wind turbine self-build course

[kita]

Thought this might be of interest to some here. Hope its in the right place and ok to post this sort of thing.

Thanks,

felix

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Wind Turbine Self-Build Course 23rd-27th November

V3 Power will be running a "How to Build Your Own Wind Turbine" course in
Lincolnshire in November. During the week the group will be
building a 2.4m turbine, 7m tower and installing an off-grid battery
system. Participants will gain an in-depth knowledge of the 'Hugh Piggott'
design of turbine, and receive plenty of hands-on practical experience. It
will equip participants with all the skills they need to be able to build
and install their own wind turbine, including blade carving, coil winding,
stator casting, and welding the turbine assembly.

The turbine is a suitable size for a low energy household and is optimized
for battery charging, so the design is most relevant to people planning an
offgrid home or smallholding. But with some modifications it could also be
grid-tied, and the tower design is such that the whole setup can be moved
around if necessary.

The course is being organised by V3 Power who have over two years
experience running these sort of workshops all over the country. The
emphasis is on reliability and simplicity of construction,
user-maintenance, and reducing the embodied energy of the build by using
recycled materials where possible. For details about their past and future
projects please check their website http://www.v3power.co.uk.

The course will be taking place at 'the Barn' which is a group of old
stables and farm buildings outside of Stamford in Lincolnshire, that were
converted about twenty years ago. Warm kitchen, big garden, and plenty of
woods to explore. Although the course is quite intensive there will be
time in the evenings for sitting by the open fire, lectures and film
screenings.

The course is run on a not for profit basis.

Cost: £450 Waged, £400 Mid-wage, £350 Low-wage or Student.

To book a place on the course please contact Aran or Tom at
info@v3power.org. Places are limited so please get in touch soon.

[Durgan]

The world works in watts. That simple device would supply so little power that it is almost useless. It might charge a battery over time, but is too small to have any real value.

What is the power output, when the winds blows?

After the initial cost is worked out, it is terribly expensive electricity and contributes little to reducing "green house gases" after the manufacturing is factored into the equation.

It is right up there with the electric car or ethanol. Everybody want to get on the current bandwagon, and ignore the cost analysis.
Take away taxpayers contribution and there would be little wind power electrical prodution. At best it is a sop to the Greens.

[Odsox]

Oh dear, how to depress someone on a dismal Monday morning.
You are the second person just lately on this forum to say that small home wind turbines are useless, and just when I have committed myself to trying just that.
I have a 1KW turbine waiting for me to get around to installing, with the hope that it will supply enough power to run my hydroponics system in the greenhouse and lights for the outbuildings, but from what you say I've just wasted my money.
Oh well, I have bought it now so we will see how good or bad it proves to be.

[MKG]

I think you might be being a tad unfair there, Durgan. By the looks of things, the course is designed to give you a grounding in the techniques rather than enable you to carry away your own mini-generator. Nor am I at all convinced that the CO2 cost of production of components (for, as you say, a generator of a decent output) outweighs the potential saving when the turbine is in operation. In fact, I seriously doubt that to be the case. Far more worrying for me is the number of people who seem to think a wind turbine will work just about anywhere.

I can't prove any of it, though - I've yet to see a set of figures from any party which has not been adjusted to meet the demands of the argument.

Mike

[KathyLauren]

According to the info on the website linked in the original post, the turbines are in sizes of 100W, 500W and 1000W. The 100 and 500 sizes would have limited use, but 1000W is a useful size. Just how useful depends upon how windy the proposed site is and what your electrical demands are.

I know of one couple nearby who live off the grid and meet all of their electrical needs with a home-built wind turbine very similar to the design on that site. I don't remember the exact wattage of their turbine, but I know it was in the 1000-2000W range. They are on a windy site; the turbine is mounted up on a 100 ft tower, and they have solar panels to help generate power. Their house has a "normal" number of light bulbs and kitchen appliances, including computer, TV and stereo, and they even have a washer and dryer, though I think the heat source for the dryer is propane. I presume that, on calm, cloudy days, they are careful about how much energy they use. As we all should be.

So, dismissing it as "a sop to the greens" is a rather silly thing to say. We need more people doing projects like this in spite of what the bean counters say. It is the bean counters who have gotten us into the present mess in the first place. The more people who are willing to ignore the bean counters and take environmental factors into the cost-benefit equation, the better.

[paul123456]

Hello there ,

every attempt to build and or install a wind generator is good .I'd like to do it but the provincal government don't.
They are all preaching green energy and the cut down on co2 , but they also prevent private households to do wind
energy projects. Strange or have they got friends in the energy companys ?

Further the tax payers contribution towards windpower is at least a good one , the recent tax payers contribution
towards the banking system that was a waste of money .

Today in Holland the dutch government killed a private bank , it was owned by a hard working self made millionair,
the same kind of persons who in the past have tried to do wind energy projects , but have been stopped by
our governments , I think they're all bent .

regards ,

Paul

[Odsox]

Take away taxpayers contribution and there would be little wind power electrical prodution.

Hang on, just re-read this post ..... WHAT taxpayers contribution !
I assume we are still talking about small scale home produced electricity from wind turbines.

I bought my turbine from a commercial company which I presume gets no taxpayers money and almost certainly pays tax itself.
I paid VAT on top of the purchase price, certainly no taxpayers subsidies to be had there.

If you are talking about commercial wind farms, then I'm pretty sure that there are no taxpayers contribution here in Ireland, and they are presumably making a reasonable profit too as they keep putting their prices down and building more wind farms.

Maybe it's a different situation in Canada, but maybe you should do a bit more research before making sweeping statements.

[contadino]

The uninitiated still haven't quite managed to grasp that domestic (or not grid-connected) generation and wind farms are different things - both from an implementation, and an economical perspective.

As you say Odsox, the homeowner who goes out and buys a turbine, and doesn't connect it to the grid gets no benefit beyond the electricity that the turbine produces.

As soon as you tie the turbine into a grid, and make use of ROC, feed in tariffs, etc.. you're getting into the murky realms of taxpayers funds. Even if the grants aren't coming direct from a government, the price of grid electricity is kept artificially low by the majority of governments (by way of direct investment, or tax breaks to energy companies.) The only way that grid-tied generation makes economic sense is to offer subsidies (which is what FITs, etc... are.)

Of course the irony is that coal, gas, and nuclear would all operate at a loss without subsidies, but dunderheads never seem to recognise that fact. A level playing field (i.e. no more planning applications for huge power stations fast-tracked, no subsidies, no tax incentives, no FITs, etc..) would see electricity costs rise to their true level and turbines & panels would suddenly become far more viable than fossil fuel and nuclear electricity.