
Indian startup develops low-cost wind turbine that can generate 5 kWh each day - hackerkid
http://theusualroutine.com/2016/11/01/cost-iphone-can-now-buy-wind-turbine-can-power-entire-house-lifetime/
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Animats
Here's a critique of small wind turbines. Basic problems:

\- Unless you're in a fairly windy location, wind turbines are useless. Most
places aren't windy enough. Power goes up as the cube of wind speed.

\- Tower height is a big deal. You have to go up about 80-100 feet in most
places to get good wind. Also, wind turbines on buildings are useless - the
building disrupts the airflow too much.

\- A small wind turbine is nowhere near as reliable as the average car. So you
need to be able to fix something that's 100 feet up. Tilt-up towers are a good
thing.

\- The turbines themselves aren't that expensive. Here's one for $450 from
Wal-Mart.[2] It's nominally rated at 450 watts. It takes 28 MPH wind to get
full power. That's not common.

[1] [http://www.solacity.com/small-wind-turbine-
truth/](http://www.solacity.com/small-wind-turbine-truth/)

[2] [https://www.walmart.com/ip/45798215](https://www.walmart.com/ip/45798215)

~~~
codecamper
all going points. Also they kill birds. I read somewhere that the small ones
kill more than the big ones - small ones spin faster?

the project seems a little misguided. India is a sunny place. Never been to
India during monsoons, but if it is like costa rica, it'll rain in the
mornings or at night. don't get too many overcast days.

~~~
forgotpwagain
The number of birds killed by turbines is extremely small (hundreds of
thousands [0]) compared to the number of birds killed by cats (hundreds of
millions to billions [1, 2]).

[0] [http://www.audubon.org/news/will-wind-turbines-ever-be-
safe-...](http://www.audubon.org/news/will-wind-turbines-ever-be-safe-birds)
[1] [https://www.sciencenews.org/article/cats-kill-more-one-
billi...](https://www.sciencenews.org/article/cats-kill-more-one-billion-
birds-each-year) [2] (slight counterpoint to 1)
[http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2013/02/03/170851048/do-
we-...](http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2013/02/03/170851048/do-we-really-
know-that-cats-kill-by-the-billions-not-so-fast)

~~~
Animats
It's a big problem only in a few narrow corridors. The California coastal
range has a few passes that are both migratory bird routes and good wind
turbine sites for smaller turbines. Pacheco Pass is particularly tough, with
row after row of older, smaller wind turbines (mostly 65KW) going on for
miles. It's like a Veg-O-Matic chopper for migratory birds.

------
semi-extrinsic
Can someone find another source for this? Because the one up now is hardly
what you'd call credible:

[http://theusualroutine.com/2016/05/24/russia-orders-us-
tell-...](http://theusualroutine.com/2016/05/24/russia-orders-us-tell-world-
aliens-will/)

~~~
nowarninglabel
Hmm, yeah it did get a write up here:
[http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-
nation...](http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/avant-
garde-innovations-develops-wind-turbine-to-light-up-homes-at-a-fraction-of-
power-bills/articleshow/53015680.cms)

Here they seem really hard to be proving themselves as "credible" through
association but light on actually proving out the product.

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aaron695
Real-world tests of small wind turbines in Netherlands and the UK

