State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) on Monday said it will implement India’s maiden geothermal field development project in Ladakh that will use the heat generated by the Earth’s core to generate clean energy.
“A memorandum of understanding (MoU) to formalise this has been inked by ONGC Energy Centre (OEC) with the Union Territory of Ladakh and Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Leh on February 6,” the company said in a statement.
This project of ONGC will put India on geothermal power map of the world.
Geothermal energy is clean and is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Geothermal power plants have average availabilities of 90 per cent or higher, compared with about 75 per cent for coal plants.
“Geothermal resource development can revolutionise farming in Ladakh, which is now totally dependent for supply of fresh vegetables, fruits from outside the UT round the year. Further, direct heat energy applications make it most relevant to Ladakh,” the statement said.
ONGC has planned this field development in Ladakh in three phases.