DIY Wind Turbine Workshop in Bicester

Posted on 05/07/2014 by hugh

Community Action Groups Oxfordshire

Thursday, 31 July 2014 at 10:00 – Sunday, 3 August 2014 at 18:00
Bicester, United Kingdom with V3 Power

“In this 4-day course we collectively build a 1.8m rotor diameter 300W wind turbine from scratch, in a community workshop..
Participants will:
– Develop practical skills such as welding, woodwork, electronics and working with resin.
– Develop knowledge of the theoretical aspects of wind energy, aerodynamics and alternator theory.
– Experience working in a team.
– Have fun!
On the Sunday afternoon, we will aim to practice setting up the completed wind turbine temporarily at a local site”

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2014 English Units Recipe Book available as ebook

Posted on 03/07/2014 by hugh

My Wind Turbine Recipe Book comes in two editions: Metric and “English Units” (also known as “Inches” or “North American” edition).  I had to publish the English units edition because the 46x30x10mm magnets, and the metric wire sizes that I normally use are not available in the USA.  In America generally you will find that Inches prevail, and also the rather limited range of AWG wire sizes.  The English Units edition is based on 2″ x 1″ x 1/2″ neo magnets.

cover inches 2014The English units edition is not a simple conversion of the sizes into inches and AWG etc.  It is a subtly different set of designs that works with these subtly different magnet and wire sizes.  My advice is not to mix the two books although the result will kind of work if you do.  Choose one system and follow the recipe for that.

Up to now the English Units edition has only been available in hard copy direct from me and from other outlets in America.  Now for the first time I have published it (in fully updated form for 2014) as an ebook (epub and mobi files etc) via Smashwords.  In due course it will appear at all ebook stores, Amazon Kindle, Apple, Kobo, scribd, etc…  For now you can buy it directly from Smashwords, here.

The $9.99 cost is a little higher than the cost of the 2010 kindle metric edition, but for North American readers I would say it is well worth the difference.  Similarly the 2013 metric edition is a better idea than the older 2010 Kindle one, although this 2013 is only available in pdf for now.

Book title Hard copy ebook
Wind Turbine Recipe Metric 2013 2013 pdf

2010 kindle
Wind Turbine Recipe Inches 2012 2014 all
2F construction manual   2014 all
Windpower Workshop 2011  
Scrapyard Windpower Realities (classic)   1992 all

 

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Performance data for two Recipe turbines

Posted on 22/06/2014 by hugh

New performance data is available from field tests in Holland showing the 1.8 metre diameter turbine producing close to the predicted energy at a 4.8 m/s average windspeed. This turbine is grid-tied using a Mastervolt inverter protected by LDR circuits.

 

Measured energy production versus the tabulated predictions in my book.

 

A similar test had already been done on the 2.4 metre diameter turbine on the same site, although windspeeds were a bit lower.

“I love Windpower” is a charity based in Holland with operations in Mali, Tanzania, Malawi, Brazil and Mexico.

They “Educate people in developing countries in small-scale wind energy and in running a business to manufacture, install, sell and maintain small wind turbines.”

Posted in construction, developing world, performance, power curve data | Leave a comment

Ideas for a 34 pole alternator design by Adriaan

Posted on 14/06/2014 by hugh

“Dear Hugh and others

During the last weeks I have designed a new water pumping windmill, the VIRYA-3S.

This 34polewindmill makes use of a direct drive 34-pole PM-generator and is primary meant to be coupled to the 3-phase asynchronous motor of a small centrifugal pump. However, the windmill can also be used for battery charging if the generator is provided with a low voltage winding rectified in star. The 34-pole generator is described in my free public report KD 560. A provisional folder of the VIRYA-3S windmill is also made. Both documents can be copied from my page on the website of Bidnetwork: http://www.bidnetwork.org/en/member/adriaankragten . An overview of four different ways how water can be pumped by a windmill is given in my free public report KD 490. The option with an electrical transmission is described in chapter 5. A prototype of the VIRYA-3S will be built by an Indian company.

Adriaan Kragten”

 

Posted in construction, People | 3 Comments

ebook plans for 2F turbine now finally published

Posted on 07/06/2014 by hugh

Over the last couple of years I have been building some ferrite magnet alternators.  This is partly due to the sharp increase in neo magnet pricing a few years back and also the problems I have seen with neo magnets corroding.  Ferrite magnets absolutely cannot corrode and the old ferrite alternator machines that I built 10-15 years back have not had problems with their magnet rotors.

I have focused on 2 metre and 3 metre blade diameters for the ferrite projects that I have done recently, and I call them 2F and 3F for short.  I have good performance data from a 2F machine here on Scoraig, and it’s efficiency has been great whilst it has also completed 18 months of service without any teething troubles at all.

It has taken me a while to finalise my documentation of the 2F design but I have now uploaded an ebook to Smashwords, and hope that in time they will distribute it to Amazon etc.  Meantime you can buy it in any digital format you like directly from Smashwords.

cover

I plan to also print some paper copies and offer them for sale in due course.

