Geothermal Energy Resources of India: Country Update

Abstract

India’s power generation during the last four years has increased from 228719 MWe to (2014) to 356818 MWe (2018) with coal being the primary energy source. Although the solar photovoltaic (pv) source generated electricity has increased from 24503 MWe (2015) to 728359 in 2018, this is not reflected in the CO2 emissions of the country. The CO2 emissions by India has crossed 2076 million tonnes at present from 620 million tonnes in 2015. However, ground source heat pumps (GHPs) for space cooling have picked up pace over the past few years. Large commercial storage houses (pharmaceutical warehouses) are implementing GHP systems to save electricity bills. M/s GeoSyndicate has recently completed installing one such system for a pharmaceutical warehouse in Mumbai and several such systems are being in the process of installation in Maharashtra. The Ϭ11B values (2.5 to 27 per mil) suggests involvement of ancient marine sediments during the circulation thermal waters. The study indicates high reservoir temperatures (~ 250 °C) towards the southern part of the west coast geothermal province. The geochemistry of Tulsishyam thermal springs in Gujarat indicate circulation of the thermal waters within the high radiogenic granites. The uranium, thorium and potassium contents of the granites are the main source of heat and the surface heat flow values estimated vary from 53-90 mWm2 (Singh et al., 2018). Based on the carbon isotope signature, the estimated CO2 emissions from the Himalayan thermal springs is about 29 million mol/year (Tiwari et al., 2016). Investigation on the thermo-mechanical properties of high heat generating granites (potential candidate for EGS site) from Bundelkhand, Madhya Pradesh has been carried out.