Tags: Education News, Renewable Energy
By Anna Valmero
TANAY, RIZAL—Spending a night in sitio Bayucan in Barangay Sampaloc here will remind you of Filipino communities during Spanish era, with gas lamps and candles as their main source of light.
But a group of students from Mapua Institute of Technology School of Mechanical engineering hope that the community’s situation will improve by next year as they plan to set up a low-cost wind turbine in the area.
Taking inspiration from a 1960s wind turbine design, the wind turbine will use low-cost polyethylene terephthalate (PET) sail cloth for the blades, said Jane Ruth Acedillo, a fourth year mechanical engineering student involved in the project.
Meanwhile, a ten-meter high tower will be built using GI metal tubing with mild steel plates for top and bottom stability. Styrofoam was used as droop spar for the blades because it can be easily shaped to desired airfoil for the turbine, Acedillo added.
The students were advised by Engr. Jaime Honra, team leader, and Engr. Mark Christian Manuel, their thesis co-adviser, to look into the design of the Princeton Sailwing Windmill designed by TE Sweeney in 1960s.
Using low-cost, local materials, the group aims to fabricate the ten-meter high wind mill for only P400,000, said Acedillo during the sidelines of the National Renewable Energy Program launched by the Aquino administration.
“Tapping renewable energy is the way to go for the electrification of off-grid villages such as sitio Bayucan. We selected the area for the project because of the good to excellent rating of wind speed in the place,” Acedillo said in an interview.
With a three-bladed rotor measuring 7.6 meters in diameter and made of PET, the wind turbine is expected to generate 2-3kW, which can light five lamp posts and give electricity to 44 households in sitio Bayucan, said Engr. Manuel.
For the site selection, the group considered the wind resource potential in the area, which was rated “good to excellent” by US-based National Renewable Laboratory (NREL)’s wind atlas.
This rating corresponds to average wind speeds of four meters per second and up to 20m/s. Given the light material used for the blades, the group expects that even at 4m/s, the turbine will be able to generate power for the community.
Based on records of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), Rizal province is rated 50th most visited area by typhoons in the Philippines, which means typhoons will have less impact on the wind turbine structure, said Acedillo.
The group is currently looking for donors to fabricate the full-scale wind turbine in sitio Bayucan by the first quarter of 2011. Acedillo said that if they become successful in fabricating the first one, they can replicate the structure in off-grid areas with good wind speeds.
Through public consultations among the local government units and communities in the area, Acedillo said they received positive response from the locals, who in turn committed to help in building the wind turbine by providing free labor in the spirit of bayanihan.
Get more information about Mapua Institute of Technology
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