A Spanish team is in Mustang district to materialise Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s dream to generate electricity from the wind. The team, which has been working for the past two weeks, claims that the electricity generated by harnessing the wind power will illuminate Jomsom within a month.

Spanish investor Rafel Vinas Pich, engineers Casimiro Vardaguer and Marco Foz Vardaguer and a Nepali living in Spain, Pushparaj Timilsena, are working in the project.

Rafel and Timilsena are the main investors who formed the Buddha Power Pvt Ltd to study the feasibility of producing 3,000 megawatt of electricity using wind turbines in Jomsom. For trial, the company is working to generate 1.5 kilowatts, the company said.

The four-member team is setting up infrastructure on the premises of the District Police Office. “We are setting up this project at the police office for security reasons,” said Timilsena, who is also a former central advisor of the Non-resident Nepali Association. He said the technology was introduced in Nepal in collaboration with the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre.

A unique feature of the system is that the turbine rotates regardless of the direction of the wind, said Timilsena. Eight solar panels are connected to the system and the electricity generated from it will be stored in battery.

This is reportedly the first time an ultramodern meteorological instrument is going to be installed in Nepal. “After the completion of installation, we are preparing to hand it over to the government,” said Timilsena. The instrument will measure time, date, wind velocity and direction, heat, sunrays and humidity, he said. The data generated here will be displayed on the computer installed at the AEPC, Timilsena added.

The system can be installed in houses, the team claims. Two or three homes can install it in collaboration. Although the installation costs high, its expected life of 20 years will make it cheaper, according of company Chairman Rafel. The company bears the cost of investment in the pilot project.

After its completion, the company plans to invite the prime minister or a deputy PM to inaugurate the project in mid-July. The company said it would then initiate the process to set up plants to produce 3,000MW electricity.