Wedoany.com Report on Mar 18th, Recently, the joint meeting of the Management Committee, Academic Committee, and Strategic Advisory Committee of the National Key Laboratory for Deep Geothermal Enrichment Mechanisms and Efficient Development was held in Beijing, where the "China Geothermal Industry Development Report 2025" was released. The report shows that driven by the development of geothermal heating, China's geothermal industry scale has long remained the largest in the world. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the area for geothermal heating and cooling grew at an average annual rate of 6.5%, reaching 1.65 billion square meters by 2025.
This is the first geothermal industry development report released by the laboratory, jointly prepared by the laboratory and the Research and Application Technology Promotion Center for Geothermal Energy Development and Utilization. The report states that China's geothermal agricultural utilization has begun to take shape, geothermal industrial utilization is emerging, hot spring health and wellness and geothermal power generation are advancing in an orderly manner. The energy, resource, and mineral attributes of geothermal energy have been fully developed, deeply integrated into the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries of the national economy, showcasing characteristics of scale, specialization, and sustainable development.
The report indicates that China has gradually established a relatively complete technical system for exploration, development, and utilization through long-term geothermal development practices. In recent years, China has continued to tackle and innovate around key core technologies. Medium-low temperature and medium-deep hydrothermal geothermal technologies have reached internationally leading levels, and efforts are accelerating to expand into deep dry hot rock development. Significant breakthroughs have been made in areas such as deep thermal reservoir exploration and evaluation, high-temperature drilling and completion, large-scale fracturing for reservoir creation, and long-term stable heat extraction operation, supporting the large-scale promotion of deep hydrothermal heating and the pilot construction of dry hot rock power generation projects.
The report predicts that over the next 10 years, the growth rate of China's geothermal heating and cooling area will remain around 7%, cumulatively reaching 3 billion square meters by 2035, and the cumulative installed capacity for geothermal power generation will reach 500 megawatts. Meanwhile, geothermal science and technology will advance towards deeper resources and higher temperatures, supporting the development of geothermal power generation projects and injecting new momentum into the high-quality development of the geothermal industry.
The National Key Laboratory for Deep Geothermal Enrichment Mechanisms and Efficient Development is the only national key laboratory in China's geothermal field. It was approved for construction in 2024 and is jointly established by Sinopec (Beijing) New Energy Technology Research Institute Co., Ltd., China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), and China University of Petroleum (Beijing). It aims to address the major needs of the "dual carbon" goals and the green and low-carbon transformation of the energy structure, focusing on forging national strategic scientific and technological strength. Over the past year, under the guidance and support of relevant national departments and co-construction units, the laboratory has anchored its goal of "building a world-class innovation hub for deep geothermal technology," coordinated efforts in basic research, technological breakthroughs, achievement transformation, talent cultivation, and other aspects. It has achieved deepened expansion in theoretical understanding, a leap towards precision in exploration technology, scaled advancement in industrial transformation, and international benchmarking in mechanism innovation, successfully completing its annual construction tasks with high quality.
At the meeting, Hou Qijun, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Chairman of Sinopec, stated that currently, Sinopec is focusing on building a new industrial pattern of "one foundation, two wings, three chains, and four new areas," accelerating the establishment of a "tripartite balance" pattern of oil, gas, and new energy. Geothermal energy is a crucial pillar of the new energy industry system. Sinopec will, as always, strongly support the construction and operation of the laboratory, creating favorable conditions to ensure that researchers can concentrate on innovation and tackle challenges without distractions. It is hoped that the National Key Laboratory for Deep Geothermal Energy will consolidate the powerful synergy needed to build a world-class laboratory, making greater contributions to promoting the high-quality development of the geothermal industry and ensuring national energy security.
