Potential Geothermal Energy Resources of India: A Review

India has planned to satiate the country’s growing energy demand by the year 2040. For sustainable growth, the country must optimize the use of available energy sources (conventional and renewable) in an environment-friendly manner. Since India is the third largest country in the world emitting greenhouse gases, it is very important to increase the share of renewable and green energy sources like geothermal energy, solar power, wind energy, etc. in the energy portfolio. While there has been a significant increase in solar and wind energy production, geothermal energy is yet to be exploited. India has several potential geothermal fields predominantly controlled by the high heat-producing granites are located in different parts of the country. Planned production of electricity from these fields is 850 GWh/year by the year 2020. A wet geothermal system, as well as enhanced geothermal system, can be utilized to generate electricity at low production cost. Moreover, some of these fields are also rich in helium content which can be extracted to be utilized for domestic purposes. © 2016, Springer International Publishing AG.