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 MinVayu's is working on a way to get small scale wind affordably into the hands of rural poor through developing a distribution network of mechanics.
Natural Innovation has been mentoring MinVayu to work out its business model, and prepare to raise money, and is finding pro-bono engineering support for their development program.
MinVayu's founder, Jorge Ayarza's background is in small wind, and he used to run the Dealer training department at Southwest Windpower in the US. Now he lives in Auroville and he has a set of solutions to crack the small wind affordability problem.
Jorge's analysis is that there are three components to the cost of small wind.
- the cost of the turbine
- high labor costs
- high balance of system costs.
Part of the challenge for small wind - or any distributed renewables - in developing countries is the lack of an effective network to sell, install and maintain the systems. Jorge believes that if you use a design that is intrinsically maintainable, then it is possible to train village mechanics to assemble turbines; build and erect the towers and maintain the turbines. This would reduce the cost of sales and maintenance that has to be built into the price of each system. This is similar, but subtly different, to the approach of Barefoot College.
The design Jorge has selected for their first generation is that of Hugh Pigott from Scorag Wind in Scotland which has received good reviews. The design was really intended for people who wanted to build their own turbines from scratch, anywhere in the world. The flaw in Hugh's model is that most people who want to own a wind turbine have no interest in learning how to build one, so relatively few have been built.
Jorge's idea is to train village mechanics - the kind you'll find all over India, or any developing country, fixing bikes and agricultural machinery. With basic welding equipment they should be able to construct the main parts of the turbine assembly, and the tower. In Hugh's design, the blades are made of wood, however this requires a lot of labor, so Jorge believes it will be more economical to use Injection Moulded blades. The generator and electronics can be supplied by independent manufacturers, reducing the cost and increasing the reliability.
The second generation turbine will be even lower cost, and be designed so that the balance of system costs are reduced as well.
To complete the project, Jorge is looking for some volunteer help, there are several areas for potential help:
- helping complete and optimise the design and processes for building the turbine,
- supporting, and systematising the training and documentation, for a lower-literacy audience
- helping create and prove a business model that allows for everyone to get paid: trainers; mechanics/installers; component manufacturers
- Interns would ideally be based at Auroville, in Southern India, although for people who have some skills already, it could also be possible to participate remotely in some aspects.
Jorge can be reached at
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