Kijito Wind Power Limited

Generating power and accessing electricity are not easy tasks in many remote areas of the world. Wind battery charging systems are particularly suited to meet the constraints of the remote areas : they are robust, easy to operate and maintain, available in a wide range of sizes and configurations and very cost effective.
Wind battery charging projects require a medium to high wind resource. Therefore it is important to gather as much information as possible about the project site wind regime.

Your own knowledge is often an essential start but be careful with misleading feelings, underestimation or overestimation. Wind might also blow by night! Finally measurements are always better than human feeling! Observing the vegetation is an interesting easy way to get a first good idea about the wind resource. Indeed where wind blows strongly the vegetation has the tendency to be inclined towards the direction of the prevailing winds. A flag at your local school can also give a good, initial, insight into your local wind conditions. When available, data from a nearby meteorological station provides accurate information. The internet also provides also various wind data sources; don't hesitate to enter ''wind data'' and your local place, neighbour main city or your country in a web browser. If you need help for defining your local wind climate, you are always welcome to email us.

For wind battery charging projects, the main issue is the intermittency of the wind resource. The longest expected period with no wind is an important parameter to size the battery storage bank. To overcome the issue of too large (and therefore too expensive) battery bank, adding a solar panel as a back-up power generation system is a clever option.
Therefore hybrid wind-solar projects provide the great advantage to reduce the dependency to weather uncertainties and increase power supply securing. Solar photovoltaics and wind turbines are very much complementary technologies!

The battery storage bank is a key point. On top of the longest period with poor resource, the daily power demand influences largely the size of the battery bank.
Wind battery charging projects need to be efficient to be effective. Therefore, within our criteria for defining a suitable small wind turbine system for battery charging, the performance in low and medium wind regimes is a key one. But efficiency covers a larger scope which should also encompass the global power system and especially the installed appliances: to enjoy the electricity from batteries, it is a requirement to opt for energy saving devices.

You have already a solar panel system, your place is windy, and you are thinking about a bigger power supply: a wind turbine is the solution. Wind power can be as much as 5 times less costly than photovoltaic on the whole project life while you can select from various wind turbine sizes the adequate wind power system to your energy needs.

Wind energy is the perfect choice which combines the economic and environmental benefits of a mature renewable energy technology with improving the sustainability of the local power generation scheme and the connected energy services. Wherever there is wind, wind is best.

Wind battery charging option meets perfectly the small power needs in rural areas of Africa: it is an ideal configuration for a first access to electricity. Therefore wind battery charging is very adaptable to rural schools, administrative building, small businesses, farmers...

Regarding community's electrification projects, different configurations can be developed enabling the community/end-users to access electricity following a progressive transition from kerosene lamps to electric lighting. A community battery charging centre can be set up where each family bring their battery for charging. A mini grid with a large central battery bank is an alternative. In todays world the charging of mobile phones is one very effective use here.

Thanks to wind power, the end users get the opportunity to link their electrification project with income generation activities. A small commercial centre can be powered; farmers and industries can be supplied with more secure and larger amount of power; services can be more effective.
The involvement of the end-users is a key of success. Being aware of the wind resource, managing the power consumption, anticipating high power demand events are some ingredients that will make a project sustainable.

To reinforce the sustainability of a wind battery charging project, Kijito Wind Power Limited is developing guidelines and tools to help the end users to understand the operation of the wind battery charging system and manage efficiently their power consumption. We can provide on request cheap and efficient wind measurement systems and own-developed computer programmes which enables the end-users to be aware on-time about the variation of the wind resource and their energy consumption. We select and develop easy-to-operate tools and provide training sessions.