Examination of the relationship between the exploitation of geothermal sources and regional economies: a Beijing case study

Abstract

Rapid urbanization has resulted in severe demands on water, heat and energy resources, which threaten the sustainability of the urban economy and environment. Geothermal energy is one of the cleanest sources of energy, and it plays an important role in the sustainability of the regional economy and environment. This paper employs the vector autoregressive (VAR) model to assess the effects of water, heat and energy consumption on geothermal adoption and the interactions among these factors. Beijing is chosen as a case study to investigate the water-heat-energy nexus and examination of the relationship between geothermal adoption and the regional economy. The results reveal that water consumption has mainly affected geothermal adoption. Water consumption and energy consumption have negative effects on geothermal adoption, while the centralized heat supply has a positive effect on geothermal adoption. This paper also adopts a gear model and coupling coordination degrees to investigate the relationship between geothermal adoption and the regional economy. The rates of geothermal adoption and the regional economy vary, but they are in a good state of coupling coordination. In addition, the coupling coordination of geothermal adoption and the regional economy has the potential to improve.