Gift sustainable things!

It is always a very tough trade off – environment or development. As India grows, the hunger for power is only increasing. Be it thermal or hydro, the kind of damage it wrecks on the environment is undeniable. Yet, we continue unabashedly, depleting all things natural.

We are blessed with abundant sun and wind; these are the best sources of natural energy. And a sibling team – two brothers – Arun and Anoop from Kerala have founded their own startup – Avant Garde and they have developed a unique wind turbine which can be installed in the house itself and can generate enough power to light up the entire house for a lifetime. The size of a ceiling fan, this wind turbine can generate 5 kWh/kW per day — with just a one-time cost of US$750, which is roughly around Rs.50,000. This is cheaper than an iPhone which people scramble to buy!

The company launched its pilot project at a church in the capital city of Thiruvananthapuram in January this year. The small wind turbine prototype that it has developed is highly scalable for power capacities of 300 kW or even higher.

If only we all start gifting people such sustainable things rather than pocket and environment depleting things like the iPhone!