Building a Low Cost Wind Turbine in Highways for

Rural House Electricity Demand

Senthilvel Santhakumar ,a Ilamathi Palanivel,b and Krishnanand Venkatasubramanianc
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, RVS College of Engineering and Technology, Affiliated to Anna University, Coimbatore,
Tamil Nadu 641402, India; senthilvelpsg@gmail.com (for correspondence)
b
Department of Production Engineering, Government College of Technology, Affiliated to Anna University, Coimbatore,
Tamil Nadu 641013, India
c
Ather Energy, Bangalore, 560029, India
Published online 400May 20182018
Month in Wiley Online
in Wiley Library
Online (wileyonlinelibrary.com).
Library DOI 10.1002/ep.12917
(wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/ep.12917

The main aim of this work is to design, fabricate, and test
a wind turbine for power generation applications in rural
areas. Vertical Axis Wind Turbines were selected to harness
the energy from wind through the drag forces induced due
to vehicular movements. Various parameters were analyzed
for the design of a low-cost wind turbine. A Savonius blade
was selected for the design, which could be accommodated
on the median of the highways. By using recycled materials,
a low-cost wind turbine was fabricated at a cost of $117.5
approximately. The wind turbine was placed on the houses
and on the highway medians to test the power output at vari-
ous operating conditions. Average electricity consumption at
selected rural houses were calculated. The calculated average
electricity demand during power cuts in the selected rural
houses was around 0.2–0.6 kWh/day. Average generated
electricity from the turbine at highways was observed to be
around 0.67 kWh/day. The Levelized cost of electricity
(LCOE) of the generated electricity from the proposed SWT on
highways is around $0.04/kWh. The LCOE of the proposed
design is relatively cheaper when compared with the conven-
tional horizontal axis wind turbines. The energy demand
during power cuts was met completely when the SWT was
placed on the highways. V © 2018 American Institute of Chemical
C 2018
Engineers Environ Prog,
Prog, 38:
00: 278–285,
000–000, 2019
2018
Keywords: savonius wind turbine, highway energy gener-
ation, low cost wind turbine, renewable energy
INTRODUCTION
Renewable energy-based power generation is an alternate
solution to fossil fuel-based systems. A few widely known
renewable energy sources namely solar, wind, hydro, geo-
thermal, biomass, and tidal power are used to generate elec-
trical energy. Wind energy is one of the renewable energy
sources that have gained significant attention in power gen-
eration when compared with solar energy, mainly due to the
availability of wind during both day and night. In addition,
the electrical energy conversion efficiency in the wind tur-
bines is higher when compared to solar PV panels. In rural
environment, the wind speed is always high and steady in
direction [1].Wind generated from sun’s radiation on the
earth’s surface creates temperature differences and pressure
C 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers
V varying wind directions to harness the energy from wind.
differences that move the air from one place to another. The
Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) has reported that the
total global wind installation capacity (including both
onshore and offshore wind generation) has crossed nearly
489 GW. This is because of the high energy conversion effi-
ciency from wind to electrical energy. On a global scale, the
wind energy forecasts predict that a total installed capacity of
around 817 GW will be reached in 2021 with a cumulative
capacity growth rate of 10.4%. India has reached a new
record of installing new wind turbines with a capacity of 3.6
GW and a total global share of 6.6% by the end of the year
2016. From India, the share of energy generation through
wind is 9.1%. India became the fourth largest wind energy
producer in the world and second largest wind energy pro-
ducer in Asia, with an electricity generation capacity of
around 28.7 GW [2–4].The Government of India has commit-
ted to a target of achieving 60 GW of cumulative wind capac-
ity generation during the year 2022. The Ministry of New and
Renewable Energy has created the offshore wind energy
generation policy in the year 2015. The first offshore wind
resource measurement was started in the coastal regions of
Gujarat and Tamil Nadu [2].The Government of India contin-
uously supports the growing renewable energy sectors and
has committed in the sustainable innovation forum 2016 at
Paris (COP21) to increase the renewable energy power pro-
duction to 40% by 2030.
Commonly known wind energy converting machines are
Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWT) and Vertical Axis
Wind Turbines (VAWT). In India, the wind farms are installed
for HAWTs and there are no noticeable wind farms for
VAWTs. The HAWT’s rotors rotate parallel to the ground and
the VASWT’s rotors rotate perpendicular to the ground [5].
HAWTs are preferred for generating electricity ranging from
Watt to Megawatt. HAWTs achieve relatively higher efficien-
cies since they have larger swept area when compared with
VAWTs. Therefore, HAWTs are preferred over VAWTs. How-
ever, it has disadvantages like high initial and operating
costs, large land area requirements, requiring a robust struc-
ture and strong foundation etc. Due to the strong foundation
requirements of HAWT towers, deforestation happens in an
accountable range [6]. It also faces operational difficulties
such as high cut in speed and requires a separate yaw mech-
anism to change the facing direction of turbine blade for

