Build Your Own Wind Turbine

Kings River 4.2m wind turbine building workshop Kilkenny

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 18:09:01 +0000

We built a 4.2m turbine in Kilkenny at the Kingsriver Community organized by Glas Learning

See the blog post here http://eirbyte.ie/kings-river-4-2m-wind-turbine-building-workshop-kilkenny/

New online shop

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 08:19:21 +0000

We are working on a new online shop mostly for solar PV it has some batteries and charge controllers on it as well. Over the next while we will be adding more stuff like the full rang of Rolls batteries. http://eirbyte.ie/shop

Open Day April 20th 1pm-7.30pm

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 08:05:35 +0000

We are heading to Glas Learning Centre, Ennisnag, Co. Kilkenny, for an open day on Friday Apr 20th, to talk about the wind turbine course that we are teaching on May 28th.
If your are around the area call in for a chat and see what's on offer http://glaslearning.ie/open-day

Wind Turbine Building Workshop with Hugh Piggott on 18th June

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 19:08:13 +0000

THE WORKSHOP IS NOW FULL

Hugh Piggott is coming back again to Ireland this year to teach another of his famous wind turbine building workshops.

The venue is in Co. Leitrim near Keshcarrigan.

This will be a practical hands-on week of workshop time, running from Monday morning to Saturday, during which we will build a 4.2m wind turbine for an off-grid farm.

Please do not expect to go home with a wind turbine!

Part of the workshop fee is now funded by the Leitrim Development Co so the price for the workshop is now €100 euro. Let us know if you need help finding accommodation or alternatively you can camp at the farm for free, just contribute to the food bill :) Let us know as soon as possible if you wish to camp so that provision can be made for everyone. There will be one meal a day supplied for course participants, plus tea and coffee.

Introduction to Building Your Own Wind Turbine

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 09:47:47 +0000

One day workshop

This is a taster of a build-your-own workshop - the goal is to give you a realistic look at the various parts of building a Hugh Piggot designed wind turbine. We will discuss the various parts of the project, the materials, tools and equipment needed as well as the other components of a wind energy system. You can try out some blade carving using hand tools to get a feel for the process. Some people are quite happy to undertake a turbine building project by themselves and this introduction will allow you to gauge the skills required and the likely time involved. We will also discuss the various turbine sizes and the other components required to get yourself up and running.

For booking Click Here

Workshop Course on Scoraig in May

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 22:52:44 +0000

A hands-on wind turbine building workshop with Hugh Piggott.

These courses have been held since 2001, with small groups around 5-8 people building a wind turbine over a period of six days and testing it. Activities include carving blades out of wood. winding and assembling alternators from scratch, arc welding the steel frame. No previous workshop experience is required. There is some informal discussion and explanation of the theory behind the design and wind energy for stand-alone situations. During the week we shall tour some of the many wind and solar systems on the Scoraig peninsula.

See his web site for more info http://scoraigwind.co.uk/2012/01/workshop-course-on-scoraig-in-may/

One day workshop

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:28:52 +0000

Irish Seed Savers Association, Capparoe, Scarriff, Co. Clare

This is a hands-on, practical day. We will be installing a PV (photovoltaic) system to run a few small lights at the cob house. This will be a 12volt, off-grid system running LED lighting. First we will explain what the various components of the system are and how the system will work. Then it's outside where we will be installing the PV panel, running cables, installing the lights, placing batteries in their enclosure and wiring them up, connecting the system up and switching on the lights.

For booking click here

Grid connected homebrew wind turbines

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:12:20 +0000

On the forum recently people are asking about grid connecting home made wind turbines. This is a post from Hugh Piggotts Blog.

The turbine output voltage depends on both the rpm and number of turns in the coils. It increases in exact proportion to both the number of turns and the speed of rotation. For battery chargers we must wind coils that produce 12,24 or 48 volts at the desired blade rpm. For grid connection we need to base our coil design on the input DC voltage range offered by the grid-connect inverter.

