India taps into nascent technologies for secure and reliable energy
The possibilities of geothermal energy and its significant potential impact was brought into focus at India Energy Week 2026. With technological advances pushing the versatile energy form into the spotlight, five industry experts underlined the advantages and hurdles, facing its development during a Leadership Spotlight Session on day three.
The Addition Stage panel, called “Cost-competitive geothermal energy: scaling a reliable, versatile and clean addition to India’s future energy mix” outlined a clean, constant and reliable solution ready to progress. While that requires policy, incentives, finance, data and knowledge, panellists identified an overlap with the oil and gas industry, including drilling and data acquisition.
Ashish Agarwal, MD and CEO, Seros cited his company as the only player in the segment three years ago. “I call geothermal more renewable than the most renewable source of energy,” he said. “At 6pm when the sun sets and your demand peaks at 8pm, solar is sleeping, but geothermal is working 24/7.”
Potential and challenges
The International Energy Agency (IEA) says geothermal sources could provide as much as 15% of global energy by 2050, compared to less than 1% now. Last year, the Government of India announced the National Policy on Geothermal Energy, and identified potential for 10GW.
Agarwal said other forms of renewable energy had progressed well in India, some beyond targets. While geothermal wasn’t new, several countries had made significant progress with technology and scale. “Geothermal is reliable, stable, it doesn’t need storage - so it potentially ticks all the boxes that it should be a fantastic addition to the energy mix. But if it is so good, why has it not been scaling?” he said. “Compared to other sources of renewable energy, there are obviously significant challenges and complexities involved.”
Among them, the panel said, was supply chain, a need for deep subsurface expertise, and patient capital. Toby Deen, Senior Advisor, US Department of Energy, outlined his country’s huge geothermal progress. “We are at an inflection point for geothermal as a gigawatt scale, reliable firm, based load power generation source,” he said. “The reason we’re so optimistic is because it has so many similarities to unconventional oil and gas development. Twenty years ago, the US was a net oil and natural gas importer, yet had a resource that lacked natural permeability to extract it. It overcame unconventional reservoirs to become “the largest exporter of natural gas globally… producing more oil than any other country””.
Deen continued, “That problem set is the same for geothermal, so we have many aspects in place today that allow it to be scalable, not just in the US, but here in India. We have a workforce, technology, tools, and subsurface expertise. The main thing needed is knowledge transfer. And we need policy that prioritises reliable power generation over unreliable, intermittent sources. That’s where the role of government support can come in.”
Dr. Prabir Kumar Dash, Scientist E, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, said the government was looking at segment feasibility studies and understood the need to attract capital. “That is where, probably, I see the government’s role, in how to de-risk investments.” “This is nascent technology for India, although globally there are probably 16-20GW of power plants running. But in India, we are yet to see commercial projects. It is important for our ministry to coordinate among all so that it can be a good investment ecosystem for geothermal.”
Looking ahead, Karthik Ganesan, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Council for Energy, Environment and Water, suggested a need for focus on the application of geothermal energy such as power generation verses heating for industry, depending on temperature levels, so that it is cost effective.
This is where the US also leveraged its hydrocarbons industry. “We have benefited from all the oil and gas wells that were drilled - over 200,000 - so we have a pretty decent understanding of the temperature profile,” Deen added.
Putting India on the geothermal map
Arun Karle, President, of Askara Group, led a call to action. “We need to gather all the information around the world and see how we can bring it over here to solve our problem,” he said. “We’ve been talking, let’s do the feasibility studies. Let’s put it on the map and kickstart it.”
Agarwal said Seros was doing “the extremely challenging uphill task of putting India on the global geothermal map.” “You need very deep pockets, a deep understanding, and a huge appetite to absorb the uncertainties.” “I call geothermal more renewable than the most renewable source of energy. Geothermal is reliable, stable, it doesn’t need storage, so it potentially ticks all the boxes that it should be a fantastic addition to the energy mix.”
Meanwhile, Deen said that the US was open for business. “We would love to partner with companies in India, we’d love to invite your stakeholders to our national labs…to show you the projects happening in the United States. Everyone can benefit from the gains that have already happened.”