278 January/February
Environmental Progress &2019 Environmental
Sustainable Energy (Vol.00, Progress & Sustainable Energy (Vol.38, No.1) DOI
No.00) DOI 10.1002/ep 10.1002/ep
Month 2018 1
Even though there are plenty of opportunities, India still has
financial challenges in terms of the investment needed for
HAWT farms [2].
An alternate way of generating electricity is through
VAWTs with low investment costs. The VAWT are wind
machines, which harness energy from the drag forces of the
moving wind, especially in low altitude. It is simple in
design, has good starting torque characteristics, and is rela-
tively independent of the wind directions [7].The initial cost
and operating costs are very low when compared with the
HAWTs. It occupies lesser space and the need for a heavy
and robust structure is eliminated.
The VAWTs are used in both high-rise and low-rise appli-
cations to generate electricity. In high-rise applications, that
is, VAWT is installed on the high-rise buildings to capture the
wind to generate the electricity to compensate the electrical
demands for building electrical appliances [8,9]. A perspec-
tive study was conducted for low-rise applications on the
Malaysian road transport sector to generate electricity from
the moving vehicles when the VAWTs were placed on the
divider. The generated energy was used for 300 W highway
lamps [10]. A numerical study was also conducted to find out
the effects in wind due to the spacing between moving
vehicles to harness maximum wind energy from vehicle traf-
fic for supplying the energy to LED lights and emergency
signs in highways [11]. A resource estimation assessment
study has been conducted for harnessing the wind energy in
tunnel exits and urban canyons by placing small wind tur-
bines. In addition, the study suggested that, the induced
effect can be used for transportation systems (railway, water-
way, or airside flows in airports) [12]. Another application is
by placing the drag-based machine on the top side of mov-
ing vehicles. This experimental study states that, when the
VAWTs rotational direction and the moving wind direction
are same, the useful torque will be high at lower speeds [13].
Various patents have already been filed for generating elec-
tricity from the vehicle traffic in motorway from the VAWTs
[14,15].
The main advantages of selecting the Savonius Wind Tur-
bine (SWT) are the following: reduced amount of initial cost,
lesser complications in the design of the rotor, low cost for
fabrication when compared with the other VAWT like Dar-
rieus and Giromill. Mobility is also possible with the SWT. In
the last few decades, researchers have been interested in
generating electricity from the SWTs by changing the geo-
metrical parameters [16], by increasing the number of blades
[17], by changing the phase shift angles and increasing the
number of stages [18–20]. Due to these advantages, a Savo-
nius rotor has been chosen for the electric power generation
application.
The SWT’s rotor shaft was connected to the turbine
through transmission arrangements to achieve the nominal
rotational speeds of generator to generate electricity at low
wind speeds. The transmission system can be gears, chains,
and belt arrangements. In general, gear arrangement is pre-
ferred in wind turbines due to low slip and high torque char-
acteristics. Without any gear arrangements, the generator will
not be able to generate electricity at low rotational speeds.
The gear arrangement should be used when the SWT speeds
are low (around 50 RPM) to generate electricity by means of
increasing the gear ratios and to avoid winding modifications
in generators. In this work, a gearing ratio of 1:8 and 10 mm
face width has been selected for the fabricated design to
improve the starting behavior of SWT.
As discussed earlier, the SWT is driven by drag forces,
which are created by the wind due to vehicular motion. In
highways, the vehicle traffic will create surplus amount of
drag forces on both sides of the road. Experimental studies
were also conducted to find out the vehicle traffic induced
drag and turbulence in the highways as an evidence to
Environmental
2 Month 2018Progress & Sustainable Energy (Vol.38, No.1) DOI 10.1002/ep
Environmental
Progress & Sustainable Energy (Vol.00, No.00) DOI2019
proceed this work further [21–24]. In 1978, an experimental
study was conducted for the on-road vehicles to find out the
effects of drag force when the vehicles were moving [25].
This effect helps to accelerate the wind velocity in certain
ranges. This accelerated wind can be harnessed to generate
electricity through the selected SWT. India has the second
largest highway network after China. The constructed length
of Indian National highways is 1,00,087 km [26]. Therefore,
the proposed prototype was placed in the medians of the
highways for electricity generation for rural household appli-
cations. The purpose of avoiding the SWT setup at the sides
of the roads is due to the possibility of negative drag forces
