Air pollution in China: Why renewable energy is the new future for China’s coal consumption

CLC China as a Business and Consumer Society

Lingnan University

Advisor:

Prof. Ciu Geng

(Interesting proposal/solution based on good understanding and analyses. The second part is also rather comprehensive. Could do more analyses on the use of coals. Some

formatting problems due to copy and paste!

Authors:

Date of Submission:

5th of December, 2018

Table of contents:

1. Introduction

2. Problem Analysis

3. Proposed Solution

4. Target Market

5. Objectives and goals & Social benefit and its impact -Geothermal Power

6. Marketing mix strategies

7. Conclusion

8. Reference

1. Introduction 1

Coal has been an essential source for Chinese energy for a very long time , but it

comes with a high cost since it is increasing air pollution tremendously. In particular

in northern chinese parts of the country, pollution caused by burning of fossil fuels,

especially coal, causes citizens to die in general 6 years sooner.

The key problem is that the same chemical reaction which makes it possible that coal

produces energy—the breaking of carbon molecules—also creates countless highly

harmful environmental pollutants that harm the health of the society.

For this reason the purpose of this report is to find a solution to change the future for

China’s pollution problem, focussing on one geographical area in China so far. First

the problem is going to be analysed, secondly the solution is going to be proposed,

following the question which market segment is going to be targeted, and the

objective goals and last but not least the marketing mix strategies.

2. Problem analysis2

According to the National Environment Agency in China , in the first 6 months of

2017, coal consumption in China increased to an point 2.81 billion metric tons, which

is 1% higher than the value measured in 2016.

When coal burns, the chemical connections keeping the carbon atoms in place are

broken, which leads to the release of energy. Nevertheless, other chemical reactions

also appear , while the majority of them are carrying toxic pollutants and heavy

metals, polluting the environment.

This air pollution includes amongst other things Mercury which is a toxic heavy metal

and has the ability to destroy not only the human nerves but also the immune system.

Especially for children this is a life-threatening issue.

1 Cf. Financial Times (2018): https://www.ft.com/content/5d351276-1c48-11e8-aaca-4574d7dabfb6 [Accessed the 26th of november ] 2 Cf. The Economist (2017): https://www.economist.com/china/2017/12/14/china-has-won-battles-against-air-pollution-but-not-the-war [Accessed the 26th of november ]

Furthermore the chemical reaction creates sulfur dioxide which is created when sulfur

from coal reacts with oxygen. Sulfur dioxide is very dangerous since it penetrates the

human lungs, leading to asthma and bronchitis.

Most of these emissions can be reduced through pollution controls—sometimes by a

significant amount—though many plants don’t have adequate controls installed.

Responsible department for air pollution in China

The department responsible for the problem of air pollution in China is Ministry of

Ecological Environment, which is a new department established in 2018, is formerly

the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People's Republic of China (MEP),

and prior to 2008 known as the State Environmental Protection Administration

(SEPA).

For this new department, it concerns about China’s environmental future, stability,

socioeconomic ambitions, and global efforts to address environmental challenges.

There are numerous actions and policies done and implemented by it, for instance,

implementation and compiling of ecological environment policies, plans, and

standards; regulates pollution control, and organize inspections of environmental

protection and administers engineering and technical research centers related to

environmental protection which is one of the latest policies implemented in 2018.

Policies of air pollution in the past

In 2013, there was an action plan introduced by the Chinese government and the plan

was called “Action Plan for Air Pollution Prevention and Control”. The goal of the

plan was improving the air quality of the entire country by 2017 and the targeted areas

were the three key industrial areas surrounding Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

The details of the plan included cutting iron-making and steel-making capacity by 15

million tons in 2015; controlling the number of automobiles on its roads; increasing

non-fossil fuel from 9.1% in 2012 to 13% by 2017; banning new coal-burning

capacity and speed up the use of filters and scrubbers and working with the largest

coal consuming sectors and regions to help them develop integrated plans for capping

coal use through more efficient technologies etc.

