{"id":13880,"date":"2021-02-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/17-02-2021\/indias-first-geothermal-project-in-ladakh\/"},"modified":"2021-02-17T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T00:00:00","slug":"indias-first-geothermal-project-in-ladakh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/17-02-2021\/indias-first-geothermal-project-in-ladakh","title":{"rendered":"India\u2019s First Geothermal Project in Ladakh"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In News: <\/strong>Recently,<strong> Ladakh\u2019s administration<\/strong>, <strong>Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council<\/strong> (LAHDC), and <strong>Oil and Natural Gas Corporation<\/strong> (ONGC) has signed a <strong>Memorandum of Understanding<\/strong> (MoU) for establishing<strong> India\u2019s first-ever geothermal field development project<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>About the Project<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>ONGC Energy Centre<\/strong> is the implementing agency for this pilot project, which <strong>aims <\/strong>to <strong>generate a new green energy source<\/strong> for the UT.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Three Phased Implementation<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Phase-1<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Involves exploratory-cum-production drilling of wells up to 500 meters depth.<\/li>\n<li>1 MW power generation capacity shall be generated and 100 per cent free power shall be supplied to the general public.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Phase-2<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Involves a deeper and lateral exploration of the geothermal reservoir by drilling an optimal number of wells and setting up of a higher capacity demo plant.<\/li>\n<li>Also involves preparing a Detailed Project Report.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Phase-3<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It would involve commercial development of the geothermal plant as per discovered capacity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Location<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>In Eastern Ladakh,<strong> Puga and Chumathang<\/strong> are said to be the <strong>most promising geothermal fields<\/strong> in India.<\/li>\n<li>These areas were <strong>discovered in the 1970s<\/strong> and <strong>initial exploratory efforts<\/strong> were made in the<strong> 1980s <\/strong>by the<strong> Geological Survey of India<\/strong> (GSI).<\/li>\n<li>However, <strong>subsequent efforts<\/strong> at the exploitation by various government and private agencies <strong>did not materialise<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Significance<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The move is a step towards the <strong>goal of carbon-neutral Ladakh<\/strong> and promises an <strong>innovative and sustainable development<\/strong> of the UT.<\/li>\n<li>A viable geothermal project can ensure a <strong>continuous supply of renewable, clean energy<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Geothermal resource development can <strong>revolutionise farming<\/strong> in Ladakh, which is now <strong>totally dependent<\/strong> on <strong>outside resources<\/strong> for supply of fresh vegetables, fruits, round the year.<\/li>\n<li>The energy from this project will <strong>give round-the-clock power supplies<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The<strong> hot water from the spring<\/strong> could be used for <strong>space-heating and establishing hot swimming pools<\/strong> to <strong>attract tourists<\/strong>, which will give a <strong>boost to tourism<\/strong> in the UT.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table border=\"1\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:624px\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"vertical-align:top; width:468.0pt\">\n<p><strong>Geothermal Energy<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The word geothermal comes from the <strong>Greek words<\/strong> <em>geo <\/em>(earth) and <em>therme <\/em>(heat).<\/li>\n<li>It refers to the <strong>heat stored beneath the earth\u2019s surface<\/strong> that is carried to the surface by <strong>water<\/strong> and\/or <strong>steam<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It can be <strong>directly used<\/strong> or <strong>converted into electricity<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>This energy is <strong>clean<\/strong>, <strong>sustainable<\/strong>, <strong>carbon-free<\/strong>, <strong>continuous<\/strong>, <strong>uninterrupted <\/strong>and <strong>environment-friendly<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>This thermal energy is <strong>contained in the rock and fluids<\/strong> beneath Earth\u2019s crust. The <strong>slow decay of radioactive particles in the earth&#8217;s core<\/strong> <strong>produces geothermal energy<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It can be found from the<strong> shallow ground to several miles below the surface<\/strong>, and even <strong>farther down to the<\/strong> extremely hot molten rock called <strong>magma<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li>Rocks and water <strong>absorb heat <\/strong>from magma deep underground.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Advantages<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It can be <strong>extracted without burning fossil fuels <\/strong>like coal, gas, or oil.<\/li>\n<li>Geothermal fields <strong>produce only about 1\/6th of the carbon dioxide<\/strong> (CO2)that a relatively clean natural-gas-fueled power plant produces. <strong>Binary plants<\/strong> <strong>release almost no emissions<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Unlike solar and wind energy<\/strong>, geothermal energy is<strong> always available<\/strong> throughout the year.<\/li>\n<li>It\u2019s also<strong> relatively inexpensive<\/strong> and savings from direct use can be as much as 80 per cent over fossil fuels.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Disadvantages<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The process of extraction <strong>releases hydrogen sulfide<\/strong>, a <strong>gas <\/strong>that <strong>smells like a rotten egg<\/strong> at low concentrations.<\/li>\n<li>Another issue is the <strong>disposal of some geothermal fluids<\/strong>, which may carry <strong>low levels of toxic materials<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Geothermal sites are capable of providing heat for many decades, however,<strong> specific locations may cool down eventually<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cfstatic.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/file_library\/mix_content\/261265691366095940_image.png\" style=\"height:480px; width:610px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/grendz.com\/pin\/6959\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/grendz.com\/pin\/6959\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/pact-signed-to-establish-indias-first-geothermal-field-development-project-in-leh\/article33774760.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source: TH<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News: Recently, Ladakh\u2019s administration, Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for establishing India\u2019s first-ever geothermal field development project. About the Project ONGC Energy Centre is the implementing agency for this pilot project, which aims to generate a new green energy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/5967040current-affairs (2).jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}