(October-19)
For the cost of an iPhone, you can now buy a wind turbine that can power an entire house for the lifetime
Indian startup Avant Garde Innovations has developed a low-cost wind turbine that can generate 3-5 kW hours of electricity daily
The Chief Minister of Southern state of India, Pinarayi Vijayan publicly supported the Athirappilly hydroelectric project soon after assuming office at Kerala. According to the environmentalists, it would create an ecologic imbalance in the area and also will destroy the Athirappilly waterfalls which is the largest natural waterfalls in the state, if this plan was implemented.
It doesn’t mean that the impact which made by this project oblivious the government, but it doesn’t has any option rather than leverage existing means to check the growing power crisis in Kerala. This also partially depends on the private sector for electricity.
But, all the other states are also the same. Many parts of India still remain in the dark while only Kerala has attained 100 percent electrical coverage. It is still a dream for other parts of India to have the power of electricity.
In the past two siblings wanted to make India’s energy crisis. They have developed a plan that not even slightly impacts the ecological balance.
This foundation was named as Avant Garde Innovations by the two siblings named, Arun and Anoop George who lives in Kerala. It is a great solution with a low-cost wind turbine that can generate enough electricity to power an entire hose for a lifetime. It is in size of a ceiling fan and this wind turbine can generate 5 kWh/kW per day, with just a one-time cost of US$750.
The company ‘What We Do’ statement reads, “Our goal is to eliminate energy poverty, reduce dependence on struggling state power grids and create energy self-sufficiency for all the needy ones through distributed, localized and affordable renewable energy. In doing so, we believe we can collectively usher in our world a cleaner environment, new economic prosperity, and social change,”
“Our first offering is a highly affordable small wind turbine suitable for residential, commercial, agricultural, village electrification and other uses, which is aimed for a market launch during 2016.”
Avant Garde was incorporated in 2015 and it’s a startup with a ‘green’ heart and soul.
It was a massive opportunity as India is the world’s sixth largest energy consumer which is counted as 3.4 percent of global energy consumption. This is a huge infrastructural cost consuming project for the Federal government in India and the central government. So, they are unable to bring electricity to remote villages. This also cost millions of dollars to erect electric posts and electric lines.
Arun said in an interview to The Times of India, “When small wind turbine generating 1kW energy costs INR 3-7 lakh (US$4,000-10,000), our company plans to sell it at less than NR 50,000 (about US$750). Costs will decrease further through mass production,” and this is where Avant Garde comes into the picture.
At a church in the capital city of Thiruvananthapuram they launched it pilot project in January this year. Arun told e27, that the small wind turbine prototype that it has developed is highly scalable for power capacities of 300 kW or even higher.
The company says that, “Our passionate aim is to introduce innovative, affordable and sustainable solutions that take renewable energy self-sufficiency and energy empowerment to the next level through a distributed and decentralised approach using pioneering strategies the world has not witnessed yet,”.
In the Top 20 Cleantech Innovations in India, they also won them a spot. For the “UN Sustainable Energy For All” initiative under the one billion dollars clean energy investment opportunity directory, they also made it to the list of 10 clean energy companies from India.
India ranks 4th in terms of global installed wind power capacity as for the Global Wind Energy Council. The first, second, third is China, the US, and Germany.
Kerala can keep the Athirappilly waterfalls untouched if Avant Garde Innovations takes off.
sources used: https://e27.co – educateinspirechange.org