India’s First Geothermal Development Project
News
Recently on 7th February
2021, India’s First Geothermal Development project was announced in Ladakh.
Some facts on Ladakh and Jammu & Kashmir
Jammu & Kashmir is now a union territory
of India with a Legislature. Population of Jammu & Kashmir is 1.22 Cr. On
the other hand Ladakh is also a union territory with no legislature. Ladakh is
the largest union territory in India. The population of Ladakh is 2.90 Cr.
About the Project
The Geothermal Development Project will help
the potential of natural geysers touching the Puga valley area. Puga valley is the
point where this project will be developed. This Puga valley is located in 170
km East of Ladakh. The Agreement of this Project was signed between the
Government of India and the Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) a
Government run Public Service Undertaking. So before we going to discuss about
Geothermal energy, first we have looked on the structure of the Earth.
Structure of the Earth
The Structure of
the earth comprises with 4 core.
(1)
Crust- 8 to 40 kms from the earth surface
(2)
Mentle- 2,900 kms from the earth surface
(3)
Outer core- 2,250 kms from the earth surface
(4)
Inner core- 1,300 kms from the earth surface
Earth’s Mantle has a
thickness of 2,900 kms (1.800 mi) making up about 84 % of Earth’s volume. In
the Mantle, the temperature range from approx. 200 degree Celsius.
What is Geothermal ?
Geothermal means literally, thermal energy
contained within the Earth. Generally speaking, geothermal energy is any form
of thermal energy extracted from or store in the ground for later use. Thermal
energy is the energy that determines the temperature of the matter and the
geothermal energy is present in the rocks and fluids beneath the earth.
Iceland is the example where they use
geothermal energy to produced power.
How is Geothermal energy produced ?
To produce the geothermal energy, there
drilled wells which is deep or more holes into underground reservoirs approx.
1.6 kms. These wells tap steam and not water to drive the turbines. The
turbines are in turn linked to electricity generators. The geothermal
electricity production was done first in Italy in 1904.
Types of Geothermal energy plant
(1)
Dry steam plants that takes the stream out of
fractures in ground and uses it to directly drive a turbine.
(2)
Flash plants, here they pull deep, high pressure hot
water into cooler low pressure water. Then the stream is resulting from this
process is used to drive the turbine.
(3)
Binary plants, here the hot water is passed by
secondary fluid with a lower boiling point then actual which makes it turn into
vapor, then this drives the turbine.
Facts about Geothermal energy
§ The largest
producer of the Geothermal energy is in the Geysers north of San Fransisco in
California, USA.
§ This
geothermal energy is also generated in more than 20 countries in the world.
Potential of Geothermal Energy in India
(1)
Puga Valley – Ladakh union territory
(2)
Godavari river basin
(3)
Tatapani – Chhattisgarh state
(4)
Bakreshwar in West Bengal
(5)
Unai in Maharashtra state
(6)
Jalagaon in Maharashtra state
(7)
Rajgor and Myanmar in Bihar
In India, exploration and study of geothermal
field, started in 1970. The Geological Survey of India (GSI) has identified 350
geothermal energy in the country in various locations. The most promising of
there in Puga Valley of Ladakh. The
estimated potential for energy in India is about 10000 MW. Puga Valley is
located near Line of Control near Pangong Tso lake, Ladakh.
Project announcement and phases of project
In its first step towards making the
strategic location of Ladakh Carbon neutral for clean power. The Union
territory administration of Ladakh signed a MoU with ONGC energy Central in the
presence of Lieutenant Governor Radhakrishna mathur at Leh. The objective of
this step is to become carbon neutral.
The project
will be started with three phases –
(1)
In the first phase ONGC would drill up to 500 meters
to top the steam and hot sulphur water that spews out of the geysers. In this
phase 1 MW power will be generated.
(2)
Drilling would be a bit deeper to explore the
potential of geothermal energy.
(3)
A commercial plant would be setup in this phase. The
estimated power supply would be of 250 Mega Watt in the third phase.
Benefits of
the Project
(1)
This would be providing round the clock power supply
in the territory.
(2)
Hot water from the spring would come handy for space
heating.
(3)
Establishing hot swimming pools would be good as a
tourist attraction.
(4)
Ladakh would be self-sustaining economy and it would
spread the Government’s Vocal for Local calls.
(5)
The establishment of this kind of plant would open new
work avenues for local people.
YouTube link - Geothermal Energy