Policies on environmental protection recently

In 2017, there was an economy-wide climate policy. The details of the policy

included putting a price on carbon dioxide (CO2) and lowering emissions that degrade

air quality; setting tailpipe and fuel-economy standards for targeting vehicle

emissions and designating “no-coal zones”.

In 2018, the policies focused more on ozone pollution. In the meantime, the Chinese

government also mandated falls of at least 18 per cent in PM2.5 levels on a 2015

baseline in cities of prefectural or higher level, and where standards had not already

been met. There were bans of the small-scale burning of coal for heat in winter.

Policies on businesses recently

In 2017, there was a pilot scheme introduced by the Chinese government. It targeted

on the companies which caused severe pollution or environmental deterioration.

Companies and businesses had to repair the damage or pay for the losses if the

damage is beyond restoration.

In 2018, the Chinese government ordered polluting factories or businesses to leave

Beijing and its surroundings in order to alleviate the problem of air pollution in

Beijing which is the capital of China. There was a new law called “the Environmental

Protection Tax Law” targeting enterprises and public institutions that discharge listed

pollutants directly into the environment. Under this law, companies would have to

pay taxes for producing air pollutants. It was an incentive to cut emissions and

upgrade production technology, a new type of green tax and the first tax targeting

environmental protection.

Policies on health care recently

Lung cancer and respiratory diseases become common diseases in the recent years in

China. Air pollution is the main factor leading to these diseases. Therefore, in 2018,

the Chinese government tried to alleviate the problem by exempting import tariffs on

all common drugs including cancer drugs, cancer alkaloid-based drugs, and imported

traditional Chinese medicine. Besides, value added tax in the production and import

of drugs will drop by a large margin so that it can lower the financial burden for

people with these diseases.

New plan of alleviating air pollution in 2018

In order to further improve the air quality of regions in China, the Chinese

government has implemented a new plan in 2018 which is called “2018-2020 Three-

year Action Plan for Winning the Blue Sky War”.

The targeted goal of this plan is reducing the total amount of major air pollutants

significantly. It is planned that greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced in concert,

further reducing the concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), the number of

days of heavy pollution will be reduced significantly and to improve the quality of

ambient air.

The controversial issue as to usages of renewable energy of business sectors

Renewable energy seems to be a possible way out for the business sector to alleviate

pollution problems owing to pollutants released by massive economic activities. Not

only is renewable energy clearer comparing to fossil fuels and coals, but it is also the

unlimited resource provided by nature. However, the controversy raised. Renewable

energy is feasible-yet-unusable due to economic and social reasons.

Possible sources of renewable energy

There are a few prominent kinds of renewable energy which are always used by huge

business production systems, namely solar energy, wind power and hydroelectric

energy. For example, Solar power makes good use of unlimited sunlight of nature and

transfers the energy into electricity through solar panels, which could support mass

production activities. There is also some renewable energy which is not so commonly

used in the business sector. Take the geothermal power as a notable example. One

form of geothermal power would be in uses of heat storages in the surface of the earth,

which is good for tuning the temperature of certain buildings (Davison). Although

renewable energy are various, not all of them are pragmatic for business usages due to

their relative drawbacks.

The advantages of the implementation of renewable energy

The reasons behind why business sectors could widely implement renewable energy

are potent, raging from social responsibilities to economical concerns.

Renewable energy could help release social health problems due to pollution caused

by large-scale economic activities, complying with the social enterprise responsibility.

It is devastating that many breathing problems are due to pollution, such as

neurological damages and heart attacks. A study of Harvard University which

estimated the life cycle costs and public health effect of coals since 1997 for eight

years has revealed that the costs of all would be around $74.6 billions in every single

year. The negative effect of using fossil fuels in business sector is devastating (The

Hidden Costs of Fossil Fuels. 2018). Thus, the first benefit of putting renewable

energy into implementation in enterprises would be alleviating the social health

problems owing to its cleanness.

