Indian state of Himachal Pradesh to explore geothermal options
Himachal Pradesh, India (source: flickr/ Michael Foley Photography, creative commons)
Alexander Richter
15 Jan 2012
The Chief Minister of India's state of Himachal Pradesh says the state will explore possibilities of utilizing its geothermal resources and mentions existing thermal sites at Parbati and Kull Valley.
The state of Himachal Pradesh in Northern India, bordered by the states of Jammu and Kashmir, will explore the possibilities of utilizing geothermal resources in the state to generate electricity.
The Chief Minister Prem Kumar mentioned in this context the various hot springs in the state, with more than 150 thermal manifestations, which are a clear inidcationof geothermal resources in the state.
“Thermal sites in the Parbati and Kull Valley of the state are known for their high temperatures due to hot springs in the area, such sites are best suited for projects of this kind”, he said in a statement this week.
Utilizing the state’s geothermal energy potential, eventually every household in local areas would be in the position to receive adequate power.
“Even large cold storages could be run using geothermal energy. This would enable us to adopt clean development mechanisms and reduce dependency on coonventional power sources”, he added.
Praising the research on the state’s geothermal energy potential by Vijay Chauhan of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi, the chief minister said his research would revolutionise energy generation in Himachal Pradesh.
Chauhan has also received accolades from nuclear scientist and the country’s former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who had praised him for doing research on using geothermal energy for apple refrigeration and the fruit processing industry.
His research says the hot springs in Manikaran in the Parbati Valley can run a cold storage of a capacity of 1,000 tonnes and generate 30KW of power. The power can alos b used to run a fruit processing plant with a capacity of 30 tonnes.
Source: NDTV
