The City of Tuzla is traditionally known as a city of heavy industry, salt, coal and pollution. The image of the city, after more than a century of industrial heritage, began to change only in the last 20 years. Today, with a focus on tourism, Tuzla is trying to find its place in the world. However, one of the biggest problems in Tuzla is the issue of energy production from fossil fuels.
Writes: Dino Šakanović
Cover photo: Freepik
A team of three young students and engineers wants to tackle this problem. Although Tuzla is not suitable for large wind farms such as those being built in Herzegovina due to wind speed, this team believes it has found a solution.
Veldin Lisičić is a student of civil engineering and the leader of the team, which also includes Edina Hasić, a mining engineer, and Zlatan Altumbabić, a student of electrical engineering. Their goal is to test, produce and set up mini-wind power plants in Tuzla.
Right at the beginning of our conversation, Veldin tells us how the whole idea came from a fake video on YouTube:
“I saw a fake video on YouTube of people making electricity with mini magnets. I found all the equipment and tried to imitate it from. Of course, that didn’t work. And after that I started researching.”
In his research, Veldin came across the concept of small vertical wind turbines that rotate around their axis, vertically. Such windmills are not suitable for installation in large wind farms, but they have many other advantages. Unlike large wind turbines, small vertical windmills do not produce noise and are not dangerous to birds. Therefore, they can be placed inside cities. They can power small consumers like traffic lights, parking meters and household appliances.
What is especially important for Tuzla, small windmills work at lower wind speeds: from 3 m/s to 12 m/s. They are about 1 meter in diameter and are built of light materials so that they do not destroy the statics of the buildings on which they are placed.
The project especially attracted Edina Hasić, who after graduating as a young mining engineer could not find a job in the profession, due to the crisis in this sector and the gradual abandonment of electricity production from coal around the world. Although a mining engineer, Edina says that during her studies she received an education in a much wider field of energy production:
“When it comes to mining, everyone immediately thinks only of mines, but mining, which is studied in Tuzla, is a conglomerate of sciences. I have a lot of knowledge about all energy sources and all energy resources, so windmills are not so foreign to me. Of course, they are not represented in educational terms as coal and energy production in that way, but they are represented. So, let’s start with some prior knowledge. “
Zlatan Altumbabić, a member of the team and a student of electrical engineering, is also a valuable part of the team because he understands not only electrical engineering but also the IT sector, which is necessary for almost every innovation in today’s world, including this one. The team plans to control mini windmills via mobile phones so that they can be easily switched off in case the wind speed exceeds a maximum of 12 m/s.
The team, although they knew each other from before, formally got together about 6 months ago and started developing the project. They tell us that the basic idea of the project is that every person, if there is wind potential, can set up a mini windmill to produce electricity.
Their goal is not only to present the idea of mini windmills in our area, but also to improve the design of these small electricity producers with their own ideas and patents. Speaking about patents, Veldin says that the patents they develop are no secret:
“We want to combine windmills and solar panels into one, so it will be something completely new even on the world market. We will use both wind and solar energy to produce electricity.”
They are currently in the middle of a wind potential research project in Tuzla. At 6 urban locations, they are installing devices for measuring wind speed, so-called anemometers. They plan to finish the final study at the end of February, but they say that the results are encouraging. According to Veldin, measuring wind speed is just the beginning:
“This is just one small step from what we plan to do. We want to make our mini vertical windmill, with the help of our anamometers that we have now, and we didn’t have them six months ago. We are exploring potential locations and want to set up our mini windmill for the benefit of the city.”
The procurement of anemometers and the preparation of an analytical study were supported by the Freedom Front, a non-governmental organization from Tuzla. The team says that this support is a big step for them because they managed to procure anemometers with the support of the Freedom Front and start researching potential locations.
At the end of our conversation, Edina says they are continuing with the project after completing the wind speed study:
“After the study, of course, depending on the results of that study, we think we will be able to say for sure where the windmill can be placed, and through further projects and further work and focus on building these windmills. We will first set up a test small vertical windmill. In any case, we plan to continue testing wind speeds outside the urban zone. It all depends on the wind and the friendliness of the citizens to allow us to set up anemometers.”
Even though the study shows that wind speeds are not enough, the team claims that this is a positive result because they will show whether Tuzla needs small wind farms or not. If wind speeds are too low for mini windmills, the team plans to continue research and discover other methods of generating electricity. They say that the idea of designing a mini windmill that would work at lower wind speeds than existing models is also open.
If the idea of these young people is realized, Tuzla could become a BiH leader in researching the potential of wind and its use. This group of young people wants to install an urban wind farm of small wind turbines in Tuzla and is working hard towards that goal.
