India Opens New Geothermal Energy Chapter With Puga Wells and 10.6-GW Resource Potential

India is moving from mapping its geothermal resources to actually testing them on the ground, with new wells in Ladakh, government-backed pilot projects and a dedicated national policy beginning to create the foundation for a domestic geothermal energy industry.

The most visible breakthrough came in Puga Valley in Ladakh, where the ONGC Energy Centre commissioned India’s first two dedicated geothermal wells in July 2026. Both wells extend to a depth of around 1,000 metres and form a critical part of the proposed 1-MW demonstration-scale geothermal power project at Puga.

The development marks an important shift for a renewable resource that India has studied for decades but has so far used only on a very limited scale.

Unlike solar and wind power, geothermal energy draws on heat stored beneath the Earth’s surface and can potentially provide energy continuously, irrespective of weather or time of day. That makes it particularly interesting as India looks for clean-energy sources capable of complementing an electricity system increasingly dominated by variable renewable generation.

Puga Valley Moves From Potential to Drilling

Puga Valley has long been regarded as one of India’s most promising geothermal regions because of its hot springs and underground thermal activity.

Located at an altitude exceeding 14,000 feet, the area also presents severe engineering challenges because of its extreme climate, rugged terrain and short annual working season. Despite these conditions, ONGC Energy Centre completed the two deep wells during 2026.

The first well reached its target depth of 1,000 metres on May 22, 2026. Drilling of the second began on June 3 and was completed at the same depth on July 8, 2026.

The Ladakh Administration formally announced commissioning of the wells on July 17, with the development made public on July 18.

Early results have strengthened interest in the site.

According to the Ladakh Administration, engineers recorded a maximum temperature of around 135°C at a depth of 400 metres during the drilling programme. Further testing is intended to provide a clearer picture of reservoir characteristics and whether the resource can reliably support electricity generation.

The wells are therefore not simply production infrastructure. They will provide the geological and reservoir data needed to design the proposed 1-MW plant and assess whether larger geothermal development could eventually be viable in the region.

If successful, Puga could become a reference project for similar geothermal resources elsewhere in India.

India Has an Estimated 10.6 GW of Geothermal Potential

India’s potential resource base is considerably larger than the Puga project alone.

The Geological Survey of India, through its Geothermal Atlas of India, has mapped 381 hot springs and thermally anomalous areas across the country. Government assessments place India’s theoretical geothermal resource potential at approximately 10,600 MW, or 10.6 GW.

Of the resources investigated, 42 geothermal manifestations have been identified as particularly promising for electricity generation or direct heat applications.

India’s geothermal resources are distributed across 10 major geothermal provinces:

Himalayan Geothermal Province, Naga-Lusai, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Son-Narmada-Tapi or SONATA, West Coast, Cambay Graben, Aravalli, Mahanadi, Godavari and the South Indian Cratonic regions.

This geographical spread means geothermal development does not necessarily have to be concentrated in Ladakh.

Resources also exist in parts of Gujarat, Arunachal Pradesh, Telangana and several other regions where geological conditions could support power generation, industrial heat, agricultural applications or building heating and cooling.

India Now Has Its First National Geothermal Policy

The government’s approach became more structured with notification of the National Policy on Geothermal Energy on September 15, 2025.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is the nodal ministry for implementing the policy. It provides India’s first comprehensive national framework covering geothermal exploration, development and utilisation.

The policy goes substantially beyond conventional geothermal electricity plants.

It supports geothermal applications in electricity generation, district heating, space heating and cooling, agriculture, greenhouses, cold storage, aquaculture, tourism and desalination. It also promotes Ground Source Heat Pumps for heating and cooling buildings.

Research and technology development form another major component.

The government wants Indian institutions and companies to develop expertise in drilling, reservoir management, geothermal heat extraction and advanced technologies while using partnerships with countries that already possess mature geothermal industries.

The policy also encourages public-private participation, joint ventures, Centres of Excellence and creation of a national geothermal data repository.

Five Government-Backed Projects Begin Building the Technology Base

Even before the policy was formally announced, MNRE began moving towards field demonstrations.

The Ministry sanctioned five geothermal research and development projects during July and August 2025. These cover resource assessment, indigenous technology development and pilot-scale applications.

Government information identifies the programme as including a pilot production project, resource-assessment studies and a solar-geothermal hybrid demonstration project.

The objective is to establish the technical and economic viability of geothermal technologies under Indian conditions before moving towards much larger commercial investment.

The programme also reflects the fact that geothermal energy is not limited to generating electricity.

Low- and medium-temperature geothermal resources that may be unsuitable for large power stations can still provide useful heat for buildings, industrial processes, agriculture and cooling systems.

That broadens the possible economic value of India’s geothermal resource base considerably.

Abandoned Oil Wells Could Get a Second Life

One of the more innovative parts of India’s strategy involves the country’s existing oil and gas infrastructure.

The National Policy explicitly provides for exploring whether abandoned, inactive or unproductive oil and gas wells can be converted for geothermal energy recovery.

Such an approach could reduce some of the costs and risks normally associated with geothermal development.

Deep drilling is one of the most expensive parts of a geothermal project. India already possesses decades of geological information, drilling expertise and subsurface infrastructure from its petroleum industry.

Where underground temperatures and flow conditions are suitable, existing wells could potentially be repurposed rather than drilling entirely new geothermal wells.

