Japanese engineers are working on a project to build wind turbines that can withstand the world’s worst typhoons.
Even those turbines can generate power even in the midst of natural disasters.
Mariel Robedizo Engranes was 15 years old when Typhoon Haiyan hit.
He lives in his hometown of Dolores, Eastern Samar, in the eastern Philippines.
The country regularly experiences typhoons but Typhoon Haiyan, known in the Philippines as Yolanda, was particularly intense.
It arrived on November 8, 2013, and it is one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded.
Typhoon Haiyan caused a storm surge – palm trees were uprooted by winds reaching 314 km / h (195mph), and roofs were torn off.
More than 6,300 people lost their lives in the storm, and thousands more were displaced. For those who survived, the lack of energy made the process of rebuilding their lives more difficult.
Engranes said his neighborhood was without electricity for two months after the typhoon.
After a natural disaster, it is here when electricity is needed most difficult to provide. But new answers could come from engineers in another disaster-prone region: Japan.
A start-up called Challenergy, based in Tokyo, has designed and built wind turbines specifically designed to operate in typhoon-prone areas.
For Atsushi Shimizu, founder and chief executive officer of Challenergy, the ideal setting for this powerful wind turbine would be somewhere like Eastern Samar where reliable electricity is scarce.
But it wasn’t Typhoon Haiyan that was originally inspired Shimizu.
It was another natural disaster that affected the Japanese people greatly like the earthquake and tsunami.
