Aachen wind turbine course 2016

In May 2016 I went to Aachen (GER) to build a Piggott wind turbine with a group of students. The Idea of the project was to enhance theoretical university lessons with a real hands-on experience in renewable energy development.

Project facts:
Wind turbine construction course

  • Wind turbine type: 2F Piggott 2m diam. (PureSelfMade Edition)
  • Venue: Student’s community maker space workshop
  • Participants: Around 10
  • Date: May 2016

The students call themselves „E3 – Erneuerbare Energien Erfahren” and are part of Energybirds e.V. association. Our venue, the StudiWerkstatt was a community-based maker space workshop in a backyard of Aachen city. A nice place to build a turbine, because they got all the tools we needed on site and were really nice and interested in the project too.

Chilling in the Sunset @ Langer Turm Aachen

I arrived in Aachen coming in straight from Scotland where I was working with my friend Hugh Piggott, the creator of the wind turbine design we used. I was instantly flashed by the nice warm spring feeling that was already arriving over Europe. During the course I stayed at „Langer Turm“, a student’s home inside an old remaining tower of the city wall – with an amazing view over the whole region!

The Aachen Workshop Video

In the beginning we had a few drawbacks because some wrong materials got delivered. That was nothing to stop us of course, but my time structure for the course week came a bit out of schedule.

Drilling the mounting holes into the rotor

The 2m turbine is not a very big one in terms of energy production – but it is a nice size of machine to build with a group that has never built anything like this before. We built all parts for the wind turbine ourselves, as in most of my projects.

It was the 24v version for use in a battery charging stand alone situation, although It was not clear where it will get installed finally.

Chilling out in the Westpark, Aachen. I love the feeling of spring evenings with all the happy people hanging around and having fun!

Personally, I had a good time in Germany with this crew and could learn a lot for courses in the future – as always

Jonathan Schreiber
I started PureSelfMade in 2013 to develop and spread practical knowledge on homebuilt small wind turbines, independent energy systems, off-grid lifestyle and more. In my hands-on workshop courses I teach simple and effective solutions for those subjects and share my enthusiasm with like minded people. Read about my background.

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