Solar Power Using Reflectors

Solar Power is always fascinating. I am not sure why the technocrats, dreamers and people at large are struggling to perfect the same, when it is available in plenty. Perhaps there is an invisible hand from oil companies and electronics industry who create equipments with planned obsolescence and present automobile industry to curb any development happening in battery, semi conductor or conventional thermal equipments.


Mr. Desai with his creation. Large dish useful for hostels.

What I saw in TinyTechIndia was de-mystifying. Very simple, affordable solar cookers for home and large institutions been perfected. I put my hand on the focus point of one of the reflector which was kept in a corner, dusty and half shadowed. Still I could feel the intense heat of Aditya, the SUN. I am convinced that many applications can be built around this reflector.  The beauty about his design is that this entire dish can be dismantled and packed to the size of a golf kit.

Mr. Desai had already experimented with various types of reflectors. His  11.5 Meter


Me touching the focal area to feel the heat

Square reflector array with 500 mirrors is an achievement by itself. He is exporting smaller versions of cookers to hostels, old age homes and households. Using one of the reflectors, they have cooked 20 KG of rice in 1 Hour.

For my farm I wanted to explore if I can generate enough steam to run a steam engine using reflector. Though I am not convinced about the parabolic dish shaped reflector (Because it will require someone to manually turn table during the day. In case of cooking rice, one need not turn it for say, 1 to 2 hours. But beyond one hour, it requires adjustment to track the SUN).  I had suggested Mr. Desai if he can develop a cylindrical shaped reflector which he accepted in affirmation. Now the ball is in my court to confirm. I would do after some more study how to integrate the reflector, steam pipes, engine, generator, manpower and daily routine process. I need few more ideas.

Presently I am satisfied having found a source. Solar energy is no more a mystery for me but absolutely fascinating to work with.

Given here is Tinytech product brochure. Given here only for your interest. I am neither their sales promotor nor any retailer. Kindly contact the company for anything more.

Visit to Rajkot, TinyTechIndia Plant for Renewable energy

I had been to Rajkot yesterday to meet Shri V K Desi, an entrepreneur, social activist, industrialist above all a Gandhian - all in one. It is better to describe him in his own words thus..

"I am mechanical engineer and law graduate also. I am 65 years young. As I was born in poor farmer's family and as I am influenced by Mahatma Gandhi's life, my heart always burns for poor, oppressed and trodden people. But still I wasted 14 years of my precious young life in doing jobs for vested interest organizations like government, semi government organizations, big cooperatives etc. Then I summoned up all my courage and left the job in 1982 and founded TINYTECH PLANTS and since then I am deeply engrossed in development of small and simple technology for creating and strengthening local economy.

 

During the first few years of my experience, I realized that the entire world is rushing in the dangerous direction of centralizing production, centralizing economic and political powers and more and more exploiting common masses not only in poor countries but also in developed countries. I realized that this rush of the world is going to strike to dead wall. So called development is going to be proved as mirage in the desert to billions of people"

I had the privilege to spend few hours with him along with my friend Sridhar in which he took us to his "Pryog Mandir" which literally means "Temple of Advance Yoga" and showed his apparatus. This is his R&D/production center for renewable energy where he is developing steam engines, solar concentrators, wind mills and so on... I will be writing short articles on what I saw shortly and how that can be applied to support Rural economy and create sustainable employment...

 

Farm at Different Stages - Photo Summary

It is good to compare what it was and what it is now.... Let the pictures which are approximately taken from same place speak for itself.



December, 2011 and before

July, 2012

June, 2013



Now, Dec 2013.  Note that there is a realignment of Fence. (Separate story on that later).



First Plants Appear on Screen

I was very happy to see the first of the plants coming up.  Subbu had taken these snaps using camera I kept with him for remote monitoring.  Subbu is not a great photographer, but i am correcting him. He has improved. The common mistake everyone makes in digital cameras is that they shake the camera as soon as shuttur is pressed. The secret is to keep a second still even after pressing because the digital cameras set so many parameters before they decided to shuttur down at an arbitary interval which is not in the control of us.




