Warwick Wind Turbine Build Report.pdf - Engineers Without Borders ...

1 IntroductionIn October 2010, EWB Warwick installed and connected to the University grid a 1.1kWHugh Piggott wind turbine built by the students on a course led by V3 Power. The windturbine is now fully operational and providing the grid with a clean source of electricity.This report includes all the funding, planning, risk assessment, testing, installation, andmaintenance information for the EWB Warwick Wind Turbine. Hopefully it providesinformation that will help build further DIY wind turbines.Disclaimer: this report contains the information used to build, test, and install the EWBWarwick Wind Turbine. It is by no means a report of what should be done to build andinstall a DIY wind turbine – less or more may be needed for individual projects - but it isan example of how it can be done. Hope it helps.Engineers Without Borders Warwick is a Students Union society at Warwick University,and a member of the national Engineers Without Borders charity working to promoteinternational development (www.ewb-uk.org).V3 Power are DIY wind turbine specialists, particularly in the Hugh Piggott design windturbine, and have wide experience in building, testing, and installing battery chargingand grid connected wind turbines (www.v3power.co.uk).Hugh Piggott designed his axial flux wind turbine in his book ‘How to build a windturbine’, which has received widespread success and been adopted widely. Hugh nowruns courses on how to build the Hugh Piggott wind turbine and has a wealth ofinformation on his website www.scoraigwind.com. This report is in no means asubstitute for buying his book which is a must by!2 FundingEWB Warwick’s budget for 2009-2010 was around £500 which meant that othersources of funding had to be found. The final funding for the project was:EWB UK Training £1610University Estates Office £1400School of Engineering £1330Course Participants 16*£60 = £960Warwick Retired Staff Association £500Bircham Dyson Bell (Adam Perrin’s father works for) £335 (for planning application)SU Project Fund £300Vice Chancellor £250From EWB Warwick’s experience it is more likely to gain funding from Universitybursaries than large companies, since the companies do not gain much publicity forsmall scale projects. Another factor experienced was that sources of funding were muchmore willing to back a project with a good plan and already backed by one source offunding – getting the first source of funding is the hardest! It may also be worthconsidering engineering institutions such as the Royal Academy of Engineering and theInstitute of Mechanical Engineers.1