawatts. At the end of 2014, the total installed capacity of geothermal power in China was 27.28 MW. Currently, there are 24 countries using geothermal power in the world, and China ranks 18th.

“In the 1970s and 1980s, the state conducted research and development on geothermal power generation in Yangbajing, but has not developed new technologies and equipment since then. Until 2008, Longyuan Power applied twin-screw expansion engines to geothermal energy. Power generation. However, this project of Longyuan Power still has imperfections, such as scaling and corrosion problems have not been effectively solved. In addition, geothermal recharge is still a big problem in China, which will cause surface pollution and geothermal resources. Depletion." Zhang Yu, general manager of Longyuan Tibet New Energy Co., Ltd. publicly stated.

In Zhang Jian's view, from the existing experience, geothermal utilization still faces some difficulties and problems to be solved. Due to the difficulty in determining the distribution of geothermal resources in the ground, the cost of geothermal development has great uncertainty. It is necessary for the state to support it in terms of policies and funds. It is too early to assert that the “13th Five-Year Plan” geothermal development rate will dominate the new energy.

In this regard, Academician Doji also stressed that the main reason for China's geothermal power generation lags behind other countries is that the research and investment in development and utilization is insufficient, the development of geothermal utilization technology is unbalanced, and gradually lags behind other countries, especially resource exploration, high temperature geothermal wells. Core technologies such as drilling.

It is understood that the cost of mining geothermal wells is quite high. If the drilling depth is more than 2,000 meters, the cost per well is about 5 million yuan. If the country does not invest heavily in capital, the strength of the enterprise alone cannot meet the needs of mining. Geothermal power generation has always been a "difficult problem" in geothermal energy exploitation.

In fact, in the late 1980s, the state basically stopped investing in geothermal development and utilization, and stopped the related geothermal resource exploration and evaluation work for a long period of time, which led to China's existing geothermal resources. There is no scientific planning for how to use it, including how to allocate proven reserves and how to co-ordinate the ratio of power generation and heating.

"The main reason why geothermal power has stopped in the past few decades is that the state has invested too little in this industry. Except for the subsidies for electricity prices, the rest of the funds are all paid by enterprises. The pressure is great, and the current price subsidies are still insufficient." An industry source said.

For the development of geothermal heating, the industry has said that there are still some technical and economic barriers to ground source heat pumps. In view of the maturity of air source heat pump and gas and coal-fired heating technology, ground source heat pump has to consider the comprehensive utilization of common heating and air-conditioning technology and drilling technology compared with the convenience of these traditional heating forms. In addition, because drilling costs can account for more than 30% of the initial investment in the entire system, coupled with higher installation and maintenance costs, these factors have made some investors still afraid to let go.

The industry believes that the main problem in this field is that the work of the responsible subject and the supervisory body is not in place. In recent years, the growth rate of geothermal heating in China is the fastest in the world. If the management is not properly controlled, the resources of the developed areas will be regenerated and the environment will be difficult to recover in the near future.  

Although the current development and utilization of geothermal energy is in an excellent opportunity period for people and people, it is still a long way to go if it is to achieve sustainable development and even “overtaking”. After all, the solution of the government's dominance, capital investment, technical support, and improvement of the regulatory system cannot be solved overnight.

In the practice of promoting the development and utilization of geothermal energy, the guidance of the state is indispensable. In this regard, an industry insider said that the state should guide the market, stimulate the market, increase the support of technology investment and preferential policies, just like walking, in the case of not seeing the road, no one dares to go, must the country Explore the road and open up a safer path for companies to follow up. At the same time, the core and public welfare investment needs to be done by the state.

"Because of the complexity of geological conditions, geothermal resource exploration in China has certain risks, and private enterprises are indeed unable to bear all risks. If the Ministry of Land and Resources and other government departments can set up venture funds to support the pioneering projects, they can Promote the development of geothermal energy in China to a large extent," said Zheng Kejun, director of the Geothermal Professional Committee of the China Energy Research Association.

In key technology research and development and personnel training, Academician Duoji said that the country needs to increase investment. Although China's heating geothermal energy utilization is the world's first, many core technologies, such as geophysical exploration, geochemical exploration , geological exploration equipment and power generation technology, are compared with foreign countries. The gap is large, and basic research is relatively lagging, which requires strong support from the state. In this respect, the development of geothermal energy in the United States has environmental protection and early-stage risk investment. In China, Yangbajing is taken as an example. The power generation system has a set-up period of 30 years. However, due to lack of capital investment, the system has not been updated. Then there is the maintenance cost. Now the operation and maintenance personnel are more than 100 people. If the technology is followed up, the degree of automation will increase, and only seven or eight people will be able to.

According to the current development of geothermal energy, in addition to technical support and national policy support, the most needed is to cultivate and introduce professional and technical personnel. "China should pay attention to the cultivation of geothermal professional and technical personnel, and the geothermal professional and technical personnel are quite lacking - especially in the exploration of geothermal resources, which has become a common problem in the industry."

In addition, the state should play a role of propaganda and demonstration in the development and utilization of geothermal energy, improve the public's awareness, and promote the development of new industries after the comprehensive utilization of geothermal resources, thus driving employment and industrial poverty alleviation.

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