Day 18: Ashden Awards

A complete control board.

Daniel and Trevor building circuit boards

Admiring the progress of the blades

Nino spinning coils

Another possible form of investment arrived this morning in the form of a man from the Ashden Awards. This meant that we all donned our best WndAid Shirts and hats and got down to the workshop to get buzy, even though it's a Saturday! Our main achievement of the day was to trim and sand another 2 blades for replacement on the 2.5kW turbine which was good as we got to use lots of loud tools to impress the man from Ashden!

Micheal giving a tour.

Day 17: Working Life in Peru

First order of business today was to wire up a 3rd stator and set it in resin. Afterwards we tested one of the stands that Dan  had finished welding by mounting a generator (stator and rotor together), spinning as fast as we could and measuring the Voltage output - I think record was about 20V, not bad. After Spanish class we got back to the house to a hell of a story from Michael.

After giving the potential investors an idea of the set-up in Trujillo he headed out to on of WindAid's installations up in the mountains, however half way there the car broke down. After getting muddy and wet trying to fix it they called for someone to come and pick them up. They promptly arrived at in the middle of the night and after being unable to fix the car they towed it through the mountains to the site, where they spent the next morning fitting the parts needed allowing Michael to drive straight back home!

 I think this story highlights 2 things about life in Peru, firstly you can never expect to stick to a plan, especially if that plan involves long drives on bad roads up into the mountains. Also, the fact that the mechanics were prepared to drive all the way out to the car and then tow it all through the night up said windy mountain roads shows just how kind and generous Peruvians are.

Day 16: Trial and Error

Adding more resin to the mold.

We got to the workshop this morning to discover that a lot of resin had leaked out of the stator we left to set before leaving yesterday, and what resin was left hadn't set properly - largely due to our in-exact mixing of the chemicals to make the resin. So we mixed up a new batch of resin, filled up the mold and set it out in the sun to dry - any hopefully not leak!

The finished article.

The fact that there was a leak means that we will have to add some more screws/clamps to hopefully get a tighter fit before we attempt to set another stator.

This constant process of improving on the design and implementation at each stage is really evident here at WindAid, especially with the new smaller turbines, where Michael is trying to drive costs down to a bare minimum and create a build process that can be easily replicated any where in the world.

Day 15:Popping the Stator

Making Stators

Too many cooks...

Standing the Mold so hopefully the resin won't leak

We took a couple of taxi's in today as Michael was busy giving a presentation to a couple of potential investors who are interested in investing in projects that educate young people about renewable energy - something I know that WindAid is keen on and has done in the past through outreach to schools.

Tico admiring our work.

The finished article.

The first order of business was to pop out the stator which was looking great and free of leaks, and then  start the process of building a new one. Then we each got on with various little tasks around the workshop making sure we were nice and busy for when Michael gave the potential investors a tour! After another Spanish class in the afternoon we sat around and watch a documentary called "Fuel" which was very interesting and provided a global perspective of the issues that projects such as
WindAid are trying to address.

Dan's Stands!

The blades are nearly there.

Day 14: The Mold for the Mold for the Stator.

Micheal trimming the edges.

After checking the progress of the wooden blades (great), we popped out the mold for the mold for the stator*, and cleaned off a few bits that weren't setting, trimmed the edges to give a nice square finish so that the 2 pieces would fit together nicely, and drilled some holes to let us clamp it all together.

Nino's turn

We wired up the coils in the mold and soldered them to create the tri-phasic circuit I mentioned in an earlier post, then we set them in a layer of resin an fiberglass, as well as a central column of carbon fiber (where the axle will be mounted) before heading off for lunch. After which Nino and I came back to wire up the 3 phases to the main cable - which runs off the turbine to the control system - and drilled a hole in the mold for it to fit through. Then we added a lot more carbon fiber, and fiberglass, clamped the mold together and poured in the resin, and left it to set overnight.

Making some holes so we can screw both sides together.

*I think this wordy phrase deserves some explaining as if baffled me at first. The first mold means that its a mold, the second one refers to the stuff that holds the coils in place, which sort of makes it the mold for the stator I guess, maybe it still baffles me...

Day 13: The start of Busy Week

Making molds with the "mold for the mold for the stator".

We got back to the house in time for breakfast sensing that we might need all the energy we have this week as Micheal will be busy with visitors who may potentially provide some funding for WindAid, so we will have to work extra hard without so much guidance.

Weighing the coils to avoid cogging.

We were greeted with some encouraging news when we came into the workshop, we saw that the wooden blades were coming along nicely and also that the mold-for-the-mold for the stator (a bit of a mouthful I know) was looking good, although not quite dry so we popped it out in the sun.

Wooden blades looking good.

What's left of the mold for the blades.

After lunch we went to our first Spanish class at a language school not too far from the house. We started off with the basics and all felt a little more confident actually, that is until he warned us next time we would be going out in to the public to test out skills!

Day 12: Bye, Bye, Mancora!

Despite feeling a little ropey this morning I managed to get up for kick off of United Vs Chelsea where the hostel's  generator promptly cut out. When it came back on united were 3-0 down, but even their stirring comeback to rescue a draw couldn't inspire us out of out hangovers so we settled down to watch a few films. Later on feeling much better we went for a swim in the ocean which was great fun - if you define great fun as being thrown around by big waves and losing all sense of time and direction. Later we caught our bus back down to Trujillo and work, unlike the others in our hostel probably heading up to the next beach town for a party, I think we know which one we prefer.