Discuss the significance of repurposing abandoned oil and gas wells for geothermal energy in India's clean energy transition.

The Geological Survey of India estimates India's geothermal potential at about 10,600 MW across 381 hot springs [2]. Yet the country still has no commercial geothermal power. The National Policy on Geothermal Energy, notified by MNRE on 15 September 2025, provides for converting suitable oil and gas wells to geothermal production [2]. This turns idle fossil-fuel assets into a source of clean, round-the-clock energy.

Significance for the clean energy transition

• Lower exploration risk: a first round of 3–5 test wells costs US$20–30 million. Firms must pay for it themselves because banks will not lend against an unproven resource [4]. Existing wells, along with their data, skip this step.
• Baseload renewable: geothermal does not depend on weather, so it complements solar and wind, which are intermittent. This supports Net Zero 2070 [2].
• Just transition: it puts the drilling skills of ONGC and Oil India to new use [2]. It also matches coal-PSU diversification, such as SCCL's 20 kW Binary ORC pilot at Manuguru [3].
• Indigenous technology: the Ankleshwar pilot is assessing whether unproductive wells can be retrofitted [1], and an IIT Madras R&D project has been sanctioned [5].
• Environmental: decommissioned wells become useful again, and reinjecting used water keeps the reservoir sustainable [1].

Constraints

• Low temperatures: many wells give only low-to-medium heat, which yields small outputs. Manuguru produces just 20 kW [3].
• Early stage: the Puga wells (July 2026) are only meant to lead to a 1 MW demonstration plant [1].
• Feasibility: each well can be converted only if it is technically and operationally suitable [1].
• Coordination: there is no dedicated Act, so MNRE, MoPNG/DGH and the Ministry of Coal must work together [2][3].

Way forward

• Cost-shared drilling: in Turkey, the state survey agency drilled first and private firms then developed those fields [4].
• Open data: add temperature and flow data from the wells to the policy's national data repository [1].
• Direct use: where electricity is uneconomic, use the heat directly through district heating or ground-source heat pumps [1].

Repurposing old wells uses existing infrastructure and skills to cut the costliest risk in geothermal development. It cannot replace solar and wind at national scale, but with steady risk-sharing and open data it can become a niche source of baseload power and heat. That supports SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy) and India's Net Zero 2070 goal.