Our first prototype goes up!

Our first prototype has gone up in Scotland. This isn’t the final generator or tower (these are all in production at this very moment), but already we can see that this turbine is going to work as we expected. It spins constantly in even very low wind, and the voltages are at levels that will produce power when we get our new inverters which are due to ship on the 12th.

The whole idea is that by using an axial flux generator we eliminate the cogging resistance that iron core permanent magnet generators suffer. The cogging resistance is part of what makes it difficult for a turbine to start up in low winds. If you can smooth this out with an air core generator, it should spin more freely.

Air core generators are a lot more expensive, but this is the heart of the machine. There is no point in spending good money on quality towers, inverters, controllers and blades and then compromising by using a generator that restricts the operating range of the turbine.