Visiting Hugh Piggott on Scoraig became like a tradition over the last years. This year I supported Hugh as a co teacher at his annual turbine course – a great experience to teach side by side with my former teacher! Since I first got there to learn about small wind turbines, I feel connected to the place and its people.
Project facts:
Wind turbine construction course
- Wind turbine type: 2,4m Piggott Recipe Book
- Venue: Hugh Piggott’s home, Scoraig Peninsula, Scotland
- Participants: Around 7
- Date: April 2016
- Associated project, hosted by Hugh Piggott
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On the way to Scoraig in Scotland
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Taking first walk around the Scoraig peninsula after arrival. Best way to feel the place!
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Hugh is kicking off the course with a presentation in his living room
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Funny chickens alway around Hugh’s place!
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Choosing the right section of timber for the blades
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Some welding exercise before getting to the real workpiece
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Woodworking tools ready for the course
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Inside Hugh’s workshop
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The steel frame welding in progress
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Shaping the windward face of a rotor blade with the drawknife
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Some stator coils have been wound
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Drilling a hole into the frame for the hub shaft
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Welding the hub shaft to the frame
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blade shaping with the chisel
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Cutting steel parts
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Last work on the blade front face
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Checking the coil weights for irregularities that could indicate wrong number of turns
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The group
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Some generator casting mould parts being made
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Having dinner and homebrewn beer with the group in the Scoraig Bunkhouse. Good vibes every day!
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Checking the fit of a magnet rotor disc inside the casting mould
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Placing magnets on the steel disc
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Steel disc casting…
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Soldering the coils, screwed down to a template in the right position
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Coils were dropped into the stator mould. Now ready for more resin!
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The stator casting process
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Chilling with Hugh’s family on the terrace after a busy workshop teaching day
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A simple off-grid system of a Scoraig household
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A simple off-grid system of a Scoraig household: Turbine short circuit brake switch, Rectifier, Charge controller, some Amp/Voltmeters, An Inverter
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Making a tour with the course participants around Scoraig to explore some Off-Grid systems
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Walking on Scoraig’s swampy hillside
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Hugh in his element! Explaining wind turbine systems to Interested folks.
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Another electric system for an off-grid household. Looks a bit messy this time…
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Explaining an off-grid system to the course group
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Visiting the “Nirvana Altenator” one of the first larger Piggott-Design wind turbines, built by Hugh Piggott and Alan Bush back in 2004
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Attaching the rope hoist…
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Lowering the “Nirvana Alternator” wind turbine
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Looking at the alternator and the tail furling system. It is all kind of rusty, but the rust builds a protective layer on the steel surface.
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Maintenance inspection of the “Nirvana” alternator
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Curious sheep always watching you on Scoraig
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Using Hugh’s electric vehicle to pull the massive tail sideways while lowering the tower
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The Stator of our 2,4m turbine after casting
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Welding the furling tail hinge parts for our wind turbine
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A finished magnet rotor disc
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The welding place, sheltered from the rain
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Assembling the alternator
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Assembling the alternator
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A nice, nearly sine wave form!
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Rotor assembly outside. 2,4m are quite large actually…
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Plywood disc and triangle for sandwiching the blades
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Balancing the rotor inside to avoid wind
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The tail is ready – a star this time!
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Mounting the machine to the tower top at the installation site next door
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Greasing the moving parts
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Ready for liftoff!
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Living the tilt-up tower
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Operating the rope hoist (winch)
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Some beverage & snacks to celebrate our work
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First current flowing!!
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Men starring at turbine
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Turbine squad after the installation
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Wherever I point my cam – the view is awesome!
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The Scoraig bunkhouse called “Thrift Wood”, where the crew stayed during the week.
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A bird-shaped cloud. Just another nice sunset…
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Local violin maker Bev showing of his skills
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Farewell to the course participants!
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Farewell to the course participants! A calm day for crossing…
The whole visit was not only for the course, it was also as a general visit for the fun. I came straight from the south of France where I was staying with a friend to Scotland. Hugh and I spent some days preparing the course and doing some maintenance on other local wind turbines together. We even went through half of Scotland for a maintenance mission of a Proven wind turbine at a remote hostel.
Course crew after the installation
Then on some evening, the course participants arrived. We picked them up from the bus stop which is about 6 km away and brought them to Scoraig in a boat. Hugh’s courses are scheduled around the bus because it only goes 3 times a week. Traditionally for Scoraig, the course started by having dinner together and on the next morning with a theoretic presentation by Hugh about the wind turbine and off-grid life. Then we moved to the workshop and soon, everyone was busy working, learning and enjoying.
The stator casting process
The wind turbine we built was the 2,4 recipe book model. A good size to work on in a course and also more efficient than the smaller machines.
These courses on Scoraig are always special
It’s like visiting a species in its natural habitat. There are only off grid houses on Scoraig and therefore you feel the vibe in the air. The wind turbines are everywhere, powering peoples lives…
Chilling with Hugh’s family and home-brewed beer on the terrace after a busy workshop teaching day
After some days of work, we made a tour around the peninsula to check out several off grid systems around the place. We took down the “Nirvana” turbine, one of the first larger Piggott machines on Scoraig for a maintenance inspection. A great chance for the participants to see this in real life. There are all variations and sizes of systems around – just made up to serve its purpose best.
Visiting the “Nirvana Altenator” one of the first larger Piggott-Design wind turbines, built by Hugh Piggott and Alan Bush back in 2004
In the end of the week, once the turbine was finished, we erected it on a tower next door. The original machine from there was taken down for maintenance so the course machine served as a temporary replacement. It was a typical guy-wired tilt up tower with a small battery system in the house. We did some measurements of power and rpm on the newly built machine before we headed back to celebrate the success – as always with some good home brewed beer and good music!
Farewell to the course participants!
I was staying on Scoraig for two more weeks after the course to work on some turbine maintenance projects with Hugh, before moving on to give my next course in Aachen, Germany
