China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., the state-owned energy giant known as Sinopec, is making a bigger push into a renewable energy generated by heat within the earth as the country looks to diversify its sources of green energy.

Sinopec’s push could serve as a catalyst for fast-tracking the exploration and use of geothermal energy, and spur the development of related technologies in the country, experts said.

The company said on social media on Sept. 14 that it was expecting a “major development” in its geothermal heating segment and that it was on track to expand its service to more than 60 cities in over 10 regions in China by the end of the year. Its cumulative heating coverage is estimated to amount to more than 100 million square meters by the end of the year, according to Sinopec.

The company said in April 2022 that its cumulative heating coverage was about 80 million square meters as of that month, spread out over 50 cities.

Geothermal heating takes advantage of the natural stable temperature underground to warm up buildings. It is the main way that geothermal energy is harnessed in China.

Earlier this month, Sinopec started drilling what it claimed as China’s first geothermal exploration well that is expected to reach 5,000 meters below ground level. Sinopec said the well, which is being drilled in the city of Haikou, will help it determine the geothermal potential of South China’s Hainan province.

Sinopec is China’s largest developer of geothermal resources at 2,000 meters (6,561 feet) to 4,000 meters under the earth’s surface — considered by the industry as the “mid” and “deep” levels.

Last week, the company hosted the 7th World Geothermal Congress in Beijing. More than 1,400 people from 54 countries came for the three-day conference, Sinopec said in a press release on Monday.

The conference released what Sinopec called the world’s first geothermal industry standards and adopted the Beijing Declaration, which set out principles and a direction for the global geothermal industry, according to the company.

Experts said Sinopec could end up being a trailblazer for the technology. Wang Yongzhen, an associate professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology’s Department of Energy and Power Engineering, expects more Chinese companies to start researching and developing geothermal heating technologies.

“The trend will advance the development of technologies in geothermal heating and even geothermal power generation in China,” Wang told Caixin.

Geothermal power is a source of energy in which electricity is generated using steam from reservoirs of hot water found below the earth’s surface.

Wang predicted that geothermal energy’s role will become “more and more important” in China’s effort to build a “new-energy system” that will be mainly based on clean energy.

China is a world leader in the direct use of thermal power, Xinhua reported. The country was capable of heating or cooling 1.33 billion square meters in total at the end of 2021, the report said, citing Guo Xusheng, head of the technical commission at the National Geothermal Energy Center.

According to Jin Boyang, a senior energy transition analyst at data provider Refinitiv, geothermal energy has great potential in China as the total area that needs heating nationwide is projected to reach 13.2 billion square meters by 2025.

“Promoting the development of geothermal energy is also significant in propelling China’s energy transition,” he told Caixin.

Jin noted that the country’s geothermal energy industrial chain is concentrated in East China, such as in the Circum-Bohai-Sea region and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. He also highlighted several large projects that make use of geothermal heating, including Beijing Daxing International Airport and Caofeidian New Town in Hebei.

China is striving to develop geothermal energy at scale between 2021 and 2025, according to the country’s 14th Five-Year Plan for renewable energy.