Wind tunnel testing in Holland

Posted on 15/10/2011 by hugh

TU Delft are conducting tests on the 1800 turbine

The identification of the performance of the wind turbine will be done by means of wind tunnel testing. For this a 1.8 diameter wind turbine based on the design of Hugh Piggott will be used. 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. These first wind tunnel tests will clarify the performance of the wind turbine and make bottlenecks visible. Next to the wind tunnel test also experience and feedback from the field is required, to make a plan for an improvement of the wind turbine. The new design will be tested in the wind tunnel again and compared to the current design.

I am not sure that the wind tunnel will give a realistic idea of the way the turbine furls in real winds, but the testing is bound to reveal ways to improve the design.

Posted in People | 3 Comments

Proven reborn “Unfortunately it seems likely that Proven’s new owners will not be obliged to honour its guarantees”

Posted on 14/10/2011 by hugh

source

Receivers KPMG  said it had now sold the business and its assets to Kingspan Renewables.

The receivers said the successful sale not only safeguarded the jobs of 20 Proven Energy staff but provided an opportunity for continued manufacturing at the company’s Stewarton facility. “Kingspan Renewables intends to launch 6kW and 3kW turbines, incorporating the high performance, reliability and key features of the Proven P11 and P7 models, and will manufacture these products in Stewarton.

“A decision on whether or not to launch a 15kW turbine will be made at a later date, but any launch is unlikely to be before January 2013.”

Meanwhile, KPMG said suppliers or customers who have any claims with regard to warranties or other matters relating to the P7, P11 and P35 turbines should lodge a claim via the receivers and not with Kingspan.

“Unfortunately it seems likely that Proven’s new owners will not be obliged to honour its guarantees, which is not great news for farmers who have turbines on their land that are standing idle and who invested in the technology in good faith.”

…

See also Icon Energy collapse in wake of Proven and kingspan

Scottish farmer article

“The entry of larger organisations should also mean improved standards and procedures, with reliability and quality not an issue as the sector moves away from the cottage industry approach.”  teehee yeah right.

See also Myriad CEG helplines for Proven customers

A technical note.

DiameterMost useful rating kW ratingMax power rating Name(MWh/month @6m/s)
3.5 metres 3kWsince early 1990s Proven7
5.5 metres 6kWsince late 1990s Proven11
8.5 metres 15kWsince early 2000s but Proven35not yet fully developed.
Posted in UK small wind scene, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

rien zilvold upscaled 1800 12 volt windturbine

Posted on 14/10/2011 by hugh

Hi Hugh,
My upscaled 1800 12 volt windturbine is up and works fine
I used   Upscaled   1800-2150 m’n blades.
Tsr 6. 2 discs with magnets.
THE stator has 1.5mm coils with 120 turns.
The stator reaches 12 volt at 190 rpm.
I did open the airgap by 1 mm,so the 12 volt point wil be closer to 200 rpm.
It is not perfect yet because the tail is too light and i want to optimize the win turbine for 10-15mph winds also the stator is thicker then i wanted which makes the breakswitch less effective.

I am really  pleased with it especialy because I made it myself. I can now live off grid for much longer than with solar as the only energy source.

Posted in construction, People | 2 Comments

Pedal power using electric bike motors

Posted on 13/10/2011 by hugh

This video by

is from this interesting web page about bike motors

 

Posted in construction, pedal power, People, Video links | 1 Comment

Iliocht’s Wind turbine story at Irish site ‘Build your own wind turbine’

Posted on 13/10/2011 by hugh

There are some good photos and history of a 2.4 m diameter turbine with corroded magnets at the Build Your Own Wind Turbine site in Ireland.  A paint job on some corroded magnets in 2009 and we get to see how effective this was.

The story begins in 2009 with this servicing workshop.  The magnets were quite badly corroded. but they got cleaned up and painted as below in the next installment of the story here.

Here is a paint job they did in 2009.  Jump to 2011 and the turbine is revisited.

The alternator is pulled apart and this is what it looks like:

Not too bad really considering what it looked like in 2009.  I would probably have replaced them but they are very expensive.  There is another story here.

And a discussion on the Fieldlines Board covering the issue of neo magnet corrosion.

Finally some photos on facebook here.  Not all completely on the magnet topic.

Posted in construction, People | Leave a comment

Disabled build and install a Piggott turbine! (world premiere)

Posted on 09/10/2011 by hugh

The students from the Yombo Vocational Training Center, Tanzania have to live with a disability. But this doesn’t mean that they are disabled in general, or even worse: ‘un-able’ in general.  In the past two weeks students, teachers and instructors from ‘I Love Windpower’ have built and erected a wind turbine.

