(Yicai) April 9 -- Energy giant China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec, has set a new record for geothermal exploration in the country after drilling down to a depth of 5,200 meters at a site in Hainan province.
 

The achievement has revealed how deep geothermal energy is formed in South China and is of great significance in improving the large-scale development and use of geothermal resources in China, the Beijing-based firm said today.

Sinopec started drilling in the hot-dry rock geothermal well, called Fushenre-1, last August, going through granite formed up to 250 million years ago.

Geothermal energy is a stable and reliable renewable energy source with large reserves and wide distribution. China has abundant geothermal resources, but mainly develops and uses hydrothermal energy in shallow and medium-depth layers.

The development of hot-dry rock resources below 3,000 meters is still in the exploratory stage, state-owned Sinopec noted.

The geothermal energy within the Earth is about 170 million times that of global coal reserves, according to Zhang Dawei, director of the Institute of Urban Underground Space and Energy Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen.

It is stable and unaffected by external factors such as sunshine, wind speed, or precipitation, Zhang told Yicai, adding that it can provide continuous power, with an annual utilization rate five to eight times that of solar or wind energy.

Sinopec will carry out in-depth research and on-site tests at Fushenre-1 and build the first deep geothermal energy development and usage demonstration platform in South China, helping the country achieve its carbon emissions goals, it said.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Tom Litting