Build Your Own Wind Turbine

WindEmpowerment has launched the "Open Source" R&D platform !Here we collectively setup research projects with volunteers that contribute to make the turbines more attractive to setup in remote area’s.We have currently 4 active proposals and 2 active projects published on the site. These can be respectively found at:http://windempowerment.org/02-research-proposals/http://windempowerment.org/03-research-projects-list/The platform is setup to ensure that:- We keep it simple- We can get an overview of our different technical competences and contact the right people when needed.  - We can reflect collectively at a proposal and make sure upfront we are doing the right thing with the best approach.- We will start with…

Thirty-five years ago, Hugh Piggott built his first wind turbine on the isolated peninsula of Scoraig, Scotland.  Today, more than 1000 Piggott-designed small wind turbines are installed on six continents, the majority of these were built and installed by their owners.A joint Tripalium/EolSenegal training course during the February 2011 World Social Forum grew into the first ever International Locally Built Small Wind Conference.An association, WindEmpowerment, has been created with working groups targeting Technology and Social Economic issues.  The idea of WindEmpowerment is to share contacts, experiences, problems, and solutions. Through joint teamwork, WindEmpowerment aims to give new initiatives a helping hand…

Wind tunnel testing of a 1.8 diameter wind turbine based on the design of Hugh Piggott. The first set of wind turbine tests will result in a powercurve for the potential aerodynamic performance for different types of loads on the turbine. From a second set of wind tunnel tests the real powercurve will result. In this test the complete generator system including the battery will be tested. From this test also the furling behaviour will be identified. Hugh Piggott says on his blog"I am not sure that the wind tunnel will give a realistic idea of the way the turbine furls…

The students from the Yombo Vocational Training Center have to live with a disability. But this doesn't mean that they are disabled in general, or even worse: 'un-able' in general. That's what we have proven with this outstanding performance. In the past two weeks students, teachers and instructors from 'I Love Windpower' have worked together intensively. We started with pure building materials from scratch. Slowly parts of the wind turbine were emerging. After one and half week the wind turbine was ready and tested on a low tower at the school. And a few hours ago, we erected the turbine…