"the turbine must survive the elements and the wind, loaded, for 100 days."
Practically impossible to prove. A cheater could snap a bunch of pics over a couple days from different angles and bring the turbine in and then post a pic a day to "prove" that it's still outside. Before the observer shows up they could set it back up.
The 100 days part is kind of silly anyway. If you're gonna go through the trouble and spend the money to do it of course it's going to last 100 days.
"THERE IS NO SIZE LIMIT!"
Then there's no reason it can't be done then, the only challenging part is the time limit. And for those of us that can't build for squat it's still practically impossible...not that it would be any easier for us to build a hawt.
"Only caveat is I need an outside observer to observe amps and volts so I don't get fleeced. If he can keep the hat on his head while measuring, I'll concede to 20 MPH winds."
I think you're setting yourself up here. Just because a lot of people put their vawts at ground level or not much higher doesn't mean everyone does/will. Does it still count as 20mph if the observer's hat doesn't leave his/her head and the 'mill is 60ft up?
The biggest part I have a problem with is the battery requirement. The prize doesn't even cover the cost of the battery so it's not as cool as it sounds at first blush. If you didn't require that (or sent one with the observer) then you're talkin'...then there's at least some chance of the winner breaking even or coming close, if there's a winner.
Not a bad idea overall (and really pretty cool to put up a prize!) but I think it could've been planned better and the date set a little farther out. I don't even want to imagine how fun it's going to be to get an observer out to several different places scattered all over...I don't envy you. ;-) take it easy