that can be created during monsoon changes. The negative
drag forces will affect the rotational speeds of the SWT [27].
Selection of the Components and Materials
As mentioned earlier, the focus of this work is to build a
wind turbine economically for rural applications. So, cost
effective materials were identified to fabricate the SWT’s
rotor. A used steel oil-drum of 55 gallons capacity was
selected for fabricating the rotor blades. The rolling hoops
and bottom chime of drum were straightened with the help
of hammer. The end plates of the SWT were used for provid-
ing the inertial force to the rotor for steady and continuous
rotational velocity during wind velocity fluctuations. The end
plate was made up of teak wood of 0.01 m thickness. If steel
is used for end plates, the weight of the plate will drastically
increase which will affect the starting behavior of the tur-
bine. It requires higher starting torque; so, in lower wind
speeds, the rotor will not be able to start its rotation. The
rotor shaft in the bottom side is made up of mild steel with a
diameter of 0.014 m.
An AC generator was used to produce electrical energy
from the SWT’s rotor. Initially, a used car alternator was cho-
sen to generate electricity from the SWT. The alternator
windings were modified and used to avoid gear arrange-
ments [20]. The SWT-alternator arrangement produced a
maximum power output of 108 W for a wind velocity of
13 m/s. However, the problem faced was, whenever the
SWTs speed was lower than 150 RPM, the alternator was
unable to generate sufficient electrical output. However, gear
arrangements were used along with the alternator. However,
the starting characteristics of this system were not very good.
However, a permanent magnet AC generator was coupled
with the SWT through a 1:8 gear ratio arrangement and
0.01 m face width. A 0.005 m galvanized box steel frame was
used to fix the rotor and generator assembly on a robust
supporting frame. Supporting frame height was fixed to
0.88 m to match the median height in highways.
Choosing Suitable Geometrical Parameters
Several researchers have shown interest in improving the
efficiencies of the SWT. Hence, several designs were devel-
oped and tested. Both, numerical and experimental studies
have been carried out towards improving the efficiency of
SWT. Optimal design for this work has been considered
from literature studies to achieve better performance from
the available wind source [16]. It reports that the optimum
results of the coefficient of power and torque of the pro-
posed design were 0.30 and 0.21, respectively. The results
were obtained by changing the SWTs geometrical parameters
such as blade arc angle, end plate diameter; overlap ratio,
blade aspect ratio and blade shape factor at the tip speed
ratio of 0.69 and Reynolds number. The maximum coefficient
of starting torque was achieved at a rotor angle of 308. In the
proposed wind turbine, the blade aspect ratio and blade arc
angle were applied on the selected SWT. The scaling factor
of the proposed design increases by a factor 1.9 from the
reported design [16]. The geometrical parameters are shown
January/February
279
10.1002/ep
Table 1. Geometrical parameters of SWT.
S.N Geometrical parameters
1 Blade Diameter (d)
2 Blade Height (h)
3 End plate Diameter (do 5 l.Id)
4 Blade shape factor (B/C)
5 Blade are angle (/)
6 Blade thickness (T)
7 End plate thickness (t)
determined by placing the SWT in front of an axial flow
open wind tunnel with an exit section diameter of 0.8 m.A
Values nylon fish net and a digital spring scale were used to find
out the starting torque capability of the proposed SWT
0.61 m design. The starting torque coefficient at varying rotor angles
0.427 m has been shown in Figure 3. In a full rotation, the starting
0.671 m
torque coefficient did not decrease to 0. Therefore, the pro-
0.2
posed design was considered to have good starting behavior
1248
at low wind speeds. Maximum torque coefficient was
0.002 m
0.01 m achieved at an angle of 308. The cut in speed was achieved
at wind speeds of 3.5 m/s. Therefore, it is applicable for low
wind speed applications. Figure 4 shows the power curve of
the proposed SWT in uniform wind speeds at a wind tunnel
setup. The power output generation starts only when the
wind speed reaches 3.5 m/s. When the wind speed reaches
13 m/s, the linear power output characteristics were affected
due to the mechanical vibrations generated in the SWT
setup. Figure 5 shows the power coefficient of the proposed
SWT. The nominal wind speed for the proposed SWT was 7–
9 m/s. The highest amount of wind energy can be converted
to useful electrical energy in these wind speeds. Since the
contact area reduces with respect to time and higher rota-
tional speeds, the power output will not be linear above
wind speeds of 13 m/s.
The torque was measured by multiplying the force devel-
oped in the rotor and the radius of the pulley used. The tor-
que coefficient can be calculated from the Eq. (1).

