building a turbine

resin poured and setting

danger! laying the exceptionally strong magnents. there was blood.

gas masks necessary

hand turned copper coils

testing a blade

We have had a slight change of plan. Instead of building and installing one turbine, our group gets to go on a week long tour of northern Peru, performing maintenance on three turbines (in addition to installing our own). Yay!

Whilst it is super exciting to know that we see so many turbines in action, this means we have to bust our butts  in the workshop this week, finishing our turbine before we head off.

There are a number of different parts needed to make the turbine and today we focused on the core. There are two plates that make up the center core of the blade, a metal plate filled with resin and set with eight super strong magnents, and a second plate, filled with six copper coils, the ends of which are soldered together and then the entire plate is also set in resin.

It took us about a day to complete these two simple pieces, most of the work done by hand. The two pieces are arguably the most important part of the turbine, as it is the copper coils passing over the magnets (when the blade spins) that create the electric current. Who discovered that passing a copper coil over a magnet creates an electric charge is beyond me. But it is amazing to see how much science is involved in making this work. Working here has really made me realise how little I know about pretty much anything that has to do with electronics, but it is awesome to learn!