India’s first-ever geothermal field development project will be set up in Ladakh. A tripartite agreement has been recently signed for establishing the project. It is a major step towards achieving the goal of carbon-neutral Ladakh.
Key Points
- The trilateral agreement was signed between Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Energy Centre, Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC)-Leh, and Union Territory Administration Ladakh.
- LAHDC Chief Executive Officer Sachin Kumar Vaishya and Ladakh Power Development Department Administrative Secretary Ravinder Kumar signed the agreement with ONGC Energy Centre.
- ONGC Energy Centre will be the implementing agency for this geothermal power project.
- In Phase-1 of the project, a power generation capacity of 1 megawatt (MW) shall be generated and it will be supplied 100% free to the people.
- In Phase-2 of the pilot project, deeper and lateral exploration of the geothermal reservoir will be done by drilling an optimal number of wells and establishing a higher capacity demo plant in Ladakh.
- The Phase-3 will be a commercial project as per discovered capacity.
The energy from this project is expected to provide round-the-clock power supplies, and the hot water from the spring can be used for establishing hot swimming pools to attract tourists and space-heating.
CSIR-Ladakh UT MoU
Recently, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has signed an agreement with Ladakh UT for Scientific and technological development in the state. The MoU includes development in areas like bioresource utilization endemic to Ladakh, the introduction of cash crops in the region, exploration of natural resources, etc.