The concrete evidence as to the cleanness of renewable energy is shown as follows:

The carbon emission of different kinds of sources of energy (Benefits of Renewable Energy Use) The above chart has shown the carbon emission of various sources of energy. It would

be apparent that renewable energy is comparatively clearer than that of fossil fuels

and coals. Take wind and ocean energy as a prominent example. The greenhouse gas

emissions of them is almost none, which shows the cleanness of certain kinds of

renewable energy. As for the long-term usage of renewable energy, it would

definitely lessen the pollution problems, alleviating the relative chronic diseases

caused by the severity of pollution owing to the carbon emissions. Thus, the pollution

problems could be resolved gradually by using renewable energy.

The possible market failures as to implementation of renewable energy in

enterprises

Although renewable energy has shown abundant benefits, the business sectors could

hardly fully put renewable energy into practice due to certain reasons regarding

economy at this moment. However, the implementation of renewable energy would

be a world-wide trend for a long term.

The implementation of renewable energy has to go through comprehensive processes

amount different stakeholders, which is sophisticated and complicated. The widely

implementation of renewable energy equipment, such as solar panels and wind

turbines, requires huge amount of expenditures and would involves many

stakeholders came from different social ladders. Each stakeholder would account for

their own benefits and considers their own risks, leading to rounds of beneficial

battles. The stakeholders, including non-government organizations, citizens,

government, and enterprises, would kick off negotiations which are very time-

consuming and expenditure costing (Jin, Chen???). The requirement of advanced

technologies and expertise would be a hard topic to be dealt with. Renewable energy,

hence, would be difficult to be put in full practice due to negotiation regarding

benefits of each stakeholder.

The coordination failures are also imminent regarding to wide implementation of

renewable energy. The construction engineering of renewable energy and

maintenance requires expertise coming from different profession, increasing the

complexity of management. Therefore, the market mechanism is still not very

competent and mature enough due to the difficulties of handling the sophisticated

machines (Jin, Chen). Business sectors, thus, tend to use the traditional sources of

energy which are much easier to minimize the expenditures due to the coordination

factors of renewable energy.

Another impediment to fully implementing renewable energy would be the “chicken-

egg problems” as to the cost and benefits. The advocates of using renewable energy in

business sectors agree that benefits would be apparent for long-term usages because

costs of dealing with pollutions caused by fossil fuels would be lessened accordingly.

On the other hand, the opposed argue that infrastructural budgets for renewable

energy are too exorbitant which do not worth investigating. By using fossil fuels

could definitely instantly minimize costs by saving production fees as to the

infrastructures for renewable energy, maximizing profits. Therefore, renewable

energy could not be fully implemented in the business sectors due to the “chicken-egg

problems” (Jin, Chen).

Although the full implementation of renewable energy in business sectors is not very

common owing to the market failures mentioned above, the wide usage of renewable

energy is a world-wide trend due to an avalanche of benefits regarding social and

economy.

3. Proposed solution3

As a starting point of our proposed solution we state that coal consumption to produce

energy is one the main factor responsible of the air pollution in China.

By consequences our proposal is to find an alternative to massive coal consumption.

China is currently working a lot on the development of clean energies like wind

turbines for instance or solar panel, however as a new alternative we propose to

develop the geothermal energy.

Geothermal energy is based on the idea to use the Earth’s heat, you can use this

method in many ways but it works like the following:

You drill a hole in the ground in a place where there is a heat concentration, inject

some water which will be transformed into steam and move turbines, then this water

is cooled and reinjected to produce steam etc, in a cycle.

Contrary to wind turbines which need a constant amount of wind to follow the

forecasts of productivity, and cause pollution by the production of the system (with a

low productivity per turbine in addition); a small geothermal power plant is not

impacted by that and can easily provide enough energy for a rural city.

Thanks to few numbers we can clearly understand why we didn’t choose to focus on

wind turbines:

A nuclear power plant produces about 860 MW per reactor, a coal power plant

between 300 and 400 MW.

About 750 wind turbines are needed to produce as much a nuclear power plant

produces, so about 375 wind turbines are needed to compensate one coal power plant

(in the case wind turbines are at the maximum of their production capacity).

According to the ANE “The Chinese geothermal power potential is equal to 853

billion of tonne of standard coal”, that is why we have strong reasons to believe

geothermal energy could greatly benefit China.

