China: Geothermal Energy Could Replace Coal for Heating

Cities warm to idea of pollution-free heating (China Daily)

(Courtesy CIA.gov)

Geothermal energy could be about to play a much larger role in heating the heavily-polluted cities clustered in northern China that have traditionally been major consumers of coal and massive victims of winter smog, an industry insider said.

"We need to fully utilize geothermal energy, a renewable clean energy buried underground, to replace coal as winter heating fuel," said Huang Gang, head of Huabei Oilfield Co, which is headquartered in Cangzhou, Hebei province. "It could alleviate the severe smog in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region."

"Geothermal resources discovered during the process of extracting oil have been utilized to generate electricity and they have worked well during the past four years," said Huang, who added that his company had invested 100 million yuan ($15.4 million) on exploiting buried geothermal resources.

The survey said geothermal resources are rich in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area and could contribute 87 percent of regional energy consumption.

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