Next month I'll be over in Washington State leading a workshop where we'll build a few small wind turbines. It is a very hands-on course - you can see some photo diaries of the last one at
http://www.scoraigwind.com/sei2004/index.htm
Once again Dan B will be coming, this time with Rich and George this time I believe and maybe DanF will take time off from fishing too. We'll be building my standard 8 footer, Dan's 10 footer and a new design I have with a 6 foot prop.
The 10 footer will be tested with MPPT control from outback and midnite (I hope they don't come to blows). I can't say a lot about these controllers because they don't seem to know a lot yet but I hope I get them thinking harder about them. All I can say is they are buck controllers working at higher than battery voltage. So we can let the alternator voltage rise, and the blades speed up slightly to better tip speed ratio.
It should be pretty good fun judging from last time. For more details see
http://solarenergy.org/workshops/workshop.php?id=9
and
http://www.scoraigwind.com/buildyo/
Maybe see you there!