There is nothing compared to Joy of seeing a tender plant in your own field

 


Kannan looking plants that he is tendering every day.  He waters them through muscle power (Hand boring)



As a strategy, Subbu has planted the saplings as follows with my consultation.

Larger tree varities, close to the inner fence with 10 to 15 feet spacing.  Savukku or Casuarina on the southern border to act as wind breaker. Actually I need wind, but I donot want dry wind that will carry away water.  bougainvillea should go close to the fence, all over. Currently I have brought only 100 of them. I need to increase the count after arrnging for water.   Other saplings are as per count and size here and there.

Casuarina is looking so tiny now. I am told this plant is breaking the polythene bagand growing fast in captivity. Therefore Subbu could not hold it stored, and had to be planted. He also had a peculiar observation. It seems some bird has broken the tips of only Casuarina plants. It canot be any animal as it is fenced.




These are awaitng plantation.  Mud has to be prepared. We have decided not to hurry planting them and increase burden of watering.  If I press hard, my lonely worker Kannan will leave me. If I relax, he will relax and project will not move forward. I have to hit a balance.

 

Boring covered with Hand pump.  A small cement tank has been built to catch the water so that pumping and irrigation can be separated.



Even though the tank is small, I am planning to experiment with some fishes.  I asked Subbu to fetch some fish babies (What you call it?) from the KVK in Tuticorin. They did not have any stock.



It was a mixed reaction after seeing the snaps.  Happy to see the plants and sad to find there are two few numbers to begin with. Now I need to seriously think of securing water supply through mechanical means using non-conventional energy if I need to increase numbers.

Wind Energy

Having decided to fully explore the renewable energy sources for the farm, one of the proposals at the back of the mind was the Wind Energy.  I have seen many wind mills all over the place. Thirumala Hills have plenty of them. South of my native place, the entire villages around Aralvaimozhi is filled with wind mills generating commercial electricity.  The wind blows through a gap in western ghats from Kerala in those places.

Bu they are very giant size wind Mills. I believe each of them costs around Rs. 1 crore or more.  Not affordable.  I need a tiny and efficient one.  Searching the internet, one will find very few of them. The practical experience of purchasing and installation wind pumps of reasonable size are mentioned in few blogs like Point Return. 

Recently I chanced upon a manufacturer TinytechIndia in http://www.tinytechindia.com  located at Rajkot, Gujarat.  I am attracted by the simple and bold philosophy of its owner Shri Mr. V K Desai - For Renewable & Solar Energy.  He is marvellous.

This is TinyTechIndia Wind Pump

Has invited me to visit his plant and I am scheduled to travel next week to get a first hand experience of watching few things. a) Steam Engine b) Wind Pump  and c) Solar Concentrators.  All these are time tested, vintage technologies that will never fail. I am going to try atleast two of them.

Presently it is important to measure the wind speed at the farm. For this one needs an instrument called Anemometer. After doing some study and enquiries, I found a cheap and best anemometer in the market manufactured at Nashik. I have enquired for a "Cup Counter Anemometer".  This instrument will be tied to a pole and eracted in the farm. There will be a physical counter which will advance as the spindle rotates due to wind. Once a week we need to take the readings from this counter and estimate the wind speed or volume for the given time.

I just donot want to take a chance and want to be sure that there is some wind movement at any time of the day.

Anemometer : Courtesy Internet

The preference of wind over solar is that the wind is available day and night.  I just need some wind everyday to pump water from a depth of 40 feet.  My idea is that if giant size wind turbines weighing several tonnes can be rotated by wind, why can't a simple sail based fan run properly. Specifications say that we just need 10feet/sec wind speed. I want to measure this.  I hope to do this from next week, once the instrument reaches the site.



I said NO to Free Electricity proposal

I have taken the best ever decision which is backed by my long standing conviction and satisfaction. I said 'NO' to an idea to apply for 'free' electricity connection to my farm.  Not that it is so easy to get. I hear there is a waiting list of 3 years. But my farm supervisor was bringing a proposal whereby someone has promised that they will provide connection before May (elections) if we 'pay' money with 80% probability. That money could cost as much as one lakh. Left alone, many people will be dragged into this attraction, after all they will get lifelong free electricity even if upfront payment is high.

