Wind Turbine from Scrap for under £20: Student Hopes to Power the World's Poor
by Christine Lepisto, Berlin 
on 08.20.08
Cheap Do-it-yourself Wind Turbine
Have you been putting off your dream of building a gadget that will change the world? Max Robson's father knows how you feel. Ashley Robson seeded the desire to design a cheap, sustainable energy source. Now his son has made the dream reality.
Max Robson's prototype wind turbine cost him only £20 (US$37) to build, using rubbish he collected from skips (or dumpsters, as they are called in the former colonies). The do-it-yourself turbine reportedly includes a bike frame and bearings, a Vespa magneto and a Ford Fiesta battery. Max claims unskilled workers in developing countries could build the turbines for less than it cost him, although one must ask how many Vespa magnetos and auto batteries are lying around in the skips where cheap wind turbine technology could be really useful.
Award Winning Wind Turbine Design
Max's turbine generates 11.3 watts. It is not much power. But, of course, £20 is not much money. It is enough power to get a first class honours degree in product design and modern materials from the Department of Mechanical and Design Engineering and to win the won the Professor G M Bedford Memorial Prize. Too bad we haven't yet designed a technology to harvest the power of good intentions.
Max's Next Steps
Max studied under John Bishop, who was a classmate of Max's Dad a couple decades before, also at the University of Portmouth. Now Max has been accepted into the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship 'Flying Start' scheme. Hopefully his big heart and can-do attitude will make a difference in the world.
More on Personal Wind Turbines
How To: Build Your Own 1000 Watt Wind Turbine
A Personal Wind Turbine For $500: The Air-X
New Turbine Design Wins Sustainability Award
Check Out the Windspire: Backyard Vertical Wind Turbine Video Clip
Mag-Wind Vertical Axis Turbine for your Home
Queen of England Buys World's Biggest Wind Turbine (7.5 Megawatts!)
More on Max Robson's Wind Turbine
University of Portsmouth News
Daily Mail
Follow @TreeHugger on Twitter & get our headlines with @TH_rss!
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- Cooking on a Budget: Use Everything
- 5 Reuses for Altoid Tins
- French Pressed Coffee: A Surprisingly Green Luxury, On the Cheap
- Are You at Risk From Wind Turbine Syndrome?
- The Week's Best DIY Projects: Kid-Friendly Coloring Books, Energy-Saving Chargers, and Woven Coasters
- Yes, There is Such a Thing as an Optimistic, Green American: Be One!
Has anyone seen the plans for this yet?
That is silly, we ARE the means to harvest the power of good intentions. We may not always be very good at it, but we already have the capability to do so, by turning them into reality.
There are probably other generating devices that could be used in place of the vespa magneto. Many outboard motors have small belt-driven alternators that could be easily adapted to something like this.
Actually, if you have ever visited a third-world country (I just came back from one) you'd be surprised at how many mopeds and small motorbikes there are. They are much cheaper and almost as useful as a car for a lot of people in Africa.
Also, quite a lot of old and battered (and polluting) cars end their life in third world countries. Most taxis where I was were old Mercedes cars, a bit grotty, but still working very well. Since a car is such a huge investment, most were very carefully maintained and repaired by their owners.
So car batteries and vespa magentos should be available. This design is very interesting and clever -- and not just for third countries.
The author of this piece is clearly a skeptical hack. Their criticisms are not constructive - merely ad hominem attacks on what is in theory a good example of recycling, innovation and appropriate technology rolled into one.
Plaudits for Max. Now let's get his design to the places that need it.
too bad he couldn't put up some kind of detail as to what he did... I'd be interested to see how he built his own.
I think this is great, but you might want to be careful with the "former colonies" stuff. As someone in the States who worked at a place called Yo Old England Inn, I can tell you that being we don't like being referred to as The Former Colonies
10W is a trivial amount of power, you really need to get to 40W and 100W before it becomes a useful amount of power, also wind is often not a reliable source of power. It would seem better to mass produce cheap film type solar panels, they could be more reliable, lower maintenance and easier to make.
The project, which turns useful junk into less useful junk, was devised by an first class honours graduate, whose father is an engineer, and the story originated on a UK university website - good night Great Britain.
Hi - wonderful effort ,many in my country still dont have basic power supply , would you share how to make it .so i can help atleast few of them at least may be i spend what ever is requied for it to be build and give it free ...
well all this possible if you can share it
good luck
S.nair - india