3 Cf. http://www.thinkgeoenergy.com/ambitious-geothermal-power-and-heating-plans-announced-for-china/

Furthermore, geothermal energy is considered as renewable even if it produces a bit

of CO2 (1/8 of what a coal power plant produces). Besides, because the amount of

heat taken form the Earth is considered like ridiculous compared to total amount of

Earth’s heat and the auto-production of heat by the Earth we can state geothermal

energy is a renewable one

About the geothermal technology itself, there are several types of industrial

technologies to produce industrial geothermal energy, the main two are called flash

and binary systems.

The principal differences are based on the way water is used in the system, you use

flash tech when the ground heat is under 176 C and the binary one when the temp is

above.

Furthermore China is already working on the development of this energy, in 2017 an

article of the Daily China revealed the willing of the country to implement it.

Through Sinopec Star Petroleum ltd, Chinese government-owned company and 2nd

petroleum company worldwide, the Chinese government declared they could create

20 smokeless city thanks to a plan to replace coal by geothermal energy (Sinopec has

already geothermal businesses in 16 provinces of China)

4. Targeted market

Our targeted markets are Yunnan, and then Chongqing.

Yunnan:4 5 6

There are basically two main reasons for choosing Yunnan as our main targeted

market.

4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yunnan 5 http://www.cgsenergy.com.hk/v2/zh-hk/qydtNews.aspx?NewsId=319 6https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BA%91%E5%8D%97%E5%9C%B0%E9%9C%87%E5%B8%A6%E5%88%97%E8%A1%A8

At first, Yunnan has a lot of potential deep geothermal resources. Compared to other

parts of China, Yunnan has more seismic zone in which eight of them are active and

the rest are more stable. In common sense, the more active a seismic zone is, the more

heat energy would there be. Therefore, in order to extract enough heat energy for

electricity, a place, like Yunnan with more active seismic zone should be chosen.

Of course, Tibet which is located near Himalayas seismic zone is also estimated to

have more geothermal resources. However, not only is the geothermal energy planned

for local use, but also is planned to share the electricity with other cities nearby if

geothermal energy is proved to be efficient and stable enough. Since coal is main

sources of electricity, and comparably creates more pollution, it would be helpful if

geothermal power can be transported to a place with high demand on electricity for

reducing the reliance on coal. Thus, Yunnan is chosen to match with Chongqing, a

city nearby with high demand on coal electricity.

Chongqing:

The reasons for choosing Chongqing to be our target market are that it is a standout

among the most polluted urban areas in China, there are more than 100 days of mist

for each year and it is otherwise called the Fog City. From the graph shown below

(Quality, 2018), we can see that PM2.5 level in Chongqing province was red which

means in a high and serious level. This shows that the air quality in Chongqing is

extremely bad. In common sense, China burns coal as main sources of electricity

because it is comparably cheap. Therefore, coal consumption on electricity would be

a big factor for that.

Air quality from 12/11/2018 - 16/11/2018

Besides, according to Li Yong who is an economist at Chongqing Academy of Social

Sciences (LIU, 2011), "If Chongqing can succeed in transforming into a green, low-

carbon city, there is no doubt that the rest of Chinese cities will be able to make this

switch." As same as Chongqing, every cities also need electricity for industrial or

civil use. On account of that, since Chongqing is a leading and important city in China,

it can be a leader on using geothermal energy for alleviating the problem of air

pollution in China.

Chongqing population profile

Until 2018, the population of Chongqing is 14,837,823. The population density is 370

persons per square kilometer which is quite high while the growth rate of it is 3.53%

and the growth rate is becoming faster and faster in the recent years. From the graph

below (Statista, 2018), we can see that the population of Chongqing in China from

1980 to 2010, with forecasts up until 2035. In 2010, the population of Chongqing had

amounted to about 11.24 million inhabitants and was forecasted to grow up to 20.5

million by 2035. Hence, it is obvious that there is a huge demand on electricity for

civil use with vast population in Chongqing.