MNRE has sanctioned an R&D project to IIT Madras specifically to investigate geothermal energy extraction from abandoned oil wells.

Gujarat is particularly relevant because of its long-established petroleum industry and geothermal resources associated with the Cambay Basin.

The government’s broader programme includes work examining the possibility of generating electricity by retrofitting unproductive oil and gas wells, creating a potential link between India’s mature hydrocarbon industry and its emerging clean-energy economy.

India Already Has a Small Geothermal Pilot in Telangana

The Puga project is not India’s first attempt to produce electricity using geothermal heat.

The Singareni Collieries Company Limited earlier commissioned a 20-kW pilot geothermal power plant at Manuguru in Telangana’s Bhadradri Kothagudem district. The Ministry of Coal provided ₹2.42 crore for establishing the facility.

That distinction is useful when describing the importance of Puga.

The Ladakh project represents India’s first two deep dedicated geothermal wells and is intended to lead to the country’s first 1-MW demonstration-scale geothermal power project. The Manuguru facility, by comparison, has already demonstrated geothermal power production at a much smaller 20-kW pilot scale.

Together, the projects show a gradual progression from laboratory and small-scale experimentation towards deeper resource assessment and larger demonstration plants.

Geothermal Can Complement Solar and Wind

India’s renewable-energy expansion has so far been led overwhelmingly by solar, wind, hydropower and bioenergy.

As of July 31, 2026, India’s total non-fossil power capacity had reached 300.50 GW, accounting for more than 54% of total installed electricity capacity. Solar alone stood at 164.59 GW and wind at 58.14 GW.

Geothermal capacity remains tiny by comparison.

Its attraction, however, lies in its operating characteristics rather than simply its potential scale.

A productive geothermal reservoir can supply energy continuously. It does not stop producing when the sun sets or when wind speeds fall. Geothermal plants can therefore potentially provide firm renewable electricity while requiring relatively little surface land compared with many other generation technologies.

That could make geothermal particularly useful in remote regions such as Ladakh, where local generation can strengthen energy security and reduce dependence on electricity or fuels transported across difficult terrain.

Direct geothermal heating could be equally important in cold Himalayan areas.

From Electricity to Agriculture and Cooling

India’s geothermal policy deliberately treats underground heat as more than an electricity resource.

Hot water from geothermal reservoirs can potentially be used directly for greenhouses, agricultural processing, aquaculture and district heating without first converting the heat into electricity.

Ground Source Heat Pumps offer another possibility.

Rather than relying on extremely hot geothermal reservoirs, these systems use relatively stable temperatures below the ground to improve the efficiency of heating and cooling buildings.

Such applications could extend geothermal technology to areas that would never support conventional geothermal power stations.

This is one reason the government’s five research projects cover both power generation and heating and cooling applications rather than focusing exclusively on electricity.

International Partnerships Will Support Technology Development

India is also looking outside the country for expertise.

Official MNRE information confirms geothermal cooperation mechanisms with Australia, Iceland, Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Iceland is particularly significant because geothermal resources play a major role in its electricity and heating systems, while the United States has extensive expertise in geothermal power generation, drilling and enhanced geothermal technologies.

India’s national policy specifically encourages bilateral and multilateral partnerships, technology transfer, joint research and the adaptation of proven international technologies to Indian geological conditions.

The objective is not simply to import geothermal plants but to develop domestic expertise capable of eventually supporting an Indian supply chain.

Advanced Technologies Could Expand the Resource Base

Traditional geothermal development works best where naturally occurring hot water or steam can be accessed relatively easily.

New technologies could potentially expand the number of locations where geothermal energy is viable.

India’s policy recognises Enhanced Geothermal Systems and Advanced Geothermal Systems, which seek to extract heat from formations that may lack the naturally occurring fluid flows required by conventional geothermal plants.

If these technologies mature and costs decline, India’s usable geothermal potential could eventually extend beyond the known hot-spring regions identified in conventional surveys.

For a country with a large oil and gas drilling sector, deep subsurface engineering could also become an area where existing industrial capabilities are transferred into clean-energy development.

Puga Could Become the Test Case

Much will now depend on what engineers learn from the two wells in Puga Valley.

Their temperature, pressure, flow rates, reservoir sustainability and chemistry will ultimately determine whether a 1-MW plant can operate reliably and whether larger projects can follow.

Geothermal resources are highly site-specific. A theoretical national potential of 10.6 GW does not mean that all of that capacity can necessarily be developed economically.

Exploration drilling is expensive, subsurface conditions can be uncertain and individual geothermal reservoirs require careful management to remain productive over long periods.

That is precisely why India’s current strategy centres on field demonstrations rather than immediately announcing large commercial capacity targets.

The government is first building geological knowledge, testing indigenous technologies and creating a regulatory framework through which successful demonstrations can eventually be expanded.

India has spent decades identifying geothermal resources beneath its territory. The commissioning of the Puga wells represents the point at which that geological knowledge is beginning to turn into physical energy infrastructure.

For India’s clean-energy transition, geothermal power is unlikely to displace solar or wind in scale. Its value could instead lie in becoming a dependable third pillar in suitable regions—providing round-the-clock renewable electricity, direct heat and heating or cooling services from an indigenous resource beneath the ground.

With a national policy now in place, five government-backed research projects underway and India’s first deep geothermal wells commissioned at Puga, a resource that remained largely confined to geological surveys is finally beginning to move towards practical deployment.

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