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For the cost of an iPhone, you can now buy a wind turbine that can power an entire house for lifetime

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Indian startup Avant Garde Innovations has developed a low-cost wind turbine that can generate 3-5 kW hours of electricity daily

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Soon after assuming office, Kerala (southern state of India) Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan kicked up a storm by publicly supporting the Athirappilly hydro electric project, which environmentalists said, if implemented, would create ecologic imbalance in the area and destroy the Athirappilly waterfalls, the largest natural waterfalls in the state.

It is not that the government is oblivious to the impact that the project could make, but it says it has no option but to leverage existing means to check the growing power crisis in Kerala, which partially depends on the private sector for electricity.

Things are no different in other states either. While Kerala has attained almost 100 per cent electrical coverage, many parts of India still remain in the dark. For a large portion of the Indian population, electricity to this day remains a distant dream.

Enter two siblings who want to make India’s energy crisis a thing of the past. The duo has developed a new solution they say will not even slightly impact the ecological balance.

Avant Garde Innovations, the startup founded by siblings Arun and Anoop George from Kerala, has come up with a low-cost wind turbine that can generate enough electricity to power an entire house for a lifetime. The size of a ceiling fan, this wind turbine can generate 5 kWh/kW per day — with just a one-time cost of US$750.

“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, localised 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,” reads the company ‘What We Do’ statement.

“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.”

Incorporated in 2015, Avant Garde claims to be a startup with a ‘green’ heart and soul.

For the startup, opportunity is massive. India is the world’s sixth largest energy consumer, accounting for 3.4 per cent of global energy consumption. Federal governments in India, and the central government for that matter, are unable to bear the huge infrastructural cost required to bring electricity to remote villages.

Erecting electric posts and electric lines require huge investments that could cost millions of dollars.

This is where Avant Garde comes into picture. “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,” Arun said in an interview to The Times of India.

The company launched its pilot project at a church in the capital city of Thiruvananthapuram in January this year. The small wind turbine prototype that it has developed is highly scalable for power capacities of 300 kW or even higher, Arun told e27.

“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,” the company says.

This revolutionary product has also won them a spot in the Top 20 Cleantech Innovations in India. The company has also made it to the list of 10 clean energy companies from India for the “UN Sustainable Energy For All” initiative under the one billion dollar clean energy investment opportunity directory.

According to the Global Wind Energy Council, the country ranks 4th in terms of global installed wind power capacity, after China, the US, and Germany.

Maybe, if Avant Garde Innovations takes off, Kerala can keep the Athirappilly waterfalls untouched.

 

 

Wind turbines making people sick with mysterious illnesses.

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When Edward and Sue Hobart first built their dream home on six beautiful acres of land in Falmouth, a small town on Massachusetts‘ southern coast, they had no idea that one day they would be forced to abandon it due to local “green” energy initiatives. But the constant migraine headaches, ringing in the ears, dizziness and insomnia brought about by the incessant spinning of several local wind turbines proved to be intolerable, producing ghastly symptoms that many others in the area have also since reported.

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A recent investigation by ABC News into so-called “wind turbine syndrome,” or the collection of illness symptoms commonly reported by people who live near wind turbines, has uncovered a string of related ailments associated with the use of this technology, especially near residential areas. For the Hobarts and many others, the recent erection of two large wind turbines and one smaller one in their otherwise quiet community has brought about these and other health problems, with no end in sight.

“Sometimes at night, especially in the winter, I wake up with a fluttering in the chest and think, ‘What the hell is that,’ and the only place it happens is at my house,” explained Sue to ABC News, noting that initially she had no idea that her mysterious illness symptoms could be the result of the wind turbines. “That’s how you know. When you go away, it doesn’t happen.”

Wind turbines create low frequencies that can cause health problems, admit experts

Like many others, the Hobarts experience no health problems when they are away from the turbines. But every time they return home, the symptoms come back, the likely result of certain low-frequency rattles and shakes emitted by the turbines, say experts. Dr. Nina Pierpont, for instance, a Johns Hopkins University-trained pediatrician, says wind turbine syndrome is very real, and that it is the green energy industry’s “dirty little secret.”

