India is one step closer to commercially generating electricity from geothermal sources after public sector energy giant ONGC drilled its second geothermal well in Ladakh’s Puga Valley. A month was all it took for the ONGC Energy Centre to drill the well to a depth of 1,000 meters, despite the difficult high-altitude terrain.
The most recent drilling effort is a continuation of ONGC’s previous geothermal well success; that well confirmed the Puga geothermal field’s considerable geothermal potential by producing high-temperature steam. Additionally, the project’s increasing technical maturity is shown by the improved drilling timeframe and lower execution cost.
Construction of India’s first experimental geothermal power plant, with a capacity of 1 megawatt (MW), would rely heavily on the recently bored well. After it’s up and running, the pilot project will hopefully prove that geothermal energy is financially feasible and set the stage for future, bigger geothermal power initiatives.
Many people believe that India’s most promising geothermal resource is the Puga field in eastern Ladakh. Geothermal energy is a reliable, clean energy source that is unaffected by weather changes, unlike solar and wind power, as it produces electricity continuously, all day, every day.
The 1 MW pilot geothermal power plant and the advancement of long-term plans for commercial geothermal development will be the main objectives of the next phase of the project, according to ONGC. Energy security in remote Himalayan places like Ladakh might be greatly enhanced with reliable geothermal electricity.
This accomplishment is in line with India’s goals of achieving sustainable energy. The country’s goal is to achieve 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030, and it has grown its non-fossil fuel power capacity from 81 GW in 2014 to 288 GW, with notable increases in wind and solar power.
Image: Inside Kashmir
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