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Coal Geology & Exploration

Abstract

Background Geothermal resources represent a renewable energy source characterized by abundant reserves, extensive distribution, high stability and reliability, and green and low-carbon attributes. China has led the world in the direct utilization of geothermal energy for many years. Geothermal resource monitoring, which lays the groundwork for geothermal exploration, exploitation, and utilization, provides critical data required to determine dynamic changes in geothermal reservoirs and their surrounding geological environments, ensure long-term sustainable geothermal exploitation and utilization, and achieve the refined management and protection of geothermal resources. Advances In the narrow sense, geothermal resource monitoring technology is primarily applied to individual wells. In contrast, the broadly defined geothermal resource monitoring technology is more suitable for the monitoring of geothermal fields and geothermal exploitation and utilization engineering. The rapid development of monitoring technology enables the real-time monitoring of geothermal systems, providing significant insights into system operation and facilitating the early identification of hidden hazards. Besides the monitoring of conventional parameters such as flow rate, temperature, pressure, and liquid level, relevant monitoring techniques incorporate professional monitoring methods, including seismic network monitoring, geochemical analysis, gravity measurement, tracer tests, corrosion monitoring probes, and fiber optic sensing. Countries such as the United States, France, and Iceland guide and adjust their geothermal exploitation and utilization patterns based on long-term monitoring. In China, monitoring networks have been established on an administrative basis, with provinces and cities including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, and Shandong having gained relatively mature experience. Presently, the monitoring of shallow geothermal energy, hydrothermal resources, and hot dry rock (HDR) resources still faces multiple common challenges, including insufficient sharing of multi-source data, limited spatial coverage of monitoring networks, inadequate high-temperature resistance of downhole sensors, and a lack of unified information platforms and monitoring models.Prospects In the future, it is necessary to strengthen and improve the theoretical and technological innovations in geochemical resource monitoring. Specifically, theories on multi-source heterogeneous data fusion and geology-monitoring-geology mutual feedback should be developed, and it is advisable to tackle technological challenges in space-ground-well three-dimensional collaborative monitoring, artificial intelligence (AI)-based smart services, and the R&D of geothermal monitoring equipment that withstands varying temperatures. Furthermore, it is recommended to establish both a nationwide geotemperature monitoring network and geothermal resource monitoring networks integrating nationwide basic geothermal monitoring, geothermal field monitoring, and geothermal exploitation and utilization engineering monitoring. This necessitates improving the long-term mechanisms for collaboration and data sharing. All these efforts are expected to provide support for China’s energy revolution and its goals of peak carbon dioxide emissions and carbon neutrality.

Keywords

geothermal resource, geothermal reservoir, monitoring technology, monitoring network, monitoring system

DOI

10.12363/issn.1001-1986.26.02.0099

Reference

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