India has been building up its renewable power. Installed capacity is now at 275 gigawatts, which more than doubles the 136 GW of 2020 and brings the country closer to its target of 500 GW by 2030.
Yet there has been a key absence in the operational power mix: geothermal energy.
As India pushes toward its 2070 net-zero commitment, and seeks reliable round-the-clock renewable sources to support intermittent solar and wind, geothermal is beginning to move from the margins into national energy planning, with a policy on generation published last year. As of 2024, the country has an estimated potential capacity of 10.6 GW drawn from 381 hot springs.
Geothermal energy harnesses the Earth’s internal heat, and is capable of delivering uninterrupted electricity, direct heating and storage. In 2023, existing projects worldwide had an average utilisation rate exceeding 75%, far surpassing wind and solar projects.
Home to numerous unexplored hot springs, the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh in the Eastern Himalayas is especially promising. The state is estimated to contribute around 2 GW to the national potential, says Tana Tage, director of the Centre for Earth Sciences and Himalayan Studies (CESHS), an autonomous organisation within the Arunachal Pradesh state government’s Department of Science and Technology.
In May 2025, CESHS drilled north-east India’s first geothermal production well in Dirang,…