I apologise for not giving this information away for free.  Enterprising readers will presumably find a way to steal it anyway.  But bear in mind if/when you do this that I have put untold hours of loving work into preparing this document.  Hours that I could have spent doing something rather better paid.  I have received abusive messages saying I should not be charging money for this, but given that the price of the book is less than almost any item in the list of materials you will need to build it, I feel that my pricing is not unreasonable.

Have fun!  Hugh

 

Posted in construction, ferrite magnets, my own projects | 39 Comments

Measuring the Power Curve of a Small-scale Wind Turbine

Posted on 05/06/2014 by hugh

Here is a paper conferencedescribing how they measured the power curve of one of my early-design turbines in Nicaragua.  They clarify the impact of various parameters such as generator heating, battery voltage, controller settings, furling system and anemometer
position.data scatter

The above chart is an example of the sort of data you can sometimes see and the paper explains how to clean it up.

Measuring_the_Power_Curve_SWT_QUEVAL_ece1_20140411

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Wind turbine builders from Holland

Posted on 02/06/2014 by hugh

Dear Hugh,

About a year ago we have had contact about the inverter choice for the 4200 project. The Ginlong inverter is doing a great job so far. The turbine has produced over 1000kwh after about 4 months on a 5m/s site. The looks of the turbine seem in great balance with in the landscape. In the attachment you can find some photos. We are editing a movie about the construction process.

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“Build a small wind turbine” workshop in Greece

Posted on 01/06/2014 by hugh

23-31st August: “Build a small wind turbine” construction workshop in Nea Makri, Greece

Kostas knows what he is talking about so this should be good.

 more details…WindTurbineCourseAug2014

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Workshop course in Buenos Aires in June

Posted on 22/05/2014 by hugh

Estimados,

Les acercamos toda la información de un nuevo Curso teórico-práctico de Aerogeneradores que estaremos dictando en Buenos Aires en junio.

Horario y Lugar: 4 al 7 de junio 2014. Buenos Aires
El curso comenzará el 4 de junio y se cursará el miércoles, jueves y viernes de 18 a 21hs en Almagro, y el sábado 7 de junio de 10 a 13hs la prueba al aire libre en Villa Lugano, Ciudad de Buenos Aires.

Consultas: [email protected]

Foto Curso
​

AEROGENERADORES:
Curso teórico-práctico en Buenos Aires

Costo e inscripciones:
El costo del curso es de $1100 por persona. Incluye manual de fabricación. Consultas: [email protected]

Contenido del curso:
1)    Proceso productivo. Te explicamos y mostramos:
a.    Cómo se tallan las aspas en madera.
b.    Cómo se hace el estator: fabricación del bobinador, de las bobinas, sus conexiones, y el molde para recubrir con resina y fibra.
c.    Cómo se hacen los rotores: plantilla para posicionar imanes, montaje de imanes, y molde para recubrir con resina y fibra.
d.    Como se hace la estructura de acero y el ensamble de punta de eje, maza y rodamientos.
e.    Cómo se hace el timón.

2)    Teoría. Te contamos acerca de los siguientes temas:
a.    Cómo funciona el aerogenerador: funcionamiento aerodinámico de las aspas, funcionamiento del generador, freno electromagnético, mecanismo “furling” de protección ante vientos fuertes.
b.    Cómo se arma y cómo funciona el tablero eléctrico: rectificador, regulador y desvío de carga, freno, protecciones.
c.    Potencia del viento, curva de potencia del aerogenerador, mapas de recurso eólico, estimación de la energía generada.
d.    Cómo se dimensiona el banco de baterías, en función de la energía generada y del consumo de energía.
e.    Distintos tipos de torres para montar un aerogenerador
f.    Costos de los distintos componentes y comparación con grupo electrógeno.

3)    Montaje. Ensamblamos todas las piezas, montamos el aerogenerador y hacemos pruebas eléctricas.

4)    Prueba final. Vamos a la costa del río de Vicente López, montamos el aerogenerador en una torre de pruebas, y probamos su funcionamiento.

Información de interés:
500RPM: Más información, fotos y videos sobre cursos y proyectos realizados: http://www.facebook.com/500RPM

Scoraig Wind Electric: Página y blog del ingeniero escocés Hugh Piggott, creador del diseño de aerogenerador utilizado: http://scoraigwind.co.uk/

Asociación Argentina de Energía Eólica: Información acerca de la energía eólica en Argentina, Latinoamérica y el mundo: www.argentinaeolica.org.ar

Windempowerment: Organización internacional que nuclea a todas las organizaciones que trabajan con el diseño de aerogenerador Piggott en el mundo: www.windempowerment.org

Atentamente,

Luciana Proietti

Equipo 500RPM
www.500rpm.org
www.facebook.com/500rpm

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Ecotricity saves Evance

Posted on 21/05/2014 by hugh

The green energy company Ecotricity has today bought small wind firm Evance out of administration.    Evance was the UK small wind company with the highest sales in recent years but there has been a big contraction in the market.  Also they are developing a new product(?)

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Posted in UK small wind scene | Leave a comment