Population of Chongqing from 1980 to 2035

Chongqing factories profile

According to HKTDC Research (Team, 2018), Chongqing’s industry is dominated by

heavy industry. In 2016, heavy industry accounted for 74.3% of the municipality’s

gross industrial output. Besides, Chongqing has became one of the nation's industrial

hubs in China. Different kinds of industry, like the automobiles, military, iron & steel

and aluminum are located here.

Factories in Chongqing

Consequently, it is imaginable that the toxics gases released during the production

cause serious pollution. On the other hand, it also reflects that the more factories there

are, the higher demand on electricity there will be.

Reasons for choosing Chongqing

We find Chongqing a good place to be our targeted market. Firstly, as thousands of

factories consumpt a lot of coal for electricity, which causes serious pollution, the

government can encourage the factory owners there to solve the problem together

instead of ignoring it. For instance, government can encourage them to invest in

building up electric grid for transporting geothermal power in Yunnan to Chongqing.

It is possible that the reliance on coal can be reduced. If the factory owners are willing

to invest in it, the government could provide a appreciation and even a tax allowance

to them.

Secondly, Chongqing can be a leading city to transform into a green, low-carbon city

and it may be effective to alleviate the problem faced by China. Thirdly, due to the

increasing population in Chongqing, it is in emergency for China to explore new

sources of energy. In addition to that, if we keep ignoring seriousness of air pollution,

it will deal to health problems and increase medical expenditure of government.

Lastly, since there are many factories in Chongqing, we can also take reference to the

effectiveness of this plan, then to enlarge the use of geothermal energy to other

provinces and for civil use.

5. Social Benefits and goals & Social benefit and its impact -Geothermal Power

The implementation of geothermal power in ChongQing is believed to show great

benefits, regarding environment, maintenance, efficiency, and stability.

Geothermal power is environmental-friendly, which is comparatively clean and help

safeguard unnecessary energy usages. Geothermal power is naturally-extracted from

the earth instead of burning and heating coals, which means no carbon emissions

would be occurred due to heating up fossil fuels and coals. It is believed that the

achievement of saving up to 80% of energy by using geothermal power would be

shown (Advantages and Disadvantages of Geothermal Energy). Geothermal power,

thus, is environmental-friendly.

The life-span of geothermal power systems is relatively longer, which lower the

possibility for maintenance. It is shown that “Heat pump pipes even have warranties

of between 25 and 50 years, while the pump can usually last for at least 20 years”,

which means that some parts of the geothermal power systems could work around a

half of the century (Advantages and Disadvantages of Geothermal Energy). It is

believed that the implementation of geothermal power in ChongQing could be under

operation for a long time without serious maintenance.

As to the efficiency of geothermal power, it uses less electricity for cooling or heating

when generating energy. Research has shown that geothermal heat pump systems use

25-50% less electricity for cooling than that of the traditional energy systems.

Moreover, the whole system could be adjusted to different situations and less space is

required for hardware as opposed to the conventional one. When the implementation

of geothermal power in ChongQing is wide, the energy generation could be more

efficient (Advantages and Disadvantages of Geothermal Energy).

Geothermal power could also steadily support energy needs, which is independent

and does not rely on natural conditions with any time-constraint. For example, the

production of solar energy requires shiny sun, which indicates that solar power has to

be operated in daytime. On the other hand, geothermal power is not limited by any

time constraint, which is more stable for its supply in the busy city ChongQing

(Advantages and Disadvantages of Geothermal Energy).

6. Marketing Mix Strategies

Product:7

Geothermal energy can be used in two ways. One is to directly use its heat energy,

like hot spring. Another one is to make use of its heat energy to create steam and run

the turbine for electricity. According to direct-use data, the usage of China is 17,870

MWt, in which China is in the first place. However, China is far behind from other

countries on using it to generate electricity. A statistic has shown that China has only

24 MW geothermal energy electric capacity, compared to 3086 MW capacity of US.

Below, there are two major reasons for this situation.

Firstly, advanced drilling technology is required. To make sure the turbine runs fast

7 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_energy [4/12/18]

enough to generate electricity, sometimes it is necessary to drill into 3000-10000 m

deep for thousands degree of heat energy. So, dealing with high temperature would be

a big challenge. Secondly, the initial cost is expensive. Except for the above heat-

proof drilling pipeline, exploring, field and power plant are also a huge cost. For

instance, since geothermal resources are uncertain, it takes time and cost to explore a

location to see if it is suitable for huge development.

