Carbon Capture, Utilization & Storage (CCUS)

Union budget allocated Rs.20,000Cr over next 5 years to support development and deployment of CCUS

What is CCUS

IEA defines CCUS as tech that captures $C O_{2}$ form large stationary sources like power plants and industries.

Capture techniques:

Storage:

trapped in geological storage incl. Enhanced oil Recovery, Enhanced Coal Bed Methane Recovery
permanent storage - saline aquifer, basalt storage

Significance of CCUS for India

decarbonization of hard to abate sectors
- only known tech for decarbonizing steel, cement, oil & gas, chemical, fertilizer industry
enabling sunrise sectors to be cost competitive production of blue hydrogen
CCUS enables circular carbon economy
- allows value added products through usage of captured carbon
sustenance of existing emitters by retrofitting
achieving net ero emissions targets
as 3rd largest emitter of CO2, CCUS imp

high cost $100-150B for 750mtpa of CO2
tech limitations
- CO2 utilization tech less developed
- DAC in early stage & expensive
difficult to retrofit existing plants
geological storage risk - fracture rock, induce microearthquake
regulatory hurdles
limited data on success of storage of CO2

incentivize & derisk CCUS projects to enhance pvt participation
support low carbon & carbon abated products through preference in public procurement
targeted policy intervention eg. Carbon Capture Finance Corporation
promote R&D in novel CO2 utilization tech
tech transfer from other nations
mapping storage sites
hub & cluster model eg. in KG Basin
Machine learning for Geological data analysis

Temporary General Network Access: provides short term access to interstate transmission system
India producing lot of energy, incl. clean sources, but weak transmission infra causes losses, curtailment of power generations

under PM Surya Sarovar Yojna, outlay of Rs.5070Cr
goal to deploy 5000MW of FSPV w/ 10,000MWh of BEES
current estimated india’s floating solar potential:
- 102GW (at 20% surface area utilization)
current operational floating solar capacity: 700MW
- Omkareshwar Floating Solar Park, MP (278MW operational out of 600MW)
advantage
- land conservation, no land acquisition litigation, avoid agri land diversion
- preserve freshwater reserves
- colocation with HEP dams
- inhibition of algal blooms
challenge
- high capital & anchorist cost (15% more than ground mounted plants)
- drastic seasonal change in reservoir water level
- ecological & biodiversity concerns
- corrosion, moisture degradation
- multi agency regulatory bottleneck

National Policy on Geothermal Energy 2025
GSI: india’s geothermal potential at 10.6GW
Major geothermal provinces
- SONATA (Son-Narmada-Tapi)
- Godavari basin
- Aravalli
- Ladakh - himachal
- Andaman volcanic arc
Puga Valley project: high altitude, in Ladakh’s Changthang region
- Two 1000 metre wells
- india’s maiden 1MW demonstration scale geothermal power plant

Location	Org	Status
Puga Valley, Ladakh	ONGC, Ladakh Admin, LAHDC	2x 1000M deep production wells commissioned
Ankleshwar, Gujarat	MNRE Pilot project w/ Oil & Gas PSU	retrofitting abandoned or depleted oil & gas wells for geothermal poer
Gandhinagar, Gujarat	Integrated solar, geothermal
Tawang, Arunachal	High altitude geothermal resource assessment

round the clock clean baseload
- unlike weather dependent wind / solar, geothermal can operate at high capacity utilization
decarbonizing fragile border regions
direct multi sector applications
- greenhouse farming
- district space heating
- agro processing
- geo tourism
critical mineral extraction from geothermal brines
- Lithium, Rubidium, Boron

derisk private capital via VGF
fast track multilateral knowledge partnerships eg. with Iceland, Australia, Saudi
Synergize Hydrocarbon data with geothermal mapping
- to reduce survey costs
standardize district direct use infra
enforce closed loop reinjection standards

Conclusion: net zero 2070 goal, 500GW non fossil fuel target