September 07, 2008

CIL WCL launches coalmine exhaust based windmill

It is reported that Mr Dasari Narayan Rao union minister of state for coal has launched a unique windmill power generation project at Coal India Limited subsidiary Western Coalfields Limited’s coalmine at Saoner in Maharashtra. In addition to the power generation, this project could earn about INR 0.23 million worth of carbon credits.

The wind mill, a pioneering research & development venture of Western Coalfields Limited, will harness electricity from the exhaust air of the underground mine, which otherwise go waste and will. The windmill project has been conceived and built with technical assistance from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology and is designed to produce 17KW power per year. The electricity generation project will eventually have four windmills installed at a cost of INR 0.226 million at the mine site.

The first windmill has been put up at a distance of 13 meters in front of the main exhaust mine ventilator fan. An inverter and storage battery are kept at the fan house room. The windmill is connected with the two batteries through a built in charge controller. Exhaust air from the main mine ventilator rotates the windmill blades to produce electricity. This energy is utilized for keeping the two batteries in a charged condition. The batteries are connected to the inverter, which converts DC power to AC electric energy.

Mr Rao said that “If the project becomes a success, it will be implemented in other coal mines in India. Economic growth of the country depends on power generation, which to a large extent, depends on coal. Therefore, higher production was necessary to meet the rising coal demand."