NAL promotes 500W wind-solar hybrid system

National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) has brought out a 500W wind-solar hybrid system that is capable of providing power in standalone situations such as borewells, pumps and other non heavy applications. The system is developed keeping in mind remote areas of the country, reported Express.

Aparna Renewable Energy Source (ARES), a private company also participated in the research.

“The wind turbines from abroad are efficient only at higher speeds, which rarely occur in India. We developed the hybrid system at the Centre for Societal Missions and Special Technologies (CSMST). For CSIR-NAL, hybrid systems will be a thrust area to pursue in the future for both rural and urban applications,” said NAL director S

The system includes a wind turbine, solar photovoltaic unit, charge controller, outdoor control panel and a battery bank. NAL is next conducting research to switch over to natural fibres with a higher degree of environmental friendliness.

The hybrid power source comes at a cost of approx. Rs 3 lakh and Rs 2 crore has been spent in R&D efforts.

“This is an aerospace spin-off system as many advanced processes and materials have been already developed for various aircraft programmes. We have the expertise to develop more efficient wind turbines compared to those available in the Indian market,” G N Dayananda, chief scientist and head, CSMST said.

The north east region of India has shown particular interest in the system. The main challenge of research team was to develop wind turbine blades that could generate power at speeds of less than 5 metre per second.