T50:25 C t qDAv2 (1)

The wind power extracted from the wind turbine is esti-

mated from Eq. (2). The power output will increase when-
ever the swept area increases and the variation will depend
on the wind speed that strikes on the rotor blades. The air
density was considered as constant except at high altitudes
[28].

P50:5qAv3 gtotal (2)

There are many factors considered while calculating the total

efficiency of the SWT. The total efficiency was estimated
using Eq. (3). The total efficiency mainly depends on the
geometrical parameters of the SWT.

Figure 1. Details of SWT’s configuration.
in Table 1 and the details of configuration are shown in
Figure 1.
Finished Prototype
The finished prototype is as shown in Figure 2. The edges
in the end plates were coated with Teak Sealer, which is
used to shield from UV and for moisture protection. To pro-
tect from corrosion, the rotor blades were coated with pri-
mers and paint. A rectifier circuit was designed to convert
AC to DC electrical output and to store in batteries through
transformer. A robust supporting chassis that withstands the
weight and vibrations created in the SWT during rotor
speeds and varying wind velocities was designed. The proto-
type can be easily dismantled for mobility. The chassis
mounts were provided for changing the generator type and
gear sizes.
ESTIMATION OF THE TORQUE AND POWER
Initially, the cut in speed of the proposed SWT was found
in steady wind conditions. The staring torque was
g5ggg gt (3)
An estimated rotor efficiency of 24%, generator efficiency of
80% and transmission efficiency of 80% were considered.
Instrument accuracies have been considered for uncer-
tainty analysis. Uncertainties in the measured parameters
were considered based on the measuring instruments (Table
2) for calculating the error percentage. Simple statistical anal-
ysis was used to find the maximum error percentage. The
error percentage was found to be around 2%. The men-
tioned results can have a percentage uncertainty of around
2% (it can either be positive or negative).
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
The proposed SWT can be used in high rise and low-rise
buildings, highways, railway tracks, motorway, and railway
tunnels to harness the electrical energy from wind for rural
houses, isolated homestead and defense (military camps). In
this project, the proposed low cost SWT was used to gener-
ate electricity in four-way lane highways when the SWT was
kept at the median of the roads. The median width of the
four-way lane is usually constructed at 1.15 m. Therefore,
the proposed design will not project outside and is suitable
to keep within the median width for safety concerns.

280 January/February
Environmental Progress &2019 Environmental
Sustainable Energy (Vol.00, Progress & Sustainable Energy (Vol.38, No.1) DOI
No.00) DOI 10.1002/ep 10.1002/ep
Month 2018 3
Figure 2. Details of the proposed SWT.
Figure 3. Starting torque of proposed SWT.
Figure 4. Electrical power output in wind tunnel.
Selection of the Road
India, world’s second largest road network has a total
National Highways length of 1,00,087 km and State High-
ways 1,31,899 km. In particular, the state of Tamil Nadu has
National Highways crossing the length of 5,006.14 km and
State Highways for a length of 10,866.87 km. The increasing
traffic will generate winds to create drag forces [23,24]. High-
way roads have been laid in all the directions: South to
North, West to East, South to West to North to East, and vice
Environmental
4 Month 2018Progress & Sustainable Energy (Vol.38, No.1) DOI 10.1002/ep
Environmental
Progress & Sustainable Energy (Vol.00, No.00) DOI2019
Figure 5. Power coefficient of proposed wind turbine.
versa. Every year, the country receives two monsoons
namely South-West monsoon and North-East monsoon [29].
The wind direction also changes to South-West to North-East
direction during South-West monsoon and North-East to
South-West direction during North-East monsoon. Therefore,
while placing the SWT on the roads, the monsoon of the
country should be considered to harness maximum amount
of wind energy. If the SWT is placed in such a way that the
direction of the road and the monsoon wind directions are
parallel, maximum amount of energy can be harnessed. This
concept was initially tested in the two-way lane highways by
placing the SWT on the sides of the roads. But negative drag
forces were induced (9–36%) when the vehicles were cross-
ing in the opposite lane traffic during and when the wind
speeds fell under 5 m/s. Due to this reason, the Four-way
lane highway was chosen for this project to generate electric-
ity from the available wind speeds. Initially, the unused lands
on the sides of the four-way lane highways were also con-
sidered for keeping the SWT, but due to the monsoon
change the rotational speed and power output will vary sig-
nificantly. Therefore, a separate study is needed to under-
stand the behavior of the SWT when the sides of the road
are to be considered.
The location selected for this project is about 15 miles
from the Coimbatore city, Tamil Nadu, India. The selected
road is marked as National Highway 544 by NHAI. The high-
way comprises two-lanes in each direction. The SWT was
January/February
281
10.1002/ep
Table 2. Details of the measurement devices.

Measuring
S.N instruments Range Accuracy
1 Laser Tachometer 2.5–99,999 RPM 60.05%
2 Radar Gun 16–322 km/h 62 km/h
3 Digital 1000 V, 10 A 65%
Multi-meter
(Fluke 15B)
4 Cup type pocket 0.7–42 m/s 64%
Anemometer
5 Digital Weighing 40 kg 620g
Scale

Figure 6. Electrical power output when the traffic consid-

placed on the median to produce electricity. The Coimbatore ered in the single lane.
region (selected location) receives Southwest monsoon dur-
ing May to September and Northeast monsoon during
November to March. The month of October is considered as
transient monsoon [29]. The annual mean wind speed is
between 4 and 5 m/s. The prevailing wind direction is
South-West to North-East during South-West monsoon and
North-East to South-West during North-East monsoon. The
probability of wind is 19% and an annual average of 4
Beaufort (5.5–7.9 m/s) wind scale [30,31].