I explained to my supervisor as follows.

1. I donot anyway like the idea of 'free' current. Anyone who has taken free current is only misusing over a period of time. I have seen farmers just pumping water from boring into well for hours togather, i know not what they achieve.
2. Free current will not be there forever. Even after Kudankulam and other power plants, once again TN is in darkness with power cuts. Therefore there is no guarantee of power in TN.
3. I donot want to adjust to 'load schedules' of electricity board. I want power when i want.
4. I have no major machinery. By limiting to small current, I can limit my growth on any major power consuming activity and encourage energy effecient small scale things.
5. I want to give first preference to renewable energy. Crack the problem of Wind and Solar. Gas and solar concentrators are bit away once labour force comes in.

I have experience of planning for Solar. I did an intensive mental exercise as well are some study and have arrived at a model suitable for me.  My planning was in advance stage 6 months back. But due to some disagreement at home,  i had to postpone it. Now i will start thinking seriously. I need to relieve my lonely worker of his physical burden of handpump. Number of saplings are growing.  Otherwise my plan was as follows;

	Quantity
Solar PV Module - 250 Wp	3	Nos.
MC4 Connectors	1	Set
Module Mouting Frame	1	Set
Hybrid Solar Pump of 1.4 KW	1	No.
Starter Panel suitable for 1.4KW Pump	1	No.
Solar Cable, 4.0 Sqmm	40	Mts
Submersible Cable Suitable for 1.4KW	100	Mts

The solar panels to be installed at 6 feet height on pedastals with concrete base and iron rods. The submersible pump which is costly should be secured somehow.  The total spend would be around 1.5 lacs is my estimate.  Let me see.....

Note: My area is prone to theft in the night. Therefore I also need to have night watchman. That is one of the deterrence to go for more investment of costly items in my farm.

Backdated postings

Bloggers to this site are requested to check the backdated postings also. I am filling the gap beween now (2013) and 2010 with different stories of my experience.

Creating Swales in the farm

After reading the article "Falling in love with swales" from Mr. D V Sridharan's blog (http://pointreturn.com/2009/12/swales/), i also have now fallen in love. His own personal account and his presentation is excellent.  Though I cannot buy a JCB machine for myself (which I wish) as he has done, i do want to go ahead with swales with my own design manually or otherwise for catching the rain water which otherwise is going waste. I need water. Presently I have one borewell with a handpump.  With this, and one manual labour, i cannot grow many trees. Today irrigation is confined to whatever this man can reach to do. Presently only live fence is ON. Even there also some of the pine trees are still not planted and remaining in polythene bags, already tring to burst it and grow its roots out. I feel if I can replinish the ground water by recharging the ground, then i can go for more trees unattended. Initially when they are small, some hardwwork will be required for watering. Later their deep roots must be able to fetch water from underground themselves. 

That's my idea.  I just now discussed with my farm supervisor and friend. Explained him about premaculture and Swale in the language he can understand. I donot know how much he grasped, because anything I say he listens with eagerness and equal fervor. May be because it is a new concept or i am the boss. Whatever, he is going to help me. I am going to start the planning from 1600 Kms away. Now it is raining in my farm. I have asked for photographs of rain water stagnation points and flow marks and top soil erosion points. Let me wait.....

Tailpiece: I am also talking to my friend farmer shashi to cut swales in his coffee garden in Coorg. It will be more useful in the slopes to save rain water which otherwise will run down the hill.  I have personally experienced water problems in hilly areas. In my child hood we had severe water scarcity in Ooty where it rains many months !.  Because perhaps of wrong water management or bursting population

Completed some basics on the blog. You are invited to follow regularly once in a week

I have completed my Vision, Mission pages and the Background of the Initiatives. These are my 3 year old thoughts which are still fresh. Having done this background work, I can now start posting regular blogs.  I will start with procurement of land to begin with shortly.....