In fact, a little CO2 and some poisonous gases would be released from underground

water, like hydrogen sulfide. Nevertheless, compared to fossil fuels and even other

sustainable energy, less pollutant and CO2 is released. And once underground water

is recharge and filtered properly, harm can be avoided. Also, China previously has

huge energy consumption, we believe that new sources of energy with huge potential

should be developed actively. Wang Jiyang, a hydrogeologist estimated that the

potential deep geothermal resources are equal to around 757.9 billion tons of coal.8

Apart from that, geothermal energy is comparably stable. Different from solar energy,

geothermal energy is available every day and condition. As a result, geothermal

energy has great potential to reduce part of coal consumption and alleviate the air

pollution. But cost-benefit, technology and location would be a major consideration.

In short term, it is proposed to develop deep geothermal energy in the southwest of

China, like Yunnan which is estimated to have a lot of potential deep geothermal

resources to see if it is worth developing in the future. Meanwhile, it makes no sense

to say that air pollution in China could be reduced significantly by just developing

geothermal energy at this stage. Hence, some measurements are also proposed as a

transition in short term. For example, increasing the use of other sustainable energy,

educating people on protecting the environment, providing tax allowance on hybrid

and electric cars etc.

In long term, if cost-benefit is reasonable enough to keep operating, it is proposed to

gradually increase the percentage of geothermal energy of total energy. To be specific,

among different provinces, Tibet could be the first consideration of further

development based on its huge potential resources and position. Moreover, if the

8 http://www.cgsenergy.com.hk/v2/zh-hk/qydtNews.aspx?NewsId=319 [4/12/2018]

electricity supply is high enough to provide to other cities, it is possible to transport

the electricity to the industrial cities nearby, like Chongqing, by building an electric

grid so as to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels.

Last but not least, China government can implement some policies to support the

industry. Again, it is expensive to develop advanced technology, so the government

can have some financial support, like a subsidy, tax allowance etc. Also, there could

be some obstacle in law and politics. Since it involves the development of land, it is

not an easy job to get permission from the government. Hence, China government is

also proposed to offer some supports on the application or permission to those

investors. Furthermore, deep geothermal energy has not yet been widely developed

previously. In common sense, there would probably be few labors and experts in this

industry because people could not see a good future in it. Thus, China government

should create a better career prospect to encourage more people to devote to this

industry, like emphasizing the geothermal development in annual policy, offering

higher salary etc. Also, China government can cooperate with the countries in a good

relationship, like the Philippines which was on the 2nd places of geothermal energy’s

electric capacity.

Price:

In the estimation of a Japanese organization, the average initial cost of 30 MW

geothermal energy is around 24 billion Yen, excluding 2.7 billion Yen other expenses,

like maintaining cost. Meanwhile, compared to wind energy, the average cost of 1

MW geothermal energy is 1.5 times to that of wind energy.

Nevertheless, it is believed that geothermal energy is still worth investing. The basic

concept is that even though the initial cost is expensive, but its electricity supply

would probably cover the average cost in long-term. Other than the profit, a positive

image would also be a concern point. Between environmental protection and the

economy, China inevitably chose economy in the past. But then China gives a

negative image to the world and that becomes an attack point. Once China

government are willing to invest in geothermal energy for cleaner environment,

China’s international image could be improved. To an enterprise, a good image would

also benefit to their own business overseas. Also, it is predictable that if geothermal

energy industry is developed, job opportunity would be created, and increase the

employment rate. To raise capital for geothermal energy, the government can adopt

two main measurements.

Geothermal energy is a vast investment. In order to encourage more private

investment, as mentioned on the above, China government should offer support to

them. For instance, the government can put their application into priority and set up a

geothermal energy task force in National Energy Administration which is responsible

for the communication between the government and the business. By that, it will give

confidence to potential investors.

