November 2011

We began work designing and building a pedal-powered PA system and continued working on various alternators ordered as kits.

October 2011

We fixed the 3.6m grid-tie wind turbine we have installed at Warwick University after some damage last year. Plus more Bergey servicing trips and provision of a little PA for a Rundance charity event in Nottingham.

September 2011

This month we began our service contract with Siac to service all Bergey 10kW wind turbines installed in the UK.

August 2011

We ran discussions on 'solar power on a budget', 'DIY wind turbines', and 'renewable energy cooperatives' in the Rebel Soul Area at Shambala festival.

Also, we provided a 24V, 200W wind turbine system for lighting and device charging in the artist area for the Wormfood stage at Secret Garden Party

July 2011

This month saw the end of the Idiscover schools project we've been running with NESTA. We hope to continue our work with schools and are glad to have had the opportunity to develop a series of engaging, hands on workshops which will hopefully help bring more young engineers into the field of renewables. We also did a couple of service visits to some 10kW Bergey turbines in Yorkshire - the next level up from our turbines but of a very similar design inside!

Finally we began installing one of our 3.6m turbines at a farm in the peak district. We hope to complete the install in September and are very excited as we've already seen it put out 1kW in 8m/s winds! 

June 2011

June has been a busy month for V3, in keeping with the festival season. We have provided a wind Turbine, solar panels, a battery bank, a small vocal PA for daytime talks, 3 LED cannons and a projector for evening visuals/films for Sunrise Festival. We also helped our friends at Ecoworks with their lovely Market Square celebration by providing a bike generator. Tom D pretty much single-handedly sorted the power out for Nottingham Uni's green festival Sounds on the Downs with some help from friends and, we have been running a few inspirational school workshops. All in all its been a productive month and, the we are now keeping up the good work by providing the power for Glastonbury's great direct action space. 

May 2011

This month we ran a bike-generator build course each Wednesday afternoon at the local Steiner school in Nottingham. We built three generators which will be used by the Iona school, Melbourne transition group , and as part of Phil Campbell's exciting new media project "The Ark" .

We also provided power to several community events being put on by our friends at Ecoworks - a community sustainability project in central Nottingham.

April 2011

This month we went to Rossport in Ireland to build 2 1/2 turbines. The 2.4m turbine built last year is still running although one of the blades snapped (!) so we carved a new set for that. We also built two new 1.2m turbines and a 6m tower for one of them. This will provide power for the action camp currently being constructed.

We also went to Kassel university in Germany and ran another short course with their EUREC students building a 1.2m battery charging turbine.

Also this month Aran has been over in India building and installing turbines. On top of this he's been helping put PV and LED lighting into rural communities - A full report will be available in the download section soon!

March 2011

We ran a course with Project Nottingham building bicycle generators and l.e.d. desk lamps in preparation for their Earth Hour event (which we also provided our trailer sound-system for!). Photos of the course here.

We also went to the Highlands of Scotland to build small turbines with 14 yearolds in remote villages as part of the NESTA idiscover program. Since one of the schools was very close we took the opportunity to visit Scoraig and have a cup of tea withHugh Piggott . 

February 2011 

We spent three consecutive weekends at Bath University building a 3m battery charging system and 10m tower. Once planning goes through it will be erected on campus and used for research projects looking at super capacitors and remote monitoring equipment.  More here 

January 2011

We ran a weekend course at Oldenburg university  - building a 1.2m 12V turbine which is being install on a 18m tower at the Energy Lab - part of the engineering department which was originally built as an off-grid learning space during the 1970s. The new turbine will form part of the EUREC masters students summer term projects.

October 2010

We completed the 3.6m turbine built with EWB Warwick and installed it on a 10m tower connected to the national grid using two 500W Mastervolt inverters. 

September 2010

A course was run at De Twaalf Ambachten, a sustainability education centre in Holland.  We built a 1.2m turbine with 13 participants from all over Holland.  The course was a success, and several of the course participants intend to build their own turbines in the future.  For more info about the course see the report in our downloads section.

