Unique 'plastic basin' wind-power used at fishing village

The floating fishing village in the Red River, which is called Ben Gom, is located in Tu Lien Ward, Tay Ho District, Hanoi. It includes 14 households who transport and trade pottery products or purchase scraps. Their houses are old iron boats.

In recent years, the power grid was extended to each boat. However, as their income is very low, paying power charges of VND200,000-VND300,000 ($10-15)/month was a big sum.

To help these poor families, in early June, an interior architecture company in collaboration with Plan International installed a wind power system in order to reduce costs.

This simple system works effectively, providing enough power to light boats.

The wind power system includes a motor, a steel pole, solar panels, propellers, a charge controller, a battery, and a 9W LED light bulb. This is a battery system installed on the roof of the boat to support the blower.

Power is stored in the battery to use for lighting.

The blowers are red plastic basins.

As one of the 10 families using the wind power system, Tran Van Xuan said his family saved some money by using this system. He wants to have a bigger battery to have more power reserves. 

These families still have to use grid power for fans or TVs.