Pilot Project Study for Utilization of Geothermal Energy in North-Western Himalayas

From the north to south, India has seven geothermal provinces. Some of these are in the passive continental margin and some in the active subduction related to tectonics. Some of the potential sites in the north-western Himalaya in India, where geothermal energy can be tapped, are Puga and Chumathang in Jammu and Kashmir, Manikaran and Tattapani in Himachal Pradesh. An Indo-Norwegian project, with participants from Iceland, Norway and India, aim to set up two pilot demonstration projects in the north-western Himalayas in India. The focus is to demonstrate the utilization of low and medium temperature resources for heating purposes. Two sites in the Himalayan Region have been selected for pilot studies, one for heating of buildings using hot springs available in the area and the other using a ground source heat pump (GSHP). This paper focuses on the first study. The first pilot project will be set up in the rural area of Chumathang at about 4000 masl, where energy from a natural hot spring will be used for heating two small buildings. In this area, the outside temperature is as low as -16 °C to -20 °C in the winter. The main issues are to design a suitable heating system where a small heat exchanger shall transfer heat between the hot spring and a radiator heating system. From the heat exchanger, the hot water will be distributed to the buildings in a conventional steel piping system. For that, there is a need for two electrical circulation pumps of totally 600 W. This is a challenge due to the limited supply of electricity (max. 3 hours per day) in the area. This means that the pumps need to have electrical supply from renewable energy sources such as solar panels. Preliminary geological and water sample studies have been performed in the area. The water sample studies indicate that the spring water is suitable for heating and not aggressive for the heat exchanger. Magneto telluric (M-T) surveys have been performed to evaluate the size of the hot spring area.