Data Collection
During the data collection activity, a single SWT was
placed at the median of the highways and the electricity gen-
eration per day was measured in the month of August.
Vehicles travelling under the speed limit 60–65 km were
accounted in this data collection. Vehicle speed was mea-
sured using a radar gun. Lane change manoeuvre vehicles
were not accounted during this data collection exercise.
Earth-movers, two wheelers, and three wheelers were not
considered in this work. The lanes, which are located on the
adjacent sides from the median, have been considered for
the data collection.
In Figure 6, the electrical power output of the SWT is
shown for different wind speeds. Here, a single lane traffic
was considered for measuring the power output. Whenever
a vehicle crosses in one lane, the average electrical power
output increases by around 30%.
Figure 7 shows the increased power output of the SWT,
when the vehicle traffic was considered at both the lanes.
The average increase in power output was observed to be
around 66%. Figure 8 shows that the electrical power output
of the SWT per day when it is placed on the median of the
highways. The power output was recorded at an interval of
ten minutes. The maximum power output was obtained
between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. due to the higher wind speeds
and peak vehicle traffic. The normal wind speeds were high
during 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the selected geographical location.
Selected location has no obstacles for wind flow. It was
noticed that, the electricity generation was low during night
because of the low wind speed sand lesser vehicle traffic
observed between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. The average electrical
power output obtained was around 28 W and it is equivelent
to 0.67 kwh/day.
Selection of the Rural House
In the state of Tamil Nadu, India, the projected daily elec-
Figure 7. Electrical power output of SWT when the traffic
considered in the both sides of the lanes.
aim of keeping the SWT in lawn was to avoid the complica-
tions experienced while setting up the SWT on the roof of
the houses. Due to the difference in shapes and sizes of the
roofs it will generate velocity variations [32]. In Figure 9, the
electrical power output of SWT per day is illustrated, when it
was placed near a house to generate electricity. The average
power output of the SWT was 16 W when it is kept at the
lawn/open area of a house. It is equivalent to an average
energy generation of 0.38 kWh/day. Power output variation
was nearly 43% lower when the SWT is placed near the
house than on the highways. In addition, the SWT operation
was halted when the wind velocities were very low.
From the electricity consumption card and based on data
survey, the daily energy usage in a house was estimated.
The average elecricity usage per day in a selected house is
listed in Table 3. From the collected data, the electrical
energy consumption was sufficient for lighting, fan, and tele-
vision applications. Other electrical appliances consume
around 1.0 kWh/day. The energy consumption was calcu-
lated by using Eq. (4). The total energy utilization of a house
was around 2.4 kWh/day.
tðhourÞ
day
EðkWh=dayÞ 5 3PðWÞ (4)
1000ð W Þ
kW

tricity demand crosses 15,000 MW. The installed capacity is

13231.44 MW (reported in tangedco website). It leads to load
shedding in rural areas. India contains one of the largest
road networks in the world.
The SWT setup was placed in the lawn, which is located
in houses within a distance of 200 m from the highway. The
Estimation of the Demand and Supply
The total installed capacity of TANGEDCO is 10237.41
MW, which includes a central generating share of 2861 MW
and other sources of 519.65 MW. The actual generation

