Itanagar: Arunachal Pradesh is set to soon become the home of India’s first fully indigenous geothermal power plant.
The plant will be established in the Tawang district. It will be a 50Kw facility that is designed to operate at a low temperature of just 68 degrees Celsius. This will happen for the first time in India.
The Centre for Earth Sciences and Himalayan Studies (CESHS) collaborated with the Shriram Institute for Industrial Research (SIIR) for this project. An MoU has been accordingly signed between the two.
Three potential sites in the Tawang district have already been identified for the project. These include Mago, Thingbu and Damteng, where the structural mapping is also complete.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy will provide Rs 10 crore funding for the project.
A three-year timeline has been set for the plant. Once operational, it will cater to over 5000 residents in the region.
This is a first-of-its-kind initiative in the Himalayan region. The plant will use indigenous bipolar process technology.
This technology enables energy generation at relatively low geothermal temperatures. This could be crucial for high-altitude areas with similar geothermal profiles.
A CESHS team has conducted early trials using a 5kw laboratory scale model. They visited a 20-kW demonstration site at SIIR.
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