Xianyang Goes Geothermal?

PSFK spent some time in Iceland recently, and we were incredibly impressed by the country’s energy program. The air is clean with not a spot of pollution on the horizon, and the tap water is as pure as we’ve ever tasted. This is due in part to the fact that Reykjavik gets 100% of its heat and 40% of its electricity from geothermal power, with the rest coming from water power. This, contrasted with the haze and worsening pollution in China’s cities has few people thinking. According to this Time article:

…A group of engineers from the Icelandic
power company Enex have left the pure air of Reykjavík behind to work
in smoggy Xianyang. The ancient Chinese city might just have the
geothermal resources to become the Reykjavík of the East. In December
engineers from both countries completed the first stage of a joint
venture that could eventually provide geothermal-powered heating to
millions of people in Xianyang. If the project is successful, the city
will eventually have the biggest such system in the world.

That
would be good for everyone. Last year alone, China added 102 gigawatts
to its electrical grid–roughly twice the total capacity of
California’s–and about 90% of that came from carbon-belching coal
plants. Geothermal energy can at least make a start on cleaning up this
mess. The China Energy Research Society expects 110 gigawatt hours
(GWh) to be produced through geothermal power nationally by 2010, out
of 2.7 million GWh in total. That’s a tiny slice, but energy experts
believe China has the potential to do much more.

Time Magazine