[http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6954](http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6954)

~~~
lucb1e
Interesting article. From 2010 though, so I wonder if prices have changed by
now, but still relevant.

Edit: Main takeaway:

> close to the test site stands a (relatively) large wind turbine with a rotor
> diameter of 18 metres. [...] It can power 42 Dutch households. [...] it
> delivers almost 20 times as much energy [as the small ones]. This brings the
> cost down to 4,523 euro per household, which is 8 times more economical than
> the best performing small wind turbine (and 45 times cheaper than the worst
> performing small wind turbine).

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thr0waway1239
I am curious to know the cost of maintenance. Industrial sized equipment is
subject to severe corrosion [1], I am not sure if the cost is really one time.

[1] [http://www.financialexpress.com/archive/corrosion-india-
losi...](http://www.financialexpress.com/archive/corrosion-india-losing-
rs-152-lakh-crore-annually/247576/)

------
apsec112
Smells like BS to me. Lots of marketing boilerplate about having a "green
heart" and the importance of clean energy, no hard data or technical details,
no discussion of competitors or what their advantage is over other wind
companies, the product is "coming soon" but there's no hint of where they'd
get the necessary capital and manufacturing equipment.

As a friend once said: "Nobody stops you from making a press release. A
'project' is a series of documents and sometimes people, not always or
typically a powerplant..."

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namirez
Good luck to them but given the intermittent nature of wind, the main problem
with wind energy is storage not the turbine. So a turbine like this, which is
probably rated at 500 Watts or so, must be coupled with a battery pack like
the Tesla's Powerwall. Even then, 2-5 kWh is not significant. The power
consumption of a typical refrigerator 1-1.5 kWh/day.

------
gordon_freeman
the major question is how would a household pay a cost of an iPhone (around
INR 50,000) if they can't afford electricity. I know that I sound cynic but
that's the truth in India. Rural areas which lack electricity mainly do so
because of lack of enough demand that can pay for the electricity. There are
NGOs/Non-profits like 'Barefoot College' providing solar-lanterns which IMO is
a better way forward: Empowering people by enabling them in making those
lanterns which in turn light their houses up. The cost of lantern is factored
in the labor work they do in making them.

~~~
nowarninglabel
No reason we couldn't provide micro-loans or wind turbines in the same way we
have done for solar lanterns and such with partners like Barefoot.

~~~
gordon_freeman
Yes that's the model I think can solve the electricity problem in
developing/poor countries like India, Africa, etc. Through micro-loans and
labor-conversion-to-product/services.

I for one do not believe even 1% in giving subsidies here and there to solve
such problems because they are just temporary, gives false-hope and inflate
expectations that problems are being solved but in reality they are not.

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babuskov
> a low-cost wind turbine that can generate 3-5 kW hours of electricity every
> day

I'd say it's for a very narrow definition of "a house":

[https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=97&t=3](https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=97&t=3)

I guess it could work in India, but households in most developed countries
spend much more energy:

[http://shrinkthatfootprint.com/average-household-
electricity...](http://shrinkthatfootprint.com/average-household-electricity-
consumption)

BTW, much better article here:

[http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-
nation...](http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/avant-
garde-innovations-develops-wind-turbine-to-light-up-homes-at-a-fraction-of-
power-bills/articleshow/53015680.cms)

~~~
willvarfar
In the context of the article - India - it seems spot on.

Additionally, energy use in western homes has fallen dramatically in recent
years. We've gone from 100W bulbs to LEDs and from big vacuum cleaners to
small robots and even fridges, freezers and washing machines have been using
less and less each generation.

Hopefully electricity use will pick up again slightly as we all start charging
our cars at home, and that will be a good thing from the total energy usage
and environmental perspective.

PS you edited your post and added all those links and mention of India only
after I replied ;)

~~~
babuskov
> PS you edited your post and added all those links and mention of India only
> after I replied ;)

It was like 5 seconds apart. We probably wrote at the same time ;)

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brador
Buy a solar powered fan and point it at the wind turbine. You are now covered
for 2 cases. Wood burner for 3. What else?

Modular power from multiple sources is where the gold is.

------
booli
I Know This Is Off-Topic But Any One Else Hating The Usage Of Capitals In The
Title?

~~~
jonah
Like it or don't, it's standard Title Case.[1]

[1] [http://www.dailywritingtips.com/rules-for-capitalization-
in-...](http://www.dailywritingtips.com/rules-for-capitalization-in-titles/)

~~~
booli
Standard? I don't really feel that this blog persuades me that it is a
standard. It also adds another style to it, which is even more ridiculous! My
mind puts emphasis on words with capitals, reading the title makes me bounce
up and down like a carrousel with my "inner dialog".

~~~
jonah
Yes, standard[1]. I was looking for a direct reference to the AP style guide
but didn't find one in a quick search. Here's another reference guide
though.[2]

[1] Take a look at the headlines:
[http://www.nytimes.com/](http://www.nytimes.com/)

[2] [https://www.bkacontent.com/how-to-correctly-use-apa-style-
ti...](https://www.bkacontent.com/how-to-correctly-use-apa-style-title-case/)

