Vortex Engineering has come up with the idea of developing a solar-powered ATM that will dispense money to folks in a Tamil Nadu village in India. The company is a start-up that was incubated at Chennai’s Indian Institute of Technology, and this particular solution will not only reduce energy use in the city, it will also be able to be far more power efficient compared to traditional ATM machines, as it runs on a mere 10% of the energy required by conventional machines. Thanks to the low-power design, it also results in very little heat. Called the “Gramateller”, where “gram” stands for “village” in Hindi, it will be able to function in the extreme heat of summer as well as chill of winter.
So far, 450 Gramatellers have already been installed in the majority of small towns located between 30 and 60 kilometers from the bank’s headquarters. Vortex marketing manager, Sabarinath Nair, has a plan to install another 10,000 of these puppies around the country within the next couple of years, and will also be eyeing on other countries such as Bangladesh, Madagascar, Nepal, and Djibouti. Since most ATMs also do not dispense money after midnight, it makes sense to be solar powered – as there is no need for the machine to run when the moon is out in full.
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