282 January/February
Environmental Progress &2019 Environmental
Sustainable Energy (Vol.00, Progress & Sustainable Energy (Vol.38, No.1) DOI
No.00) DOI 10.1002/ep 10.1002/ep
Month 2018 5
Figure 8. Electrical output of the SWT on the median of the highways.
Figure 9. Electrical power output of the SWT on the nearby house.
Table 3. Average Electricity consumption of an individual
house.
Appliance Energy consumption
Lighting 0.3 kWh/day
Fan 0.7 kWh/day
Television 0.4 kWh/day
Others 1.0 kWh/day
Total 2.4 kWh/day
might differ based on the water source in various dams, that
is, 2191 MW of hydro based on water availability. The peak
electricity demand in the state hit an all-time high as 15191
MW. There is a vast deviation in power generation versus
demand. Only two thirds of the demand is fulfilled by TAN-
GEDCO’s power generation capacity. For the remaining
power source, TANGEDCO depends on external sources.
Nevertheless, the failure of monsoon decreases power gener-
ation capacity of TANGEDCO and which will not fulfill the
demand and that leads to power cuts in summer season. The
power cuts might have affected around 1.90 cores domestic
consumers in Tamil Nadu (Till 2016). The power cut per day
in rural areas was around 2 h and it may increase up to 6 h
per day during summer season. Therefore, an indiviual
house needs an electricity of nearly 0.2 kWh/day to compen-
sate for a power cut of 2 h. For 6 h, 0.6 kWh/day is
required.
The unit cost of electricity tariff for domestic applications
with government subsidy as per theTNEB is around $0.04
and a fixed charge of $0.007 per day (a unit being a kWh).
The electricity charges may vary on the consumption range
in domestic use [33]. If the SWT is kept at the highways, the
electrical power output must be connected to the grid. Direct
utilization of generated electricity to the house is not
Environmental
6 Month 2018Progress & Sustainable Energy (Vol.38, No.1) DOI 10.1002/ep
Environmental
Progress & Sustainable Energy (Vol.00, No.00) DOI2019
possible due to the restrictions in laying transmission lines
from the highways to the house. Therefore, the selling price
of electricity to the connected grid per unit charge is nearly
$0.1(5) is used to find out the payback period of the pro-
posed SWT. If the SWT is placed on the highways, the pay-
back can be completed within 1754 days or 4.8 years.
Capital cost of SWT
Payback Period5 (5)
Electricity cost 3SWT Power output
Paypack period ðin highwayÞ5 $117:5
$0:130:67
51754 days–4:8 years
When a SWT is placed on the house, the payback period
comes to around 3092 days and equals to 8.5 years when it
is connected to the grid.
Pay pack period ðnear selected home and connected to gridÞ
5 $117:5
$0:130:38
53092 days–8:5 years
In India, the rural houses are located far away from the
power plant locations and the electrical load requirement is
only 20% in most of the rural areas in India. The houses are
not located nearer in the rural villages. There is a need for a
lengthy span of distribution lines and step-down transform-
ers to transfer the electricity. It leads to increased transmis-
sion losses. If the electricity demand of a house is 1.0 kWh/
day, the generated electricity in the conventional power
plants should be around 4.0 kWh/day. Roughly, 80% of gen-
erated electricity will be lost by long transmission and distri-
bution lines and that’s why most of the rural villages are not
January/February
283
10.1002/ep
electrified. Therefore, the cost of electricity per unit can be
four times the actual cost ($0.21). The payback period of
SWT, will be reduced to 4.0 years.
The estimated annual electricity generation of the pro-
posed SWT will be 245 kWh/year when the SWT is kept on
the highways. Through annual electricity generation, the rev-
enue will be around $35.89. The annual maintenance cost
will be around $7.78for painting, cleaning, and lubrications
in bearings. Therefore, the yearly revenue will reduce to
$28.11. The estimated life of this project is around 20 years.
From the present worth method, the rate of return has been
found to be around 16% when the SWT is placed on the
highways and nearly 5% when the SWT is kept near houses
(as per the wind energy selling price per kWh). The level-
ized cost of electricity (LCOE) per kWh of this project is
found by the Eq. 6. The LCOE is around $0.04 when the
SWT is kept on highways and $0.07 when the SWT is placed
near houses.
Total cost of ownership over lifetime
LCOE5 ð6Þ
Total electrical energy generated in the system over lifetime
$117:51$4:68320
LCOE ðSWT kept in highwaysÞ 5 5$0:04=kWh
ð245320Þ kWh
$117:51$4:68320
LCOE ðSWT kept near houseÞ 5 5$0:07=kWh
ð138:7320Þ kWh
If government subsidy is provided to the SWT setup, the
payback period may fall less than the calculated period.
Under the carbon trading, for generating 1 kWh of electricity,
the fuel used is at least 0.5 kg of coal. A carbon tax of $0.73/
ton needs to be included by generating electricity through
coal.
From this whole data collection exercise, it has been
observed that the wind speeds were not the same as the
data available in the websites. For the real time applications,
