Electrical Engineer Seminar

by Robert Cote
(Chandler, AZ, USA)

Last October I took a week-long WIND ENERGY SEMINAR in Fort Collins, CO in building a wind-tubine from scratch. It was at the instructor's home, off-grid in the mountains west of Fort Collins, through Other Power (http://www.otherpower.com).

Dan Bartmann and Dan Fink head up Other Power. These are talented folks with tons of experience in alternative power, and life off the grid. The teaching style was casual, but very practical and accessible.

The machine that was build by the team was a 12-foot, 3-phase alternator with all work done from scratch -- no pre-fab. Metal was cut into circles from 1/4" plate steel, the coils were hand-wound and cast into a resin stator body, the rotors were fashoined by casting in rare-earth magnets, the three 6' spruce blades carved by hand, and a sturdy frame and tail assembly all welded together on site, using all off-grid power. Amazingly, with all the from-scratch work to be done, the machine was complete in 5.5 days!

The cost of this seminar was very reasonable, and the hands-on experience gained was unbeatable. The value to price ratio was very high.

I was very pleased to be the one that purchased the finished product built by the team. I have yet to fly this turbine, but fly it will, and soon!

I have uploaded a picture of the finished product, posed with the workshop attendees.