Mapping
Context: Ladakh Lieutenant Governor officially commissioned India’s first and deepest twin geothermal wells at Puga Valley in eastern Ladakh.
- Executed by the ONGC Energy Centre, these 1,000-meter-deep wells will serve as the technical backbone for India’s first 1 MW demonstration-scale geothermal power plant.
About India Commissions First Geothermal Wells at Puga Valley:
What It Is?
- The Puga Valley system is India’s pioneer breakthrough into geothermal energy—the process of tapping clean, round-the-clock power from natural heat reservoirs trapped beneath the Earth’s crust.
Location: The facility is situated at an extreme altitude of over 14,000 feet in the Puga Valley of eastern Ladakh.
How Geothermal Wells Are Formed?
- Tectonic and Volcanic Heat Source: The Indian plate’s ongoing collision with the Eurasian plate forms structural fractures, faults, and deep-seated magmatic activity along the Indus Suture Zone.
- This proximity brings internal mantle heat very close to the shallow crust.
- Deep Fluid Circulation: Meteoric water (melted snow and glaciers) seeps deep into these rock fractures, where it is superheated by the underlying hot rocks.
- High-Pressure Ascent: Because hot water is less dense, it is driven back upward toward the surface under high pressure, trapping superheated fluids and steam inside permeable deep reservoirs or erupting at the surface as natural hot springs and sulfur fumaroles.
Key Features of the Puga Geothermal Wells:
- Extreme Target Depth: The two newly completed wells were successfully drilled down to a target depth of 1,000 meters.
- Promising Temperature Profiling: Engineers recorded a high temperature of 135°C at a shallow depth of just 400 meters, with thermal output expected to exceed 200°C to 240°C in the deepest sections of the reservoir.
- Rapid High-Altitude Drilling: Successfully completed two geothermal wells under extreme high-altitude conditions, demonstrating India’s capability in advanced geothermal exploration.
- 1 MWe Pilot Support: The infrastructure will immediately feed steam into India’s first 1-Megawatt electric (MWe) demonstration pilot plant, laying the foundation for an expanded, multi-megawatt commercial deployment grid.
Significance:
- Delivers 24×7 baseload power, reducing dependence on diesel and improving energy security in remote Ladakh.
- Replaces diesel generators with clean geothermal energy, advancing India’s Net Zero goals while protecting the fragile Himalayan ecosystem.
