India to tap 10-gigawatt geothermal energy; MNRE forms task force

To enhance the share of renewable energy in the country's total fuel mix, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has constituted a task force to harness the potential of Geothermal Energy.

According to a recent Ministry notification, the task force will be headed by Dr AK Tripathi, Advisor, MNRE as the Chairman and will have ten other experts from various related fields as members.

Geothermal energy is a clean form of power generated using heat from the earth. Its resources are reservoirs of hot water or hot springs that are found miles deep into the earth's crust. The Geological Survey of India estimates about 350 high-potential sites in India can produce about 10,600 megawatts (MW) of geothermal energy. The identified geothermal regions include many parts of Uttarakhand and the Himalayas, the Northeast, the Western coastal area in Gujarat and Maharashtra, the Son-Narmada-Tapi (SONATA) basin and the Godavari basin in South India.

The total installed geothermal power generation capacity across the world at year-end 2023 was at 16,335 (megawatt) MW, an increase of 208 MW from 2022, according to a Think Geo Energy report. The Top 10 Geothermal producing countries are the United States (3,900 MW), Indonesia (2,418 MW), Philippines (1,952 MW), Turkey (1,691 MW), New Zealand (1,042 MW), Kenya (985 MW), Mexico (976 MW), Italy (916 MW), Iceland (754 MW) and Japan (576 MW). Countries like El Salvador, Kenya, the Philippines, Iceland, New Zealand, and Costa Rica generate more than 15 per cent of their electricity demand from geothermal sources. Indonesia has an estimated potential of 29,000 MW of geothermal energy resources, the largest in the world, according to various sources.

India's first geothermal unit, a 20-kW geothermal pilot plant was recently commissioned by Coal India's Singareni Collieries Company (SCCL) in the Manuguru region of the Bhadradri Kothagudem district in Telangana. Work on the pilot plant was started in 2021 and construction was supported by a Rs 2.42 crore grant from the Ministry of Coal. The SCCL signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) a month ago with the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and the Telangana Renewable Energy Development Corporation (TGREDCO) for further exploration and development of the Manuguru geothermal field.

ONGC had started drilling for a one MW geothermal project in the Puga Valley in the Ladakh region two years ago. However, the work was stopped due to drilling issues and opposition from locals protesting the discharge of mineral mixed water into the Puga stream. Sources say recently ONGC restarted the work with advanced equipment and plans are to drill two wells’ of 1000 meters in depth, where temperatures may exceed 200 °C, which will help to scale up it as a commercial-scale geothermal power plant. Another public sector Oil India (OIL) is also carrying out studies to set up geothermal units in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.

Though most private Indian power producers did not venture into geothermal power due to a lack of policies and incentives, Tata Power was the pioneer in entering this field from India. In 2010, Tata Power took an 11.4 per cent stake in Geodynamics, a company specialised in Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) technology, and built a pilot geothermal plant with Origin Energy in Australia. The project was commissioned after three years. In the same year, a consortium comprising Tata Power (47.50%), Origin Energy (47.50%) and PT Supraco Indonesia (5%) won the 240 MW Sorik Marapi geothermal project in Northern Sumatra, Indonesia. But Tata Power exited the project in 2016 by selling its stake to Singapore-based KS Orka Renewables.

Pune-based power equipment specialist Thermax had also tried to enter geothermal energy a decade ago. It partnered with Iceland-based firm Reykjavík Geothermal to set up a 3-MW pilot plant in Puga Valley in Ladakh, but the project did not take off.