Piggott Axial Flux Alternator Wind Turbine

Target SDGs

Market Suggested Retail Price

$1,500.00

Target Users (Target Impact Group)

Household

Distributors / Implementing Organizations

Hugh Piggott's manual is available for purchase online to all end users for personal construction of the turbine.

Competitive Landscape

Direct competitors include Qr6 Vertical Axis Wind Turbine, Rutland FM910-4 Furlmatic Windcharger, and Bornay Inclin 600.

Manufacturing/Building Method

Turbines are individually manufactured

Intellectural Property Type

Open-source

User Provision Model

The Piggott Turbine can only be manually constructed by following the directions outlined in Hugh Piggott's open source book A Wind Turbine Recipe Book.

Distributions to Date Status

Since the product is open source, the exact number of constructed turbines is unknown.

Design Specifications

The Piggott Turbine has two types of designs - 2F and 4F Turbine design. For the 2F design:

• Rotor diameter - 2 meters
• Rated power output - 500W at 12m/s wind speed
• 12/24/48 volt off-grid battery charging or high voltage for grid-tie inverter
• Annual energy production:
• 500 kWh/year at 4.1 m/s average wind speed
• 1000 kWh/year at 5.6 m/s average wind speed
• Material cost - 393 - 449 USD (350 - 400 Euros)

For the 4F design:

• Rotor diameter - 4 meters
• Rated power output - 2000 W at 12 m/s wind speed
• 24/48 volt off-grid battery charging or high voltage for grid-tie inverter
• Annual energy production:
• 1800 kWh/year at 4 m/s average wind speed
• 3000 kWh/year at 5 m/s average wind speed
• Material cost - around 786 USD (around 700 Euros)

For the structure turbine design: The blades are hand carved from softwood. The alternators are comprised of neodymium magnets mounted onto laser-cut steel magnet discs and stator is comprised of hand-wound copper coils. The mounting is comprised of bearings to mount the blades and magnet discs, steel frame to attach the stator and bearing to a tower and a tail boom mechanism. Further details of the design can be found in the handbook.    

Product Schematics

Technical Support

All technical information is available in the instruction manual. The owner of the design can be contacted through his email or his phone number.

Replacement Components

All the components for construction are common manufacturing materials and parts that are most likely available in country, or can be purchased from online wind turbine suppliers.

Lifecycle

Lifetime, disposal, and warranty information is unavailable and dependent on individual manufacturing of the product.

Manufacturer Specified Performance Parameters

The designer's aim was to provide access to electricity in rural areas.

Vetted Performance Status

The testing is usually done by the owner of Piggott Wind Turbine, Hugh Piggott, and through Solar Energy International (SEI), a seminar was conducted. The product was tested for power output at varying wind speeds, which varies based on blade size.

Safety

Grinding, sanding, drilling, welding are dangerous practices and should be performed with caution. The construction involves several dangerous tasks and some materials may be sharp or toxic, so caution is required during construction. The manual discusses potential hazards in depth. There are no known hazards during the windmill's operation.

Complementary Technical Systems

Unknown

Academic Research and References

Compliance with regulations

Unknown

Evaluation methods

The manufacturer used both laboratory research and field testing to evaluate technology in terms of power output and other performance indicators.

Other Information

Hugh Piggott's Wind Power Workshop How to build homemade Piggott wind turbine - DIY L'eolienne Piggott Casting a Hugh Piggott wind turbine stator