How much does a wind turbine cost? It’s an important question, but one that is rarely, if ever, addressed by existing guides and websites.
Some people claim that you can make your own wind turbine with as little as $50, but this is almost impossible unless you have a lot of spare parts on hand in your garage.
Just to review, here are the parts you’ll need to construct your own wind turbine:
- DC Power Motor
- Sheets of metal (to assemble the body and tail)
- ABS or PVC pipe (to construct your wind turbine blades)
- Hub (to connect your blades to the motor)
- Tower (to hold up your blades)
- Deep-Cycle Battery (to store your energy)
- Charge Controller (to prevent the battery from overloading)
- Dump Load (to send extra power to)
- AC Inverter (if you need to use AC power)
- Nuts and Bolts (for connecting the blades to the hub and other pieces)
- Tools: socket set, screwdrivers, a grinder, a jigsaw, and sandpaper
Now let’s look at what each of these will cost you – either from your hardware store, or online via eBay or other sites.
DC Power Motor – You can find an Ametek 30-40 vdc generator online on eBay for around $30-$50 – this is my recommended motor, especially if your wind speed is not great.
Sheets of Metal – You can find these online or at your hardware store for about $5.
ABC or PVC pipe – Again, you can find pipe between 8” and 12” in diameter online for around $10.
Hub – You can either buy this at your hardware store for around $10, or make it yourself out of a circular piece of metal alloy.
Tower – You can find old satellite TV towers or simple steel pipe that’s about 2-3” thick and 8-12 feet tall online for around $10 – going to your local hardware store or asking neighbors also work.
Deep-Cycle Battery – This should be free if you go to your local golf club or a fork lift distributor and ask for old batteries – otherwise you could find a deep-cycle battery online for around $10.
Charge Controller – You can find one on eBay for about $25.
Dump Load – This should be free because you can just use a simple appliance you already have, like a water heater or backup battery pack.
AC Inverter – If you don’t already have one, you can get one for $50 (300 Watts) to $75 (1500 Watts) online.
Nuts and Bolts / Tools – Allot about $10 for these if you don’t already have your own tools and some nuts and bolts – your best bet is your local hardware store.
Adding all these parts up, we see that the cost may range from $160 to $205 – and if you already have certain parts like the inverter or motor, you could build your own wind turbine for only $100.
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I use TurboTorque blades on my Ametek 38 VDC. It works really good as a direct drive rotor. My mount is built from a pipe flange with some 90 degree angle brackets to mount my Ametek. I love Ameteks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!