- A geothermal pilot plant in Unai, Gujarat, India, has received USD 2.4 million in government funding for solar panel integration.
- The CEGE, located at the Pandit Deendayal Energy University (PDEU), has been selected as one of the five initiatives or pilot projects to evaluate the feasibility and potential of geothermal energy throughout India.
A geothermal pilot plant in Unai, Gujarat, India, has received USD 2.4 million in government funding to assess capacity addition through solar panel integration.
The Centre of Excellence for Geothermal Energy (CEGE), located in Gujarat, India, has received USD 2.4 million of funding from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy for a project that seeks to increase the capacity of an existing geothermal power plant through the integration of solar panels.
The CEGE, located at the Pandit Deendayal Energy University (PDEU), has been selected as one of the five initiatives or pilot projects to evaluate the feasibility and potential of geothermal energy throughout India.
This selection was part of the recently published National Policy on Geothermal Energy, which seeks to promote the transition to clean energy and align with India’s 2070 net-zero goals. The results from these five initiatives will form the basis for comprehensive guidelines for geothermal development in the country.
The Centre is led by Prof. Anirbid Sircar, who serves as the Director of the School of Technology and the Head of CEGE. The project team includes Dr. Namrata Bist, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Petroleum Engineering at SOET, PDEU; Dr. S. Sundar Manoharan, the Director General of PDEU; Dr. Kriti Yadav, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geology at Patna University; and Dr. Roshni Kumari, the Project Coordinator at TEC, PDEU. CEGE, PDEU has been a long-standing participant in India’s geothermal sector.
The centre is dedicated to investigating and utilising the geothermal resources of the Cambay Basin.
Since its inception in 2013, the centre has assessed 17 geothermal sites within the Cambay Basin in Gujarat. Based on their potential, the centre has narrowed these sites down to two primary locations suitable for the establishment of geothermal power plants.
At present, a geo park has been created in Unai, Gujarat, where various direct and indirect geothermal energy applications are showcased. The Unai geothermal power plant has a capacity of 70 to 90 kW of electricity.
It is currently running continuously with three drilled wells (U01, U02, and U03) at an average depth of approximately 330 meters. The temperature of the geothermal fluid obtained from the drilled wells presently lies between 70 °C and 80 °C. Before further deepening the wells, CEGE intends to carry out a thorough Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study for the project area.
The project funded by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy seeks to demonstrate the feasibility of power generation through the integration of solar and geothermal energies. CEGE plans to achieve this by incorporating solar panels and solar trees on the rooftop.
The solar tree and panels, which will be set up on the roof, will connect to the insulated geothermal water tank to raise the water temperature to around 100 °C through solar heating. The solar system will be linked to an insulated tank filled with geothermal water, which will enhance the water’s temperature.
The approach entails using solar energy to preheat the geothermal water, targeting temperatures near the vapor or steam phase (~100 °C). This high-temperature fluid will then be directed into an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) system, which is projected to increase output to approximately 200 kW by 2027.