Read the full story from Roland here: http://www.i-love-windpower.com/cms/news/125-news-6-october-2011-disabled-build-and-install-a-piggott-turbine-world-premiere-.html

 

Posted in construction, developing world, People | 1 Comment

Eoliennes, panneaux solaires, comment franchir le pas avec succès !

Posted on 04/10/2011 by hugh

Solarmad have a new web site in French language

Solarmad ont créé un nouveau site web http://www.solarmad-nrj.com/

Eoliennes, panneaux solaires, comment franchir le pas avec succès !

the latest wind turbine from solarmad in Madagascar.

Posted in construction, developing world, France, wind systems tutorial | Leave a comment

Workshop in Estonia

Posted on 04/10/2011 by hugh

Criss and Madis who joined my workshop here at Scoraig last year have done a workshop at home is Estonia.  Here they are installing the 3 metre turbine on an existing wind site:

You can see photos of the course here

And a map of ‘Piggott’ wind turbines in Estonia here

Posted in construction, courses, People | Leave a comment

Bruno’s blades

Posted on 02/10/2011 by hugh

I got this email from Bruno with some lovely photos of his blades made from birch plywood.  I am not sure that plywood is the best thing to use for blades (where the stresses are longitudinal) but it seems to work well in this case.

Hi Hugh,

It’s been a few months now since I was fighting with my 2400mm wind turbine. I had a problem with reaching high current. The peak power was 625w.
Since then, I’ve rewound a new stator (to your book specs), I’ve played with air gaps, I’ve put some lead inside the tail boom pipe to make it heavier. Nothing made a significant difference. I then decided to make proper blades (to your book specs) instead of the plastic ones I had (I know, I should be ashamed) . Since then, no drag anymore, and peak power during Katia’s visit last month was 1523w.(usualy peaks at 1200w)

I’ve learned that when somebody’s been working on designing a thing for the last 30 years and is generous enough to share it, the least you should do is to do what he says.

I made the blades from the 2005 recipe book instead of the latest (I prefer them), and I made them out of old birch ply I already had in the workshop. I attach some pics of the new blades.

I now want to build a 3600mm wind turbine, but I’m hopping that you will come out with a ferrite magnet design soon enough before I start it. Is that something you’re still thinking of doing? I just like the “no rust” and reliable no high current etc… about ferrite. The price difference isn’t that big in proportion with the total cost of an installation but I hate rust and I think it would benefit to a lot of the poorer regions of the world.

Thank you again for this wonderful book,
take care,

Bruno

Posted in construction, ferrite magnets, People | Leave a comment

Powerspout hydro turbines

Posted on 30/09/2011 by hugh

Here is a video of the Powerspout hydro turbine from New Zealand.  I have long been a fan of the Ecoinnovation hydro turbines, and we have a couple here on Scoraig but there isn’t really a reliable enough flow for most people who live here on Scoraig due to the lack of catchment.

The video is a bit slick, but it does show how the turbine is put together and it summarises the options and introduces you to the web based calculator that makes site assessment easy.

The Powerspout is not MCS certified, so you would not get Feed in Tariffs in the UK with this turbine, but it is very cost-effective and can be used without all of the paperwork associated with the MCS circus.  Click on the link to download the Powerspout Price list Jan 2014. Note that these prices include shipping.

I am always happy to answer practical enquiries and am also available to install if required.

See below for a set of useful documents and manuals, full of good advice for setting up small renewable energy systems.

How to order a PowerSpout
Ecoinnovation suggest this simple process to avoid frustration or disappointment.
1. Select a dealer to work with
2. Submit complete site data to your dealer using this calculator, and sharing the results
http://www.powerspout.com/advanced-calculator/ There is a “Save and Share” function at the end to allow you to do this easily. No hydro turbine orders will be accepted until all site data is supplied.
3. Pay promptly
4. Enjoy using low impact renewable energy
5. Send us your feedback and an install picture

All dealers should all offer the same retail price for PowerSpout, although price differences may lie in other ‘system’ components.

USEFUL DOCUMENTS:

PS Retail Price list Jan 2014

PS Technical Specifications Jan 2014

Powerspout installation manual 2 February-2014

How to set up an Powerspout PLT100C with a FM60-2 controller

How to get UK FITs for Powerspout

PS Advance Calculator-Jan 2014

PS Global Freight Jan 2014

PS How-to-order Jan 2014

 

Posted in products/technical, Video links | 4 Comments