workshop

Back row: Lucas, James, Pit
Front row: Tina, Geancarlo, Isoline, me, Hardy

 

 

 

We spend our days in the WindAid workshop, building the numerous components needed to create a wind turbine. Our group of volunteers are a motley crew, seven random strangers thrown together for this crazy experience.

 

Pit is an electrical engineer by trade and has just completed his PhD at Imperial College. He is an Iron man triathlete who decided to cycle to Trujillo from Huaraz. In what can only be described as an insane adventure, he covered 650km in a week, cycling by himself over the Cordillera. Nuts! James is our ginger Scotsman, who has also just finished his PhD in nuclear engineering. Isoline is a chemical engineer and like me, has also just completed an MSc at UCL. At only 22(!) is the baby of the group. Lucas is our internally conflicted friend; half German and half Greek, he has an undergrad in economics a first MA in Environmental Management and is now working on completing his second MSc which focuses on wind energy. We have Tina, a Canadian flight attendant with an interest in renewable energy. And finally, Hardy who is on a delayed gap year having just completed two years of service in Singapore's army, before studing aeronautics in the Netherlands.

 

The work is super varied, as almost all parts of the wind turbine are made by hand. We mix monomers and polymers together to create a foam core blades, which we sand by hand before coating in carbon fibre and finishing in resin. We weld pieces of metal together to create steel hoops that are used to anchor the turbines. We create copper coils, set them in a resin wheel, which when passed over strong magnets, generate the electrical current needed to create electricity. And that's just in our first few days!

 

Whilst it is all a bit overwhelming (especially given the fact that I am surrounded by chemical, mechanical and electrical engineers), I am learning a lot every day and hope that by the end of my month will be able to accurately describe the process that allows wind to make energy. Wish me luck!