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As a clean, renewable energy source with low carbon content, geothermal energy has the advantages of wide resource availability coverage, low environmental impact, low operating costs, and high reliability. For the development and production of more sustainable energy, geothermal energy has become one of the key areas of development in many countries. Geothermal resources are abundant in China and mainly distributed in the eastern region where the energy demand is the highest; therefore, the resources have the advantage of local development and consumption, which can alleviate the mismatch between resource distribution and demand in China's eastern and western regions. However, the development of geothermal energy started relatively late in China and has confronted many difficulties. This paper summarizes the status of geothermal energy in China and analyzes the existing problems with respect to policies and regulations, technological development, financial investment, and environmental protection. Some policy recommendations are put forward for promoting geothermal energy in China. This paper argues that the period of the "13th Five-Year Plan" is the opportunity for geothermal energy development. With the attention increasing, a series of policies to promote the development and utilization of geothermal energy could be introduced, and this resource could experience scaled development in China. • A review of China's geothermal energy reserves and development status is proposed. • Related policies and regulations, development goals and trends of geothermal energy are summarized. • The main problems of geothermal energy development and utilization in China are analyzed. • The policy recommendations aimed to solve the problem are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy is an important factor in achieving a low-carbon economic development path in China. This paper investigates the factors influencing renewable electricity consumption in China. Specifically, the factors that influence the share of renewable electricity in total electricity consumption in China is investigated using data from 1980 to 2011 and employing the Johansen cointegration technique and vector error correction model. The result of the analysis shows that there is a long run relationship between renewable electricity consumption and GDP per capita, trade openness, foreign direct investment, financial development and share of fossil fuel in energy consumption. Economic development and financial development promotes renewable electricity consumption while foreign direct investment, trade openness and the lobby of conventional energy sources undermine the share of renewables in total electricity consumption in China. While the effects of shocks to the other variables appear to die out over time, the “lobby effect” is persistent and explosive. The results also show that there is a uni-directional short run causality from financial development to renewable electricity consumption and from renewable electricity consumption to trade openness. The Chinese government should pursue policies that not only increase the amount of renewable electricity, but also increase the share of renewables in total electricity consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]