Experiences in the construction of open source low technology off-grid wind turbines

Abstract

Though electrification began over one hundred years ago, today there remains approximately 1.5 billion people without access to electricity. This form of energy poverty disproportionately afflicts people living in rural and developing communities. Access to electricity, even at modest consumption levels, can dramatically improve the quality of life in a community. For example, electric lamps allow children to study at night, and radios and cellular phones greatly improve communication pathways. Small amounts of power can be provided by on-site distributed generation, without the need for expensive and intrusive transmission lines. This paper describes the design and construction of a low-technology wind turbine generator. The generator is designed to supply electricity to a small, off-grid community. The wind turbine can be primarily constructed by hand, without specialized manufacturing processes or exotic materials. Opportunities and challenges of using low-technology wind turbine generators in rural electrification are discussed. The wind turbine was constructed in a joint effort by the IEEE Power & Energy Society Community Solutions Initiative and the Puget Sound Professional Chapter of Engineers without Borders USA.