A Nagpur-based industrialist claims to have devise a technique to harness the wind pressure on a moving train to generate power, and has even obtained patents for the concept.
The technique has the potential to generate 1481 GW of power in India alone, with its 63,000 route kilometres of railways and 14,300 trains operating every day, according to Santosh Pradhan, Chief Executive Officer of Sunita Electro Engineerings, a vendor of Mahindra and Mahindra Limited (M&M).
Now, 1481 GW is a lot. India’s current installed capacity is only about 150 GW!
Explaining the concept, Mr Pradhan said the wind pressure is created on the front surface of the engine of a moving train. This pressure can be harnessed using a system of turbo-chargers and impellers to generate a huge quantity of compressed air, which is then used to generate power.
According to the inventor, the best part of the proposed technique was that it would need only the initial capital investment for installing the equipment, and there would be little operating cost, except for minor maintenance and repairs, according to him.
Well, I cannot comment on this, as there is little information or data I have to confirm or reject this idea, but on the face of it, it is difficult to believe that ten times the amount of installed capacity be generated from this.
I plan to put in some time into this idea later this week and revert.