especially in low rise, the wind speeds were different due to
the obstacles to the wind flow. From the obtained data in
highways, the wind speeds are increasing by around 44%
from the normal wind speed. The proposed SWT can be
used as a stand-alone system for small isolated homes and
terrains to meet the electrical energy demands.
The proposed SWT has the following advantages and
novelties: The SWT has been specially designed and tested
for highway wind energy generation applications. It can be
operated at lower wind speeds (the cut in speed of the SWT
is around 3.5m/s). The maximum coefficient of performance
of the SWT is around 0.3. The SWT was made using low-cost
and reusable materials. The cost of the proposed SWT is 1/
4th the cost of the SWTs available currently in the Indian
market. The LCOE is between $0.04/kWh and $0.07/kWh.
CONCLUSION
In this work, a low cost wind turbine was designed, fabri-
cated, and tested for electricity generation in the highways
for rural household applications. A vertical axis savonius
wind rotor blade was selected for this project due to its good
starting behavior characteristics. Low cost and used materials
were used for fabricating the wind turbine. Gear arrange-
ments were found to be suitable for the power generation
application at low wind speeds of around 3.5 m/s. The start-
ing behavior was tested in an open wind tunnel and the
results were found to be satisfactory.
The finished prototype was placed on the medians of the
highways and the electrical power output was measured at
varying wind speed conditions. It was also observed that,
the selected road direction and the direction of the wind
with respect to that road play an important role in the SWT
behavior. The SWT power output increased to about nearly
284 January/February
Environmental Progress &2019 Environmental
Sustainable Energy (Vol.00, Progress & Sustainable Energy (Vol.38, No.1) DOI
No.00) DOI 10.1002/ep
30% (considering single lane vehicle traffic) and 66% (con-
sidering traffic on both lanes) due to the accelerated wind
speeds created due to the drag force caused by the vehicular
movements. The electrical energy generation on the high-
ways was around 0.67 kWh/day. The SWT prototype has
been designed for easy mobility. In addition, the SWT was
placed at a rural house (in an open area with minimal
obstructions for flow of wind) and the electrical energy gen-
erated was observed to be 0.38 kWh/day.
Average energy consumption was calculated for few rural
houses. The average consumption is around 2.4 kWh/day
and the households suffer an average electrical power cut of
0.2 kWh/day. The electrical power cuts increase in summer
and the demands goes up to 0.6 kWh/day. The proposed
SWT can be installed on highways and could be used for
meeting the peak energy demands during summer season. If
the SWT is placed near the houses, then it may help in meet-
ing the energy demands during power cuts for about 2 h.
Therefore, it is suggested that the proposed SWT can be
installed on the highways to meet the energy needs of the
surrounding rural areas across all seasons. The payback
period of the setup is also short due to its economical con-
struction using low cost materials. When multiple turbines
are used, the complete energy demand can be fulfilled eco-
nomically for the rural houses. In the future, for installing
multiple turbines on the highways, the selection of the roads,
direction of the roads, monsoon effects, and the offset dis-
tance between the two turbines must be studied for better
understanding and optimization.
NOMENCLATURE
A swept area (m2)
Ct coefficient of torque
D diameter of the wind rotor (m)
E energy consumption (kWh/day)
GWEC global wind energy council
HAWT horizontal axis wind turbine
LCOE levelized cost of electricity
MNRE Ministry of new and renewable energy
NHAI National Highways Authority of India
P power consumption (W)
SWT Savonius wind turbine
TNEB Tamil Nadu Electricity Board
TANGEDCO Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution
Corporation
T torque (Nm)
VAWT vertical axis wind turbine
t duration of energy consumption (hour)
q air density (kg/m3)
v wind velocity (m/s)
ht turbine efficiency
hg generator efficiency
hr rotor efficiency
htotal total efficiency
LITERATURE CITED
1. Sunderland, K.M., Narayana, M., Putrus, G., Conlon, M.F.,
& McDonald, S. (2016). The cost of energy associated
with micro wind generation: International case studies of
rural and urban installations, Energy, 109, 818–829.
2. GWEC. (2016). Global Wind Energy Council. Global
wind report 2016; Available at: http://files.gwec.net/
register?file5/files/GWR2016.pdf. Accessed on April
10, 2018.
3. NIWE. (2016). National Institute of Wind Energy [Online].
Available at: http://niwe.res.in/information_isw.php.
Accessed on April 10, 2018.
4. Sukanta, R., & Antoine, D. (2016). Unsteady analysis on
the instantaneous forces and moment arms acting on a
10.1002/ep
Month 2018 7
 novel Savonius-style wind turbine, Energy Conversion
and Management, 121, 281–296.
5. Ahmad, G., & Amin, U. (2017). Design, construction and
study of small scale vertical axis wind turbine based on a
magnetically levitated axial flux permanent magnet gen-
