The fuel crisis is likely to determine more countries to go green

Jul 9, 2012 12:00 GMT  ·  By

Dr. Wirachai Roynarin recently argued about how Thailand can find an easy solution for the energy crisis in turbines designed especially to harvest environmentally friendly energy at low winds speeds.

The professor, who also happens to be the owner of Prapai Technologies, a company that specializes in manufacturing such low wind speed turbines, truly believes that his designs are the way to go if Thailand is to efficiently harvest this type of green energy.

Climate Central reports that, as far as he is concerned, “When they bring windmills from abroad, they look like a monument, they don't rotate. Until a storm comes, then they rotate. They are not designed for most of our region.”

He goes on to explain that, precisely because they need strong winds, traditional turbines need be planted on high areas of land and this more often than not leads to deforestation. “Why do you have to destroy the forest and the fresh water to put the wind machine on a mountain? You can put a 10kw wind machine anywhere in Thailand.”

Therefore, time and money should be invested in modifying existing wind turbines in such ways that they can also serve countries whose general climate does not foster strong winds.

The same source informs us that Dr. Wirachai Roynarin's first project is a wind park made of 20 individual 10kw wind turbines, which are installed close to the village where the King of Thailand spends his summers.

Since the park's official name is King's Wind Farm, it is no surprise that Thailand's king himself fully supports the construction, whose main goal is that of supplying energy for its nearby communities.

Truth be told, some might argue that Dr. Wirachai Roynarin's continuous efforts to push for the use of low wind speed turbines in Thailand are first and foremost financially driven – given the fact that he owns the company producing them – but this does not necessarily mean that the end results are not both environmentally friendly and praiseworthy.