Besides, the government should offer financial support in three aspects which are

Hiring, Education, Subsidy. Firstly, hiring takes 40% of the budgets. Since the deep

geothermal technology is not that mature in China, it would be helpful if some foreign

experts can be hired to help with technology development. Not only can experts help

with technology, but also can educate next groups of experts. Secondly, education

takes 35% of the total. Government is proposed to use it as a funding to the university

for opening related subjects so that the human resources can match the future

development. Thirdly, the 25% budgets left is spent on subsidy. To the investors, it is

a high-risk and vast investment. That means China government should also provide

some subsidy so that they would have less pressure on cash flow.

Places:

The geothermal power plant is proposed to be located in Yunnan province based on

its rich geothermal resources. In common sense, if geothermal energy is used to

generate electricity, it is necessary to make use of deep geothermal resources for

sufficient heat energy. Since Yunnan has a more active seismic zone, Yunnan

province has a great potential to develop it.

In fact, it is difficult to indicate the exact location of the power plant because it

involves too many professional considerations. Cost-benefit is one of the factors. To

make sure the cost-benefit is reasonable enough to keep operating, it is important to

have an exploration to see if a place is able to provide sustainable energy in the long-

term. Also, it is necessary to explore if a place is safe enough to develop the energy.

For instance, if a place is proved to have too much-concentrated toxics substances,

like hydrogen sulfide, then the place needs to be put in mind first. Meanwhile, the

influence dealt with the environment also need to be considered as it is possible that

the development of deep geothermal energy would trigger some environmental

disaster, like earthquake etc. However, once the location chosen is evaluated properly

and make sure the daily operation is in a valid procedure, safety would not be a big

problem.

Besides, if geothermal energy has a reasonable cost-benefit in Yunnan, it is proposed

to share electricity with other cities nearby. By that, it is possible to reduce the

reliance on coal consumption for electricity and alleviate the air pollution caused by

that. Especially for Chongqing, it is an industrial city with huge electricity

consumption. In detail, an electric grid could be built so as to transport the electricity

from Yunnan power plant to Chongqing. Take the gases tunnel from Heilongjiang to

Shanghai as a reference, it is workable to build the electric grid to transport electricity

province to province. Afterward, we can reevaluate the performance of it to see if it is

worth developing in other places. If yes, then we can consider enlarging the electric

grid to other cities based on different factors, like distance, cost, demand and so on.

Promotion:

As geothermal energy is not yet widely developed in China, it may still be a mystery

to the society. Then it may come up with some misunderstanding that geothermal

energy has no future at all or it is a high-risk investment. Therefore, at first, basic

promotion strategies, like advertisement on TV, internet (e.g. YouTube, Facebook),

newspapers would be used to state its significant characteristics compared to other

sustainable energy. A remarkable point is that geothermal energy is so stable that it is

available every day and every climate, different from solar energy. Another selling

point shows the geothermal resources in Tibet and Yunnan are extremely rich to

satisfy the amount of energy consumption so that people could see a future from it.

Besides, we can cooperate with some famous businessmen, like Mayun Jack as a

significant promotion. Take him as an example, Mayun is famous for his wisdom and

smart on running a business. He is so long-sighted to set up Alibaba in which the

Taobao and Alipay bring him billions of monies. Because of his image, if he could

take part in the development of geothermal energy as a pioneer, then many people

might be encouraged. A truth states that high-risk investment accompanies with high

return. Even though geothermal seems to be high-risk or uncertain, but it still gets its

selling points. More important thing is that not only do an enterprise concerns about

the profits, but also the business image to the consumers and the world. As a result, it

is not impossible to promote it once people recognize its potential returns.

7. Conclusion

Summing up, although there are some challenges to be expected in terms of

integrating and realising the new geothermal energy plan, it is a realistic future for

China and also gives hope to finally get rid of coal energy. And China is not fighting

alone: within the Paris Agreement 195 members of the UNFCCC, the United Nations

Framework Convention on Climate Change , have signed the agreement in 2018,

ready to deal with environmental problems, inter alia increasing greenhouse gas

emissions. It should be the duty of every country to determine and plan how to tackle

environmental problems and climate change since this is all our planet and there will

be no other one.

8. Reference

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