Buildings are experimenting with alternative energy with small wind turbines on rooftops
In the last few weeks, the city has had a respite from its daily burden of two-hour power cuts — wind energy has helped reduce load shedding to one hour a day. Thanks to the huge wind turbines that dot the State's southern coast, much-needed power is supplied to grids.
Of late, some buildings in the city have begun to take their own measures to go green. Small wind turbines have cropped up on several rooftops. These green buildings use natural lighting, conserve every drop of rainwater and use solar energy. Now, they are also going in for wind turbines – known as hybrid systems, where the charge controller, battery and inverter are common for both the solar as well as the wind system.
A happy rooftop power producer is Navadisha Montessori School in Velachery, which has been using such a system for six months now, to power the EPBAX, four fans and a computer. “The trustees decided to go in for green energy on a small level at least. Ours is also a rainwater harvesting structure,” said a source at the school.
“Ideally the consumer has to spell out his demands. The contribution of solar and wind energy is location-specific. For instance in Ladakh, 90 per cent of power comes from wind energy and 10 per cent from solar power. Equipment for one kilowatt of installed power of a hybrid system would cost around Rs.2.50 lakh, which is not inclusive of the government subsidy,” said C. Raghuraman, founder of E-Hands Energy, a micro wind energy solution provider.