Shri Bhavani Museum situated on the hilltop in Aundh, Satara district, Maharashtra. It is surrounded by lush green hills, rivers, and lakes. The annual average wind speed of this area is 5.2 m/s at 20 m and 6.3 m/s at a height of 50 m. so, in December 2013, a Windistar 4500 (4.5 kW) wind turbine developed and manufactured by Luminous Renewable Energy, Pune was installed here on a mast of 18 m.
The name ‘Windistar’ is derived from three words Wind, India, and Star which means ‘a star performer wind turbine from India’.
· The main technology focus was on the two main components of a wind turbine, namely the blades and the alternator.
· With this wind turbine and 3.6 kW solar panels, storage batteries, and inverter, the hybrid power plant provides most of the electricity required by this museum.
· It also takes care of full backup power during power cuts, which last for four hours or more on most of the days.
Since last one year, this wind solar hybrid system has been generating around 1,300 kWh units of DC energy per month during windy season and 700 kWh per month during non-windy season.
The 4.5 kW WindiStar wind turbine generates the balance energy between 1,000 kWh/month in monsoon and 350 kWh/month during other seasons. After efficiency loss in the battery and inverter, the museum gets about 550–1,000 kWh of 230 VAC power of grid quality. It provides more than 5 kW output at 12.5 m/s wind speed and almost 6 kW at a little higher wind speed.
Location: Maharashtra