Author Archives: hugh

About hugh

I live off-grid in NW Scotland and have spent my life playing with wind turbines. I also love small hydros. Hands on renewable energy is my thing and I like to learn and to share my experiences.

magnet4energy are selling my free plans

Posted on 17/01/2010 by hugh

Here is another scam. Magnet4energy are selling plans for ‘free energy’. What you get is an 80 page pdf document. More than half of this consists of my own description of how to build and alternator. You can also download … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Birth of the British Small Wind Association

Posted on 14/01/2010 by hugh

Stephen Tasker of Hymoto has outdone himself as the ‘loose canon’ of the UK small wind industry by setting up a new Association in competition with BWEA. “For the record I have repeatedly tried to work with the British Wind … Continue reading →

Posted in People, UK small wind scene | Leave a comment

Microgeneration scheme (MCS) approved turbines list

Posted on 13/01/2010 by hugh

There is now a list of wind turbines that are currently approved for the microgeneration certification scheme (MCS) here. These are only ‘transitional’ approvals though. They are the lucky ones that are eligible for Grants and Feed in Tariffs. Most … Continue reading →

Posted in UK small wind scene | 2 Comments

Email chat about batteries and how to store wind energy

Posted on 10/01/2010 by hugh

answering another email today… Hi Ruth, I have just come across your website (whilst looking for a feeder for bees, of all things!) and have not yet had time to check out all the links, so I apologise if my … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

News from Ti’eole in France

Posted on 08/01/2010 by hugh

La société TI’EOLE vous souhaite une heureuse année ventée pour 2010. En 2009, quatorze stages d’auto-construction ont eu lieu aux quatre coins de France. Une quarantaine d’éoliennes de type Piggott ont été réalisées au cours de l’année. On remercie la … Continue reading →

Posted in courses, France, People | Leave a comment

Course in Leitrim, Ireland soon

Posted on 04/01/2010 by hugh

Eirbyte are holding their own ‘build your own wind turbine’ course in Ballinamore on the 1st of February. PS THIS HAS BEEN MOVED DUE TO WEATHER AND IS NOW 15th – 19th FEBRUARY. Booking details are here

Posted in courses, Notices | Leave a comment

More about the scam mongers

Posted on 30/12/2009 by hugh

At the risk of getting boring about this… I thought it would be a good time to publish this email that I received earlier in the year about Earth4energy and the other bogus products being marketed by the same dreary … Continue reading →

Posted in Books | 1 Comment

Boston trials data

Posted on 30/12/2009 by hugh

Wind Turbines at the Boston Museum of Science: Production Data I am indebted to Paul Gipe for this link. Here we have real world data for some of the big players including Skystream, Swift, Proven and some of the vertical … Continue reading →

Posted in People | Leave a comment

Identity theft

Posted on 30/12/2009 by hugh

Try putting your own name into Google some time. I have just found a site called http://hughpiggott.com/ . It started with Amazon adverts for windpower books (I didn’t see them at first because of my adblocking program) but then lead … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Understanding the windspeed widget

Posted on 30/12/2009 by hugh

The wind widget on my front page was given me free by Logic Energy. It is fed with data from my house by a device called the LeNet. (I can access the data and make lots of interesting charts and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 12 Comments