Building a Wind Turbine from Recycled Components

With more awareness to climate change, we see that there is a movement with the ordinary citizen to try and make a difference. One of the major ways that people impact the fight is through recycling. What we aim to do is show that not only can the average person recycle, but they can help make a difference in the production of clean energy. Using old items like bicycle wheels and permanent magnet dc motors, we can combine them together to make a wind turbine on a budget. We are aiming to show that harnessing wind energy is easier than most people might think. This project is not meant to produce enough energy for the average home to use, but rather help ease the strain on the energy grid by hopefully getting more people involved in clean energy production.

By putting together a simple step-by-step guide we can allow non-engineers to make their very own homemade wind turbine. With this guide, we will show how to wire the electrical system and how to design the blades for a specific environment. We will provide options to charge batteries or to connect straight to the grid. If a wind turbine can produce more than enough energy, one might be able to even sell energy back to the power company and provide energy to neighbors.