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India to Tap Abandoned Oil Wells for Geothermal Energy

India is planning to repurpose abandoned oil wells to harness geothermal energy and diversify its mix of clean energy sources, said Santosh Kumar Sarangi, Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).

 

“We are trying to harness geothermal energy by using closed oil wells. To explore its commercial feasibility, we have commissioned IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) Madras to run a pilot in three abandoned oil wells in Bikaner in Rajasthan,” he said.

 

IIT Madras has been entrusted with the pilot project under the government’s Renewable Energy Research and Technology Development Programme (RE-RTD). This involves setting up a total geothermal power capacity of 450 kilowatt (KW) in the three closed oil wells. “If the pilot is a success, then we will take up geothermal energy on a commercial scale,” Sarangi said.

 

India has at least 13,348 abandoned oil wells, according to a report by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. Based on a 2022 report by the Geological Survey of India (GSI), there is a potential of about 10,600 MW of geothermal power in the country. But India has not exploited even 1 MW so far.

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