MNRE:Draft National Policy on Geo-Thermal Energy

The energy scenario in India is fast changing with the emphasis given in the XIIth Five Year Plan on non-conventional and renewable sources of energy. Though the dominance of fossil fuels, viz. coal and oil will continue in the energy sector for the next few decades, the concern for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions warrants increasing use of green energy/ non-conventional energy sources as a substitute to oil and coal. Solar energy and wind energy are major contributors of the renewable energy as these resources are widely distributed all over India and are available round the year. Geothermal energy is also an additional source of renewable energy with site specific availability and potentially consistent supply in all the seasons / throughout the year.

Geothermal Energy is heat stored in earth crust and being used for electric generation and also for direct heat application worldwide since beginning of last century. The total installed capacity for global geothermal power generation was estimated to be around 12.8 gigawatts (GW) till 2014. Top five leading countries in the geothermal power generation are USA, Philippines, Indonesia, Mexico and New Zealand. The total installed capacity, reported through the end of 2014 for geothermal direct utilization worldwide is around 70.3 GWt and the leading countries with the largest capacity of geothermal direct utilization are China, USA, Sweden, Turkey, Germany, France, Japan and Iceland. For harnessing Geothermal energy in the country the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) has been supporting R&D on exploration activities and Resource Assessment during last 25 years. This includes formation of expert groups, working group, core group and committees in addition to providing financial support for such projects and for resource assessment.

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