DIY Wind turbine generator?

sneuman · #1 (**permalink**) 09-13-2004

Has anyone encountered plans to build a reasonably compact, reasonably efficient marine wind turbine generator? It occurs to me that there shouldn''t be too much to building one, but maybe i''m missing something.

hamiam · #2 (**permalink**) 09-13-2004

No experience doing so but I would imagine the main difficulty would be marinizing the parts so that they are resistant to water, salt, etc.

sneuman · #3 (**permalink**) 09-14-2004

That''s a good point. But if that problem could be tackled, would a bladed propeller have enough umph to turn a 12v auto alternator at sufficient speed? Again, maybe I''m oversymplifying the problem ...

Sasha_V · #4 (**permalink**) 09-14-2004

There was a company in Brisbane (Australia) that was selling a unit that let you drag a prop in water or mount the same unit to six folding fan blades and have a wind generator. The unit was very cheap and was basically a car alternator clad in HDPE plastic. Seemed a nifty system and was much cheaper then anything else at that boat show.

Can''t remember the name of the company. I just decided that if I wanted one, I could build one at least that good from spare parts.

Sasha