Guntur: KL University soars on wind power

Guntur: KL University at Tadepalli will be riding high on wind and solar power. Wind turbines have been installed on the rooftop of the university buildings to generate electricity. These rooftop turbines and solar panels will be generating a sizeable fraction of the university's power demand.

The idea to install wind and solar power generating units was conceived by D. Seshi Reddy, associate professor in Electrical and Electronics Engineering.
He designed the windmills that can be fitted onto the rooftops.

Mr Seshi Reddy said that these customised wind turbines can operate with minimum wind speeds of 1meter/sec and can generate electricity with 30 per cent efficiency. Conventional wind mills don’t give any output at this wind speed.

At present, through windmills the university produces 62 KVA of electricity. A total of 12 turbines were fitted on the rooftop with a capacity of 5.1KVA each, said Mr. Reddy.

The KL University also took up solar power generation on its rooftop. The high-efficiency panels fitted in three phases generate 459.7 KVA of power.

“Right now, we are producing 1,800 units of power through wind and solar units which is about 20 per cent our total demand. From October onwards, another 275 KW of solar power will be available,” said Mr Reddy. “With this we will meet 40 per cent of our demand,” he added.

Mr Reddy said he plans to apply for a patent for the windmill designs he made.