-Reshma Ravishanker

Imagine a portable wind turbine installed atop your car that can power you electronic devices. A group of engineering students have mounted a portable wind turbine atop a car that can charge electronic equipment on the go. Once the prototype is up on market shelves, one can avail hot water anywhere while on the road and never run out of charge in their electronic devices.

A group of final year engineering students of the mechanical engineering stream from BNM Institute of Technology have designed a prototype of the new innovation that is awaiting a patent.

The concept is: a portable turbine is installed on the roof of a car, once the vehicle is set in motion, the energy is drawn from the rotating turbine blades with the air hitting it and is converted into electricity to charge mobiles, bluetooth devices, laptops and also water kettles.

Dr D Shivalingappa, professor, department of mechanical engineering, BNM Institute of Technology said that the device was tested on campus first. The idea is a reverse of the system in western countries where the turbines are installed on road and is charged by the wind generated by moving vehicles.

“If the car is moving at 30-45 km/hr speed, and the wind is at 10 mts/sec wind velocity then 12 watts of energy is generated. If we are to project the same for a vehicle moving on the highway, a booster can increase this. Estimating the vehicle to be moving at 80-100 kms/hr the wind velocity will be 20-22 mts/sec then higher power can be produced. Power bank, laptop, mobile, bluetooth devices can be charged. If multiple turbines are installed, a higher voltage can be generated,” he said.

The team has applied for an industrial design patent. The project was funded by the NewGen Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Centre by the government of India. “The projected cost could be around 10,000. However, if made in bulk, the price can be reduced further,” said Shivalingappa. Final year engineering students Omkar N Kashyap, Sankarshan S, Aditya Sunku and Vignesh Nandanvar worked on the project along with the professor. 

Omkar says, “The turbine was designed by us from the start. The turbine blades designed are first of its kind. The idea came when we were on college campus. It is quite windy here. We travel by bikes. We realized that the high velocity head wind was going to waste. We trapped this and made a turbine that can rotate at a speed of 1000 rpm, stored energy on a battery, and improvised it to be compact and portable. Now it is less than a foot in measure and is an easy clip on clip off design.”   

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