Human powered energy - an idea to capitalise India's biggest resource - our population ?
The many news articles that I read about India at 60, got me thinking.
While crossing madivala sabzi market, I thought it would be great if our nation's huge human capital could work towards generating energy - it would solve a few critical problems
- shortage of power
- employment for a lot of rural unskilled labour
I liked the idea a lot, and was positive that someone would have already thought of it & tried doing this.
I wasn't wrong.
A visionary (in my opinion) Chandrakanth Pathak has done a lot in this area.
The part that got me really excited was this
....invented what he believes to be his greatest achievement yet -- the 'bullock powered energy machine'. Run in the same way as the oil-presses of old (Kolhu in Hindi, Ghani in Marathi), this machine converts the 2 RPM input from a bullock into a 1500 RPM output with the help of a simple gear box. The machine is stationery (no cart is involved), with a long lever like the lever of a kolhu (oil press). A bullock is tied to this lever, and it runs the machine by walking in circles around the machine, like a bull operating an oil press. The circular motion generates electricity.
This machine is extremely versatile -- it can be used to run a five horse-power centrifugal pump, and all small machines like a 1 KV generator, a flour mill, an air compressor and so on. A single machine can run the entire water supply system of a small village. Run for two hours, it can keep ten street lights burning for the whole night.
A little more googling got me to a lot of existing work in this space.
http://www.oilgae.com/energy/nn/hp/hp.html
http://freeenergynews.com/Directory/HumanPowered/
http://www.humboldt.edu/~ccat/pedalpower/hec/hpeg/index.html
http://www.green-trust.org/2000/humanpower.htm
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/technology/human-powered/
I am quite excited, what I am imagining is a small setup in a lot of very small villages with cycle like machines where people can come, pedal & earn by an hourly rate.
The electricity generated could then be transmitted back to a central power station or used right there to serve the need of that village.
There are a lot of technical challenges & as Mr. Pathak notes, its the scaling the idea to the INDIA scale that is the most difficult part.
But I am excited, i am planning to read up a lot more (I havent yet finished reading all the links above)
I do need your thoughts & comments .... and more ideas ... and resources - you know people who are working in the alternate energy generation space ?
A very Happy Independence day!
While crossing madivala sabzi market, I thought it would be great if our nation's huge human capital could work towards generating energy - it would solve a few critical problems
- shortage of power
- employment for a lot of rural unskilled labour
I liked the idea a lot, and was positive that someone would have already thought of it & tried doing this.
I wasn't wrong.
A visionary (in my opinion) Chandrakanth Pathak has done a lot in this area.
The part that got me really excited was this
....invented what he believes to be his greatest achievement yet -- the 'bullock powered energy machine'. Run in the same way as the oil-presses of old (Kolhu in Hindi, Ghani in Marathi), this machine converts the 2 RPM input from a bullock into a 1500 RPM output with the help of a simple gear box. The machine is stationery (no cart is involved), with a long lever like the lever of a kolhu (oil press). A bullock is tied to this lever, and it runs the machine by walking in circles around the machine, like a bull operating an oil press. The circular motion generates electricity.
This machine is extremely versatile -- it can be used to run a five horse-power centrifugal pump, and all small machines like a 1 KV generator, a flour mill, an air compressor and so on. A single machine can run the entire water supply system of a small village. Run for two hours, it can keep ten street lights burning for the whole night.
A little more googling got me to a lot of existing work in this space.
http://www.oilgae.com/energy/nn/hp/hp.html
http://freeenergynews.com/Directory/HumanPowered/
http://www.humboldt.edu/~ccat/pedalpower/hec/hpeg/index.html
http://www.green-trust.org/2000/humanpower.htm
http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/technology/human-powered/
I am quite excited, what I am imagining is a small setup in a lot of very small villages with cycle like machines where people can come, pedal & earn by an hourly rate.
The electricity generated could then be transmitted back to a central power station or used right there to serve the need of that village.
There are a lot of technical challenges & as Mr. Pathak notes, its the scaling the idea to the INDIA scale that is the most difficult part.
But I am excited, i am planning to read up a lot more (I havent yet finished reading all the links above)
I do need your thoughts & comments .... and more ideas ... and resources - you know people who are working in the alternate energy generation space ?
A very Happy Independence day!