Scrap into wind
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Max Robson, a student at Portsmouth University, has designed a wind turbine made from 100 per cent recycled materials that could be built by unskilled workers in less than a day.
Robson’s design converts kinetic energy in wind into electrical energy stored in a battery and can be made from a wide variety of scrap.
He designed the turbine to be affordable, sustainable and to help those in the poorest parts of the world. The prototype was built using scrap found on roadsides and in front gardens.
The 22-year-old now wants to take his idea to organisations working in the developing world.
'The wind turbine is 1.8m wide and isn’t too much of a burden on the surrounding environment. The prototype generates 11.3W and charges a battery, which, when fully charged, could run lighting for 63 hours or a radio for about 30 hours,' said Robson.
'This isn’t going to change lives in the developing world dramatically but it could make things a lot easier. It cost £20 to build the prototype and in the developing world it would cost a lot less. The nearest alternative wind turbine on the market costs £2,000,' he added.
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Readers' comments (6)
CG - Scrap into wind | 20 Aug 2008 10:03 am
I can't believe any UK university would let this useless machine get into the news. It says a lot about engineering in the UK today.
I left a Secondary Modern school in 1959 without any qualifications, and have not attained any since, but I have designed and made a far better wind turbine using new, manufactured parts and this turbine would not cost much more than twenty quid. Surely it's better to support UK manufacturing than UK scrap metal merchants? On the wind energy site www.fieldlines.com people are designing better turbines than this every day.
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Jim - Scrap into wind | 20 Aug 2008 2:59 pm
I agree with the last comment by CG. What a waste of time and energy. At least he could have done his homework and built something better.
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Martin Powell - Scrap into wind | 20 Aug 2008 3:46 pm
Are CG's 'lights' which are 'on' are powered by wind-harnessed energy? Must be a ground-breaking control system to be little more than £20 for the lot and require 'no-one' to be 'at home' ?!?
I did leave school with a token qualification and went on to get a few more - certainly enough to appreciate a decent education system. Just goes to show you can lead a horse to water ...
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"Thomas Leaf" - Scrap into wind | 20 Aug 2008 9:37 pm
CONGRATULATONS Max,
For having the motivation, energy, and technical commitment to research an engineering application involving Aerodynamics, Mechanical functionability, voltage control, battery characteristics, Empirical tables for wind paterns...
I have not followed all the comments on your efforts,however, noting the initials 'CG', I beleve that ,in general, people are missing one of the great fundamentals in Engineering, that is to say, the Entrepenurial spirit.
"Trevor Bayliss", ça dire quelque chose ?
Whether in Pacifist or Militarial function, this young man has the innovative spirit to lead the "under-developed " areas, into (sic) the light, and to enable better communications, even in the next world power : CHINA.
Please not , I'm not advocating an acceleration of "Materialism", to persue CONSUMERISIM, but simply, elucidation, of where the WORLD POWERS, would have us tread !
If Max has correctly researched all the elements in this application, he merits a sponsership by OXFAM, WHO, and other relevant organisations, which can appreciate his ingenuity, whch can be applied IMMEDIATELY. IMAGINE, just for a moment, the situation, where his efforts relieve the Kenyan or Ethiopian Woman, the destruction of precious SHRUBS, in order to cook their meal. Concluding, here is the "Branson" of the outback, the developer of the SOLAR oven, the
Turbne to extract water, at 'symathetic rates', ...
Good luck to you Max, more power to your elbow !!!
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Ray Spanner - Scrap into wind | 21 Aug 2008 7:02 am
What a sour, selfish, negative bunch of comments!
I can only suppose that the affluence of our society has dimmed your perceptions of what it must be like to live in a less privileged part of the world, where only scrap is available.
Well done young man!
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CG - Scrap into wind | 21 Aug 2008 10:12 am
I know this is not a discussion board, but I must come back with some more comments.
There’s something drastically wrong with the figures in this article. For a start it would not cost you £2000 to buy a wind turbine to generate a mere 11.3 watts. Rutland makes one that can turn out 25 watts and it costs about £250 - which is still expensive. And to get just 11.3 watts from 1.8m turbine is very inefficient.
The thing that annoys me the most is this idea that we can bail out the third world with our ideas. They are the part of the planet that appreciates engineers; we are the part that lives by the "get someone in" way of life now.
Just because a thing is made from materials that have been thrown away, doesn't mean it's great. How many bikes are throw away in the Third World? We might just as well have sent them the bike as it would be more useful to them.
Forty years ago this young man would be finishing an apprenticeship in an engineering company, where he would have got sound, hands-on training, not the education that he gets from today's UK universities.
I repeat this: turbine is not a good turbine and if you want to see some that are, go to the www.fieldlines.com site, where there are plenty - some from the third world too.
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