August 2010 

We ran a 5 day course in our Nottingham workshop with the outcome of a 2.4m battery charger destined for a remote cottage in Oxfordshire. This month we also provided power at several temporary events including Shambala festival and the camp for climate action just outside Edinburgh.

June/July - Festivals

We provided workshops and off grid power at various festivals including Sunrise, Sounds on the Downs and Glastonbury. We also ran a one day introduction to renewable energy at Ecoworks.

Germany

In May V3 Power went on a trip to Germany with 3 main outcomes:

1. Alicia

A 1.2m turbine was built at Kassel University with students studying the EUREC European Master in Renewable Energy. The turbine, called Alicia, was left at the university as a demonstration.

2. Witzenhausen Maintenance

On a course last year a 3.6m turbine was connected to the German grid in a town near Kassel. The turbine was taken down for a maintenance check. Work carried out includes weatherproofing, programming inverter and adjusting rotor discs.

3. Cherry

On an impromptu 3 day course a 1.2m turbine was built in Witzenhausen and installed on a wooden monopole (our first!) in the Wagonplatz, a land project in a cherry orchard near the town.

 

Florence

In Mid April two V3 engineers helped a group of people build a 1.2m turbine which is destined for a derelict barge on the river Thames, more details here.

Nesta

Since November last year we have been developing lesson plans to teach year 7, 8 and 9 young people basic engineering as part of the idiscover program from Nesta. In March we started delivering the classes in Manchester, London and Birmingham. The lessons consist of a bicycle generator based "scrap heap challenge", building a windup torch and (naturally) building a wind turbine. More details of the program here .

Dolly

In early March we built a 1.2m 200W turbine at the Workhouse, Llanfyllin in Wales with 10 course attendees.

Environmental Playday

Pedal generator fun was had at this Playworks event on a park in St Annes, Nottingham.

Workers Education Authority

We attended a community renewables event in Calverton for Nottingham Loves Learning.

Rossport

At the end of Jan we went to the West coast of Ireland to run a course where we built and installed a 2.4m turbine. The power is being used for an off-grid house. For more details and pics see here.

Warwick

We built a 2.4m turbine over the course of a cold November week near Stamford which will be used to help power a mobile cinema. Pictures available here

Jim

We built a 1.2m turbine on a wet October weekend at Earthworm housing coop near the Welsh border. Pictures here. Report with videos here. 

Climate Camps

V3 went on the road this summer, facilitating power from the wind and running workshops at Climate Camp Cymru in Merther Tydfil and the Camp for Climate Action on Blackheath common in London. A write up of the london event can be found here.

Course at Sunseed in Spain

Two V3 engineers ran a course and built a beautiful turbine at Sunseed Desert Technology, pictures and write up here

Weekend Course in Cambridge

We recently built a 1.8m 300W turbine with a great group down in Cambridge.  The turbine is going to live on a farm and be used for climate camp this summer.  Pictures from the course 

Sunrise Festival

V3 spent a week at the sunrise festival near Yeovil in Somerset, supplying power for a stage and running a diverse range of workshops including how to build a rocket stove, bike generators, hand built wind turbines and solar cooking.

Transition Town Sneinton Energy Festival

Transition Towns Nottingham is a movement we've been involved with for a while, and it was a pleasure to do a display about wind turbines, solar water heating, and pedal powered for this community event.

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Other Projects

In the R+D department of V3 we've been looking into bike powered devices, in particular pedal powered generators using a permanent DC motors, and pedal powered smoothie makers.  These are both available for demonstrations and events, and are a great way demonstating the effort needed to power stuff with your legs!

New on the Website

We now have a downloads section on our website, the purpose of which is to spread knowledge over the web by publishing "how to guides", installation manuals and other documents with info on DIY renewable energy.  If you have anything you would like to put on the website, or similarly if you want information anything specific to go up there, let us know.