For years, Dr. Pierpont and her husband have been advocating against the continued use of wind turbines, especially near residential areas, because of continued reports of widespread illness symptoms. Dr. Pierpont even published her own case study back in 2009 entitled “Wind Turbine Syndrome” that documents howpeople living up to 1.25 miles away from wind turbines experience major health problems, which makes it impossible for many of them to live normal and productive lives.

‘Green’ energy industry falsely accuses wind turbine sufferers of imagining their conditions

Wind energy advocates have repeatedly denied such claims, even going so far as to accuse wind turbine syndrome sufferers of fabricating or imagining their symptoms. But this has not stopped the Hobarts and others from fighting to have these metal monstrosities removed. According to ABC News, the Hobarts filed a nuisance claim this past February against Notus Clean Energy, owner of the smaller turbine. And several other local residents have also filed lawsuits against the town, which owns the two larger turbines.

“The heart of the issue is that they have been pushed off their land,” stated Representative Brian Mannal, who is also the Hobarts’ lawyer, to the media. “They have erected these enormous, industrial-scale turbines — larger than a 747 — in close proximity to residences. [The Hobarts] have had to leave their house because they couldn’t live there anymore.”

While the Hobarts’ lawsuit is still pending, their town continues to be bombarded with additional lawsuits seeking remedy with regards to the turbines. At one point, the town’s selectmen voted unanimously to take the wind turbines down, but an official measure put before the town several months later was voted down.

Sources :

http://abcnews.go.com

http://www.windturbinesyndrome.com

http://rt.com

A third more Scottish wind turbines built in one year .

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The true pace at which wind farms are spreading across Scotland’s countryside has been disclosed after official figures indicated the number of turbines increased by a third in the last year alone.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) published statistics showing all Scotland’s onshore wind farms had a maximum capacity of 3,808 megawatts (MW) at the end of 2012.

This total was 34 per cent higher than the 2,837MW total in the last quarter of 2011. Scotland’s total capacity is now nearly double that of England, Wales and Northern Ireland combined.

Scottish ministers yesterday welcomed the figures, saying they showed the amount of electricity generated by wind had increased 19 per cent last year to record levels.

However, anti-wind farm campaigners pointed out this increase demonstrated the inefficiency of the technology because it had required a much larger rise in the number of turbines.

They raised questions over how many more wind farms will have to be constructed to meet Alex Salmond’s target of generating the equivalent of nearly all Sco

The figures were produced after the Scottish Conservatives disclosed that more than 44,000 people have objected to wind farm applications in the last five years.

Struan Stevenson, a Scottish Tory MEP, said the DECC figures were “perfectly symbolic of how pathetically useless and inefficient the whole technology of wind is.”

Rebutting SNP ministers’ praise, he said: “This is not terrific news for the 44,000 people who have written letters of complaint to planning authorities and the Scottish Government.”

The Daily Telegraph has disclosed how SNP ministers are putting pressure on local councils to allow more wind farms even in areas where local people think they have reached “saturation point”.

DECC said installed generating capacity for all forms of renewable energy increased by 3,170MW across the UK last year.

Nearly half this total (1,224MW) was accounted for by five Scottish onshore wind farms opening or increasing their number of turbines.

The five included an expansion of Whitelee wind farm, Europe’s largest, near Glasgow, the Griffin wind farm in Perthshire and three in the Clyde area.

Scotland’s onshore wind generating capacity of 3,808MW is 84 per cent higher than the total of that of England (1,155MW), Wales (459MW) and Northern Ireland (453MW).

The figures disclosed the amount of electricity generated by all onshore and offshore wind farms increased to 8,296 gigawatt hours, more than four times the 2006 total.

However, the “load capacity” for Scotland’s onshore turbines – the proportion of a wind farm’s capacity that actually produced electricity – averaged only 26 per cent last year.

DECC suggested that the increase in electricity generated had not matched the rise in the number of turbines because “wind speeds were slightly (0.8 knots) lower than 2011.

Fergus Ewing, the Scottish Energy Minister, said 2012 was “another record year for renewables” and Scotland contributed more than a third of the UK’s green energy output.

Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

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