I do not recommend using a battery based system for grid connection in Europe (although you can do it with a ‘Sunny Island’ inverter). In North America the Outback is worth looking at. But think hard before you buy into a battery-based grid-tie system. It shares the worst features of both battery systems and grid systems. The best way to connect to the grid is usually without batteries.

I have offered suggestions for turns per coil and wire sizes for grid connected turbines using WindyBoy inverters sizes on page 36 of the Recipe Book. But I have never personally built a grid tied turbine on my own, because I live off-grid. I do understand the principles well, and I have helped many others to do it successfully. The people who have most hands on experience with work on my Recipe machines are Ti’eole in France. See also this post if you are building a 4200 diameter turbine.

The main difference between a grid connected inverter (such as the Windy Boy or the Aurora) and a battery is that the inverter can accept a wide range of (often rather high) DC voltages that you can program in advance, whereas a battery works at a lower DC voltage that is arbitrarily fixed at a level that depends on its state of charge. Often the relatively constant battery voltage is not the ideal level for the wind turbine to be producing power at over a wide range of different windspeeds. It can be a bit like driving a car in the wrong gear. It may struggle or stall. With an inverter you can shift gears.

The exact input voltage of an inverter can be programmed as a function of Watts using interface software, such as the above SMA program. Often this will be done by your supplier, but anyone can do it with a PC and a service cable. The idea is to set a voltage level for each power level (windspeed) that will achieve the correct rpm in the alternator to load the blades at their best tip speed ratio. I can offer help with choosing the best inverter settings based on your stator details. I can also supply inverters, and arrange for programming.

Not only are the blades run at their best speed by the inverter, but the alternator can handle much higher peak power outputs compared with a battery charging alternator setup. This is because the alternator now works over a range of voltages. Wind turbines can only produce a relatively low voltage at low rpm, but the voltage naturally increases with speed so that the required current is relatively low in strong winds.

The downside of working at high and variable voltages is that the turbine becomes a significant hazard to the inverter and to humans. If the inverter is not drawing current off the alternator then the blades will be unloaded and will overspeed, producing dangerously high voltages. You will need a ‘voltage clamp’ or ‘protection box’ that connects the turbine to a heater when the voltage reaches a certain level where it threatens to damage the inverter. The voltage clamp works very like a diversion load controller on a battery system. It diverts current into heat, sufficient to prevent voltage rise above a set level. It relies on a large bank of capacitors. The inverter probably provides the capacitors, and should also be kept connected for this reason.

Actually the protection box makes the wind turbine into a heating turbine that can also feed power to the grid. You really need that heating controller as a backup, since the grid is not a reliable load. But if all you wanted to do were to run heaters, you would probably choose a different setting on the heating control box so that it would come into action at lower voltage and run the blades more slowly.

Another additional safety option that makes sense to have is an over-voltage trip. This is a circuit that connects a big dump load (or even a short circuit) to the turbine if the voltage exceeds a given limit. In case the other circuits fail …

It’s wise the treat the wiring with respect too and makes sure there is good insulation and no chance of wires scuffing themselves on bare metal in the tower for example. This is a lethal voltage source and there is no means to wire in protection against faults.

Other electronic equipment is available out there. I have used Solar Converter’s LDR controllers for both nverter protection and for heating systems. Smaller systems are often based on Windmaster 500 inverters working at 50-100 volts.

Open Source" R&D platform launched

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 18:37:51 +0000

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 the right commitment and clarified expectations among team members of a project.

A short introductory movie that guides you through the works can be found at: http://windempowerment.org/rd-corner/

If you feel like joining, please make sure you register at: http://windempowerment.org/become-a-member/

and fill in the who-is-who form that can be found at: http://windempowerment.org/01-rd-members/

WindEmpowerment

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 19:10:09 +0000

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 and develop rural electrification projects using locally-built small wind turbines based on Piggott’s design.

Please visit the new website and take part in the development.