As of the year 2011, there is not a single geothermal energy plant in India; however, there is a high potential for this renewable energy source in many sites in the country with a potentiality to generate around 10 GW of geothermal energy. During the month of March 2011, the Indian government has introduced a draft policy for the development of geothermal energy and some of the major players in the power sector in India are taking every steps to grab this opportunity. The country already has other alternative energy sources like wind power and solar power, however, to meet the ever-increasing power generation needs, the country is looking for more and more sources of renewable energy and one such source is going to the geothermal energy.

Even though, geothermal energy is regarded as a poor cousin of the other two major alternative energy sources being wind and solar, geothermal energy possess one special features that other alternative sources do not possess and that is its 24-hour generation capability since wind and solar energy can interrupt. On the other hand, the fast growth of geothermal power plant in the country is hindered by some of the factors like large capital investment and long project development time that will be consumed by this source of energy. Even though some countries are lagging behind in this source of power supply, some countries have already made their mark in the geothermal energy sector. However, some of the major players in the Indian power sector are planning to enter the thermal power energy sector and the names of these companies are given below:

Top four Geothermal energy companies in India:

• Tata Power

• Thermax

• Geosyndicate

• NTPC

Some of the details regarding these companies hoping to become largest players in the geothermal energy sector in India are given below:

Tata Power:

As most of us know, TATA is a big name in many sectors in India and as far as geotheram power sector is concerned, they are holding 11.4% of the share of Goedynamics Limited, which is engaged in the building of geothermal plant in Australia. The company is presently operating towards its plan of setting up a 5 MW geothermal plant in the western part of the state of Gujarat.

Thermax:

This is another power equipment company that is publicly listed and the company has entered into joint venture with Reykjavik geothermal, which is an Iceland based company for setting up a plant in the state of Maharashtra at the Ratnagiri region. Thermax is planning to launch a Pilot 3 MW Project in the Puga Valley in Ladakh.

Geosyndicate:

This company was established by a Professor of the Mumbai IIT and it has entered into an agreement with a Northern Power Distribution Company based in Warangal under the aegis of the NEDCAP of the state of Andhra Pradesh. The geothermal plant of this company will be coming up in the year 2012 with a capacity of producing geothermal power capacity of 25 Mega Watts.

NTPC:

NTPC stands for National Thermal Power Corporation and this company is a public sector company with involvement in all forms of energy generation in the nation. The company has entered into agreement with the National Geophysical Research Institute for identifying likely sites for establishment of geothermal power projects.

Geothermal energy generation in India is going at a snail’s pace because of financial problems and project development delays. However, the potential of this source of energy is immense and for succeeding in the generation of geothermal power some of the power companies entering into this type of energy generation are looking for the support from the government with respect to finance since this type of energy generation requires a huge investment.