Project InnerSpace, in partnership with the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), today released The Future of Geothermal in India, which finds that India holds significant technical potential for geothermal energy: 11,000 gigawatts (GW) of industrial heat, more than 1,500 GW of cooling, and 450 GW of electricity generation — nearly equivalent to India’s current installed capacity.
The report identifies geothermal energy as a potentially important resource for sectors driving energy demand, including data centres, urban areas and industry, while also contributing to energy security, resilience, emissions reduction and employment generation.
In India, where cooling demand is increasing rapidly and industrial energy use remains heavily dependent on fuel-based systems, geothermal energy could provide a reliable source of energy while easing pressure on the electricity grid.
Geothermal energy, derived from heat naturally present within the Earth’s crust, is a domestic resource available at all times. The report sets out a pathway for scaling geothermal deployment through pilot projects, policy implementation and targeted incentives, with the aim of advancing from early-stage development to wider deployment during this decade.
The report states that advances in drilling technologies, improved subsurface data and India’s recent National Policy on Geothermal Energy have increased the viability of large-scale deployment. Geothermal projects are already under development, including the Tapri Geothermal Cold Storage Project in Himachal Pradesh, which is supported through Project InnerSpace’s GeoFund initiative.
The Future of Geothermal in India highlights technical cooling potential of more than 1,500 GW at depths of up to 3.5 km, with systems capable of reducing electricity consumption by 30–40 per cent. The report also estimates more than 11,000 GW of technical potential for industrial heat at depths of up to 3.5 km with a cut-off temperature of 100 degrees Celsius, and 450 GW of technical potential for electricity generation at depths of up to 5 km. It identifies Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Telangana, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh as states with significant opportunities for geothermal deployment, and examines how geothermal energy could support the growth of India’s data centre sector through cooling applications that reduce electricity demand and through the provision of continuous power supply in key locations.
“Geothermal is a massive and untapped energy opportunity for India — with industrial heat and cooling as low hanging fruit ready to economically deploy today,” said Jamie Beard, Executive Director of Project InnerSpace. “With rising demand due to economic growth, and the potential for continued energy supply disruptions, there are few energy sources that offer the local and resilient abundance of geothermal energy.”
“Diversity is an essential attribute of every energy system,” said Karthik Ganesan, Fellow and Director, Strategic Partnerships at CEEW. “As India’s energy supply shifts towards clean sources, this diversity will have to be met through newer technologies and geothermal is that ubiquitous source that guarantees energy security, with little environmental footprint and not affected by the vagaries of short-term weather and long-term climatic changes.”
The report was led by Project InnerSpace in partnership with CEEW, with contributions from 12 institutions in India and internationally.
