By Zhao Zheng & Tian Linlin, Institute for Public Administration and Human Resources, DRC

Research Report, No.4, 2019 (Total 5504) 2019-1-9

Abstract: The development and utilization of shallow geothermal energy is an important way to solve the problem of winter house heating in rural areas in northern China. For a long time, winter house heating in rural areas in northern China mainly relies on primary energy, especially coal burning, which has caused serious negative impact on the ecological environment and people’s quality of life there. The use of shallow geothermal energy to supply winter heating can effectively improve farmers’ quality of life, cut down construction and development investment, reduce heating costs, and facilitate energy conservation and emission reduction. It is of great significance for changing the lifestyle of rural areas in northern China, promoting the transformation of heating energy application, and building a beautiful countryside. At present, the use of shallow geothermal energy in rural areas in northern China has such main problems as low awareness of shallow geothermal heating application, insufficient service from enterprises, high initial investment, and imperfect subsidy mechanism. It is necessary to strengthen top-level design, improve the guarantee system, encourage policy preferences, increase fiscal and tax support, enhance research and development efforts, reduce prior costs, strengthen publicity and promotion to increase villagers’ awareness, and further develop and utilize shallow geothermal energy efficiently to promote clean winter heating in rural areas in northern China.

Key words: shallow geothermal heating, beautiful countryside, rural areas in northern China