How I Built A Wind Turbine

Here is the story of how Mike Davis, an astronomer in Arizona, designed and built his own wind turbine generator spending less than US$150 and utlilising some scrap parts and items he already had.

His location is very remote and so there was no grid electricity available. With a bit of ingenuity and technical know-how he managed to put together a wind turbine generator to charge a 12 Volt leisure battery and give him power to run his laptop computer, shaver, to charge AA batteries etc.

Rather than trying to build his own alternator/generator, he chose to use a 30 Volt DC Ametek PM motor purchased for just $26 from ebay. Such a motor can easily put out a couple of hundred watts when used as a generator.

 
30 Volt DC Ametek Motor used as Generator

Just the cost of the magnets for a home made 200+ Watt alternator would have cost far in excess of $26, and it is also far cheaper than purchasing a ready made permanent magnet alternator, so using such a motor is a great way to get started generating electricity from the wind.

His turbine blades were home made from 6 inch PVC pipe. Again, PVC wind turbine blades are the quickest and cheapest way to get started. He made them 24 inches long giving an overall wind turbine diameter of over four feet.

Homemade 24 inch PVC wind turbine blades