Remarkable DIY wind turbine projects in 2024

Another busy year full of great projects comes to a close. While it seems impossible to grasp the sheer amount of experiences, learnings, excitement and mistakes that come with all that, let’s look back at some of the most remarkable projects of our year.

There where around 12 wind turbine hands-on workshop and some other smaller projects. Each project was unique and special to me thanks to the great environments these workshops took place in.

Looking back, I can say that we have achieved all of our goals in 2024: We started providing some pre-manufactured wind turbine parts for an easy build – a major part of our vision of providing everything you need to build your own wind turbine smoothly. Our new wind turbine DIY book – the largest ongoing project – also came a lot further to its completion. And we also installed our own PV off-grid system with a self-built storage battery.

Beside that we finally got some nice t-shirts and merchandise themed around handcrafting and homebuilt small wind power – something I wanted for a long time!

Stay Tuned for more in 2025.

 


Wind Turbine Workshop in Waidhofen / Ybbs, Austria

Early in 2024 we held this classic wind turbine DIY workshop in an old building that is currently being used for various events. The 2.2f16p wind turbine that was built in this workshop will later be installed somewhere in the region. this workshop was organized in collaboration with the town of Waidhofen / Ybbs.

 

 


Wind Turbine Workshop & Installation in Rhön, Germany

During this workshop course we built and installed a wind turbine at a rather remote house in the Rhön mountainous region. there was a great crowd of participants from all over Germany. The wind turbine has been connected to the AC grid in the house via a wind grid-tie inverter. The site is quite good and fairly open towards the main wind direction. The region is known for harsh winds during winter season. There is also a large PV system with plenty of battery storage which is fed by the turbine too.

 


Wind Turbine Installation in Strullendorf / Germany

In this quick project we installed a wind turbine at the strullendorf middle school. We built this turbine in a workshop with the pupils in 2023. The turbine is mounted on custom made a tilt-up tower on the side of a garage. It is ac-coupled to the mains grid via a wind grid-tie inverter.

 


Wind Turbine Workshop in Warburg / Germany

This workshop was co-organized with the city of Warburg who provided us with an excellent location. We built the 2.2F16p wind turbine with a great group of 14 individuals from all over Germany. The workshop went particularly smoothly and everyone had a great time learning a lot about the use of small wind energy. The turbine will soon be installed at the home of one of the participants.

 

 


Wind Turbine Workshop & Installation in Stralsund, Germany

In summer we had another wind turbine workshop at the SoLaWi Stralsund close to the baltic sea. This was our 2nd workshop there, the first being in 2022.
This year we built and installed another 2.2f16p Wind Turbine on the farm’s land. We used some old pipes from the friendly neighbor to build a tower. These pipes where laying around since the old days of Eastern Germany (DDR) and found a good use now. The two turbines both feed into the Battery storage in the farm’s off-grid system alongside a small PV array. That system powers some of the farms facilities. The turbines perform well on this nearly perfect site. We also had a look at the now 2 years old first turbine that looks just as new and runs without any problems.

 

 


Wind Turbine Workshop & Installation in Prignitz, Germany

Right after the previous workshop we had another one coming up in Gumtow, a small village in the vast landscape of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern region.

With a smaller group of participants we built our 2.2F16p wind turbine and installed it behind an old farm house that is undergoing renovation to become a multipurpose living space. The turbine is AC-coupled to the house’s mains grid via a grid-tie inverter along with a PV array. A storage battery might follow.

 

 


Visiting Hugh Piggott in Scoraig, Scottish Highland

In autumn I visited my friend Hugh Piggott in Scotland. I would usually visit him once a year. We did hang out together and had some great talks about small wind turbines and off-grid systems. There was also a system based on older components that needed some work and rebuilding to be done. We changed some of the old stuff to Victron components.
On the pictures you see a turbine on a bent tower top after a severe storm which we inspected the following day.

 

 


Wind Turbine Workshop & Installation in NRW, Germany

This was our last public workshop of the year in Germany. We built the typical 2.2F16p wind turbine, this time mostly in an outdoor workshop. It was a bit cold at times but the good crew of participants kept the spirits high. In the end we installed the turbine on an old construction site lift which became a nice and solid tilt-up tower. The turbine is grid-tied via a wind inverter.

 


Wind Turbine Workshops @ GEA-Akademie in Schrems, Austria

Last but not least we had 3 great hands-on wind turbine courses at the Gea-Akademie in Austria spread throughout the year. The location turned out to be an ideal place for our courses to which we would come back regularly. There is everything we need and the warm and welcoming atmosphere always attracts great people for a great project!

 

 

 

 


With all these exciting projects in 2024 I am already looking forward to get busy next year with more Wind Turbine Courses and work on the upcoming Wind Turbine DIY Book which includes all the knowledge to build those wind turbines. All based on the main mission:

“Enhance Self-Sufficiency and creativity through practical knowledge & experience.”

All photos © Jonathan Schreiber, pureselfmade.com

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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