Proven Wind Turbines go bust.

Posted on 17/09/2011 by hugh

Proven Energy have gone bust.  Here is a good source of information:

http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2109634/proven-energy-cash-crisis

also http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/271863

and http://www.navitron.org.uk/forum/index.php/topic,14973.0.html

I was a big supporter of the Proven wind turbine in the 1990s.  It’s built like a tank in contrast to so many flimsy products in the small wind world. But my enthusiasm for the company waned gradually as I witnessed their exaggerated claims and heard from their many unhappy customers (during lengthy development of new products).  In recent years they got a big cash injection and became even more arrogant.  I can’t feel much sympathy for the company management, but I am sorry for the workers, the dealers, and even more so for the customers, who have already suffered far too much.

Posted in UK small wind scene | 30 Comments

Price of Neodymium finally levels off

Posted on 16/09/2011 by hugh

There’s an interesting article here about the situation with global supply of neodymium magnets.  Price of Neodymium (Nd) has increased roughly tenfold in two years, but shows signs of leveling in recent weeks.

Thanks to Markus Hugentobler for sending me this link!

Posted in construction, developing world, ferrite magnets | 3 Comments

The first ever wind turbine build completely by people with a disability

Posted on 16/09/2011 by hugh

I Love Windpower – Tanzania are working with Yombo secondary school for people with a disability  to build one turbine of the type ‘Piggott – 3 meter’ plus assemblies and parts, which will be used for the next ordered turbine. “It is our intention to make this workshop a kind of preferred supplier for sub-assemblies of wind turbines.”

The article is here

Posted in construction, courses, developing world | Leave a comment

CometME on WindEmpowerment facebook page

Posted on 13/09/2011 by hugh

See the WindEmpowerment Facebook page for photo albums and a video from CometME about the construction of the 4200 (14 foot diameter) turbines there with 20 magnets.

Posted in CometME, construction, Video links | 1 Comment

Photos from CometME in July

Posted on 12/09/2011 by hugh

I thought everyone might like to see these photos of construction of the 4200 mm diameter turbine in Palestine that Noam sent me in July.

Attached please find images of our new 4200 build. You may see the blade jig we had built to speed up the blade make. We first cut it with a band saw than machine it on the jig with a Frazer. You may see the first magnet disk mounted on the frame and the image of the 20 coils 54 turns (2 mm diameter copper), stator ready for casting. Since the metal disks of the magnets are powder baked and the vinyl ester has very good adhesion to the polyurethane powder material, I hope no leaks for moisture will reach the magnets. Also the stainless steel band around the disk is easy to make and make a nice finish. Next magnets batch are going to be Epoxy coated, and I hope this further protection of the magnets will help.

The last time I saw someone use a router jig like that was in 2009 at the Rencontres Creative in France.  It’s pretty noisy and dusty.  Ingenious though.

Posted in CometME, construction | 4 Comments

More from Romania

Posted on 12/09/2011 by hugh

From Dan Paraipan in Romania – see more here

Posted in construction | Leave a comment

Suddeustche Zeitung

Posted on 12/09/2011 by hugh

Hugh Artikel SZ1Sept11

An article in a German newspaper about Scoraig.  If anyone can read German maybe they’d tell me what it says?

Posted in People | Leave a comment

How to use a charge controller

Posted on 11/09/2011 by hugh

I have been working on some pages to help people with wiring up their wind turbines to a battery with a charge controller.  These pages explain how to size the controller, choose a dump load, configure the dip switches and stuff like that.  I also feel compelled to point out that I can also sell you one if  you need one (whereby I get fabulously rich and can afford to do more free stuff like this).

 Installing a Tristar controller

Choose a dump load resistor

Charge controllers (relay type and PWM type)

Buy a Tristar controller or a Relay Driver

Posted in construction, my own projects, products/technical, wind systems tutorial | 5 Comments

2011 edition of the Wind Turbine Recipe Book

Posted on 10/09/2011 by hugh

Three years ago I produced a book of wind turbine designs to supercede my previous book “How to Build a wind Turbine”.  The new “Recipe book” explains in detail how to build six different sizes of wind turbine in any of 3 or 4 different voltages.  I still answer enquiries daily from people who want help with different sizes of turbines and different needs, but the Recipe Book has covered most people’s requirements.  There are some pages about alternator design near the end.

Since then the ‘metric edition’ of the book has sold about 1000 copies each year and the later ‘North American’ edition that uses Inches and AWG wire sizes has sold at the same rate.

The book has been translated into Italian, Dutch, French,Spanish, German, Hungarian and Kiswahili.

I continue to use the book for teaching and I’m in constant contact with home-builders around the world, so new ideas are constantly surfacing.  For example here is a method for optimising coil thickness that I developed lately:

The Wind Turbine Recipe Book latest edition can be ordered using Paypal from my web site and reaches most people within five days.

The 2010 edition in metric units is also available from amazon.com as a Kindle book.  (UK readers amazon.co.uk will find the kindle version here) (amazon.de here)

 

Posted in Books, construction, my own projects | 15 Comments

Wind turbine construction workshops in Athens

Posted on 09/09/2011 by hugh

Nea Guinea (neaguinea.org), is a collective in Athens, Greece

“On the renewable energy workshop we organize two kinds of workshops, one on
the construction of DIY PV panels and the design and installation of small
scale hybrid systems and one on the construction of small wind turbines based
on your Recipe Book. The wind turbine workshops are usually twice a week and
last for 3 months. We have been doing this as Nea Guinea since the spring of
2010 and we have organized three work shops since then, one in spring 2010
were we built a 12V 1200 SWT, in autumn 2010 we built a grid connected 2400
SWT and in sring 2011 we built a 12V 1200 SWT with a secondary school. We will
be starting soon with the autumn 2011 SWT which will be a 24V 3000 SWT. ”

Posted in construction, courses, People | Leave a comment