Cities warm to idea of pollution-free heating

Geothermal energy could be about to play a much larger role in heating the heavily-polluted cities clustered in northern China that have traditionally been major consumers of coal and massive victims of winter smog, an industry insider said.

"We need to fully utilize geothermal energy, a renewable clean energy buried underground, to replace coal as winter heating fuel," said Huang Gang, head of Huabei Oilfield Co, which is headquartered in Cangzhou, Hebei province. "It could alleviate the severe smog in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region."

The company is a branch of domestic energy giant China National Petroleum Corp.