How’d You Like Them Apples? Iceland Ministry for Foreign Affairs Consultant Gets an Up Close and Personal Look at Our Ongoing Geothermal Cooling Project Development in the Himachal Pradesh.
27 October 2022 — Last month, GEG ehf. had the honour of hosting Erik Arling, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Partnership Fund consultant from NIRAS for the Iceland Ministry for Foreign Affairs, at our project site in India. Arling is responsible for reviewing grants for the SDG Fund, the same fund through which GEG was awarded our grant early last year for our geothermal cooling project.
A five-day trip was held to carry out a review of this apple cold storage project, now called GeoCool, in the Kinnaur district of the Himachal Pradesh. This in-depth review was followed by a warm welcome from the local villagers, and GEG along with Arling was able to have a positive discussion with them regarding the project.
The group also went on a site visit to the Satluj (Sutlej) River basin, where the first successful drilling had been carried out just last month. Visits to several other prospective areas with geothermal resource potential were carried out as well.
It is GEG’s hope that the initial success at our first drilling location will continue throughout the region to many more sites, ideally increasing the societal benefits of the project.
This visit from a delegate from the Foreign Ministry was highly acknowledged by the local apple farming community, signifying the importance of the cold storage development project.
Thanks to this trip, Arling also had the unique opportunity to visit the local apple farms and to interact with the growers during the apple harvest, as his trip coincided with the peak season. Throughout this experience, the direct social impacts of GEG’s funded project could be seen in real time by the Ministry.
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