A few photos from our first six months of researching, designing, and building

Kyle and Grant with the M2 on the day we finished rotor assembly. We really picked up our pace with this turbine and put it together in less than three weeks despite integrating numerous improvements to the design.

Grant welding the base for the M2. Grant's quote "You can do a lot of things with wood, but you can do it a whole lot better with steel

 Mixing cement at sunset in the smallest wheel barrel in Central America

9 Coil Stator for the M2 Alternator. Things really got down to the wire on the last day before Grant had to return to Canada. We managed to build the alternator in about a day. We were winding coils on the back deck at about 8:30 pm and the next day we cast the stator in fiberglass resin. It was a huge improvement on the M1 stator and came out to be about half the thickness. This means a lot more power and much higher efficiency!!

Lucas, Ramon, and I posing with the M1. This is an oldie but a goody back when we were testing the performance of the blades on a simple test-stand that we rigged up. The blades were eventually put up on a tree-pole tower. The nice thing about the M1 turbine is that it can be fabricated without power tools using very inexpensive materials. Its something that people in remote communities could build with a hand drill, saw, some recycled automotive parts, magnets and a lot of patience. 

The completed M1. This turbine has been powering our house for about 5 months and has been holding up really well for a first prototype. It was an important starting point and we learned so much from designing and building it. It will always have a special place in my heart as my humble beginning.

An bottom view of the M1 rotor assembly. The turbine looks like the Nicaraguan flag with its blue struts and white sails. The Dacron sail cloth was salvaged from a 40 year old yacht sail donated by Grant Warga. Despite its age the sails have been perfect which is a testament to the robustness of this blade design. Much thanks to Grant for his contribution to renewable energy research!

Building the VWERC lab casita. When word got around that we needed to build a work shop, four of our good friends stopped by to help with the construction. That's Ramon securing the wood braces for the roof with myself, Allan, Luis, and Ringo helping out. These guys are always around to help...they are the best!!!

Alright, well that's a little sample of what we've been up to at the VWERC lab. Keep checking in as we should have some videos up soon!!

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