Selection of First batch of plants for fence

The following are the plants that I have selected for my Farm - first to go inside the fence.  The idea is to ;

1. Create a first level defence using bougainvillea  (Kakitha poo) supporting the wire fence. By the time the still wire mesh will rust away in 3 years, this thorny bush should takeover.
2. 2nd level plants like Marudani to grow into thick foilage.  Consists of two parts.  Flowering ones like Arali facing the road side. Useful ones like Kodukapuli on other sides.
3. Third level trees at 10 feet each. They can be flowering trees like Gulmohar on road side and useful ones like Neem at other sides.

The prices quoted are actuals from a nursary to give an idea of what is the expenditure outlay. Add Rs. 1500/- for lorry rent, loading and unloading with lunch.  Some of the plants quoted here are much more than the market rate of  saplings that are generally sold in a nursary. That is because, these are well grown plans, sometimes with the large pots, which we brought out as the nursary offered them without any choice.

Botanical Name	Local Name	Quantity	Rate	Total Rs.
Bougainvillea spectabilis	bougainvillea	100	15	1500
Pithecellobuim Dulce	Kodukkapuli	2	150	300
Nerium Olender	Arali	50	15	750
Caesalpinia Sappan	Pathimugam	25	30	750
Lawsonia inermis	Marudani	50	10	500
Baruhina Purpurea	Mandarai	5	30	150
bombax Cebia	Elavamaram	2	50	100
Cassia Fistula	Kanikondrai Kondrai (Yellow)	10	20	200
Delonix Regia	Mayflower Red (Gulmohar)	2	75	150
Michelia Champaka	Shenbagam	2	60	120
Sapthodea	patadi (Flame of forest)	5	20	100
Caesalpina Crista	Mut kondrai	5	20	100
bamboosa Oldhami	Giant Timber Bamboo	2	60	120
Bambusa Vulgaris	Yellow Bamboo	2	120	240
Bambusa Arundinacea	Common Bamboo	2	25	50
Casuarina junghuhniana	Savukku  common	1000	3	3000
Eucalyptus globulus	Southern Blue Gum	5	15	75
Syzygium cumini	Naaval	2	15	30
Joanesia Asoca	Ashoka	5	15	75
Azadirachta indica	Neem	50	15	750
Tamarindus indica L.	Puliyamaram	2	20	40
Citrus medica Linn.	Narathangai	5	30	150
Citrus medica Linn. 2	Narathangai 2	5	50	250
Emblica Officinalis	Peru Nellikaai	5	30	150
Citrus sinensis	Kamala Orange	2	250	500
Psidum gujava	Guava	5	50	250
Punica granatum	Madulai (pomagranate)	5	50	250
Cyathea dealbata	Pungan	5	15	75
Swietenia macrophylla	Magogani	5	15	75
Olea europaea	Pinnai	5	15	75
Prunus amygdalus	Almond (Badam)	5	15	75
Pterocarpus santalinus	Red Sander	5	20	100
Santalum paniculatum	Sandalwood	2	150	300
Magnifera indica	Alphonso Mango	2	125	250
Ficus benghalensis	Alamaram	2	60	120
Ziziphus jujuba	Ilandai Maram	1	125	125
	Palamaram	1	100	100
	Vadulam	5	15	75

The first plants to Go

With withdrawal of South west monsoon, rain fall has started in southern part of India. It is peculiar though. When north east cold currents force the south west monsoon clouds, the hitherto dry lands of southern tip of India, gets its full rain.  Otherwise a rain shadow region, for rain parched Nanguneri, these two months are important to get their maximum rain. Taking advantage of this, I have ordered about 1300 samplings from nearby nursery in Nagarcoil.  The farm that I was dreaming about for the past 3 years gets its first life.

A mixture of flowers, fruits, live fence, trees, shurbs to give color to the bio-diversity of my farm. There is a catch, though.  I have a hand operated pump installed on a newly dug borewell. that is all the source of water for my farm, which is fenced and secured.  A new employee, a farmer by himself is going to water these samplings.  My friend Subbu would provide his helping hand as usual. I am waiting for the snaps of the first few plants that are already installed. Subbu told he has dug 2x2 pits and placed fruit trees already with a circumference of planting not exceeding 50 meters from the hand pump, lest it will be difficult to irrigate.