erator, Renewable Energy, 101, 286–292.
6. Zendehbad, M., Chokani, N., & Abhari, R.S. (2016).
Impact of forested fetch on energy yield and mainte-
nance of windTurbines, Renewable Energy, 96, 548–558.
7. Mahmoud, N.H., El-Haroun, A.A., Wahba, E., & Nasef,
M.H. (2012). An experimental study on improvement of
Savonius rotor performance, Alexandria Engineering
Journal, 51, 19–25.
8. Chong, W.T., Naghavi, M.S., Poh, S.C., Mahlia, T.M.I., &
Pan, K.C. (2011). Techno-economic analysis of a wind-
solar hybrid renewable energy system with rainwater col-
lection feature for urban high-rise application, Applied
Energy, 88, 4067–4077.
9. Chong, W.T., Fazlizan, A., Poh, S.C., Pan, K.C., & Ping,
H.W. (2012). Early development of an innovative building
integrated wind, solar and rain water harvester for urban
high rise application, Energy and Buildings, 47, 201–207.
10. Saqr, K.M., & Musa, M.N. (2011). A perspective of the
Malaysian highway energy consumption and future
power supply, Energy Policy, 39, 3873–3877.
11. Musa, M.N., Osman, K., & Hamat, A.M.A. (2012). Renew-
able energy from induced airflow generated by cruising
ground vehicles in tandem using RANS, Energy Procedia,
14, 1877–1882.
12. Morbiato, T., Borri, C., & Vitaliani, R. (2014). Wind
energy harvesting from transport systems: A resource esti-
mation assessment, Applied Energy, 133, 152–168.
13. Goh, S.C., Boopathy, S.R., Krishnaswami, C., & Schluter,
J.U. (2016). Tow testing of Savonius wind turbine above
a bluff body complemented by CFD simulation, Renew-
able Energy, 87, 332–345.
14. Wiegel, T.F., & Stevens, K.C. (2005). Traffic-driven wind
generator. U S Patent US007098553B2.
15. Taiming, C. (2006). Power generation system utilizing
wind draft from vehicular traffic. U S Patent US7427173
B2.
16. Kamoji, M.A., Kedare, S.B., & Prabhu, S.V. (2009). Experi-
mental investigations on single stage modified Savonius
rotor, Applied Energy, 86, 1064–1073.
17. Mohamed, M.H., Janiga, G., Pap, E., & Thevenin, D.
(2010). Optimization of Savonius turbine using an obsta-
cle shielding the returning blade, Renewable Energy, 35,
2618–2626.
18. Golecha, K., Eldho, T.I., & Prabhu, S.V. (2011). Influence
of the deflector plate on the performance of
modified Savonius water turbine, Applied Energy, 88,
3207–3217.
Environmental
8 Month 2018Progress & Sustainable Energy (Vol.38, No.1) DOI 10.1002/ep
Environmental
Progress & Sustainable Energy (Vol.00, No.00) DOI2019
19. Kumbernuss, J., Chen, J., Yang, H.X., & Lu, L. (2012).
Investigation into the relationship of the overlap ratio
and shift angle of double stage three bladed vertical axis
wind turbine, Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial
Aerodynamics, 107–108, 57–75.
20. Menet, J.L. (2004). A double step Savonius rotor for local
production of electricity: A design study, Renewable
Energy, 29, 1843–1862.
21. Alonso-Estebanez, A., Pascual-Mu~ noz, P., Yag€ue, C.,
Laina, R., & Castro-Fresno, D. (2012). Field experimental
study of traffic-induced turbulence on highways, Atmo-
spheric Environment, 61, 189–196.
22. Kalthoff, N., Baumer, D., Corsmeier, U., Kohler, M., &
Vogel, B. (2005). Vehicle-induced turbulence near a
motorway, Atmospheric Environment, 39, 5737–5749.
23. Quinn, A.D., Baker, C.J., & Wright, N.G. (2001). Wind
and vehicle induced forces on flat plates-Part 2: Vehicle
induced force, Journal of Wind Engineering and Indus-
trial Aerodynamics, 89, 831–847.
24. Sanz-Andres, A., Santiago-Prowald, J., Baker, C., &
Quinn, A. (2003). Vehicle-induced loads on traffic sign
panels, Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aero-
dynamics, 91, 925–942.
25. Sovran, G., Morel, T., Mason, W.T., Jr. (Eds.). (1978).
Aerodynamic drag mechanisms of bluff bodies and road
vehicles, New York: Plenum Press.
26. NHAI. (2017). National Highways Authority of India
[online]. Available at: http://www.nhai.org/statewise1.
asp. Accessed on April 10, 2018.
27. Santhakumar, S., Palanivel, I., & Venkatasubramanian, K.
(2017). A study on the rotational behaviour of a Savonius
Wind turbine in low rise highways during different mon-
soons, Energy for Sustainable Development, 40, 1–10.
28. Al-Bahadly, I. (2009). Building a wind turbine for rural
home, Energy for Sustainable Development, 13, 159–165.
29. Loo, Y.Y., Billa, L., & Singh, A. (2015). Effect of climate
change on seasonal monsoon in Asia and its impact on
the variability of monsoon rainfall in Southeast Asia, Geo-
science Frontiers, 6, 817–823.
30. TAWN. (2016). Tamil Nadu Agriculture Weather Network.
[Online]. Available at: http://tawn.tnau.ac.in/General/
HomePublicUI.aspx. Accessed on April 10, 2018.
31. Coimbatore weather station. Wind finder. [Online]. Avail-
able at: http://www.windfinder.com/windstatistics/
coimbatore_airport?fspot5coimbatore
32. White, L.V., & Wakes, S.J. (2014). Permitting best use of
wind resource for small wind-turbines in rural New Zea-
land: A micro-scale CFD examination, Energy for Sustain-
able Development, 21, 1–6.
33. TANGETCO. (2016). Tamil Nadu Generation and Distri-
bution Corporation. [Online]. Available at: http://www.
tangedco.gov.in/index1.php?tempno51. Accessed on
April 10, 2018.
January/February
285
10.1002/ep