Generating Power with Wind, Water, and Solar

It is three weeks after the apocalypse. No zombies yet. But you do need to charge your cell phone. How do you quickly make a wind turbine? If you’ve read this project, you might reach for a few empty water bottles. This educational project might not charge your phone without some extra work, but it does illustrate how to use water bottles to make a workable air scoop for turning a crank and possibly generating electricity.

That takes care of the wind and water aspects, but how did we get solar? According to the post — and we agree it is technically true — wind power is a form of solar power since the wind is driven by temperature differences created by the sun. Technically true!

Short of an apocalypse, this probably isn’t a very practical project, but we liked it as a possible school project. Most of it can use scrap materials. The only things you might have to buy is a motor, some bearings, and some cheap nuts and bolts. You might even have all of it, depending on how much junk you hoard.

If you do use this as a student project, it is worth pointing out the duality throughout. The post talks about how a fan and a turbine are the same devices. It also uses a motor as a generator. In each case, you might design something for better performance when used one way or another, but a surprising number of transducers can operate in both directions. For example, speakers make poor but useable microphones. LEDs can sense light, as long as light can get to the die.

Now if you want to go all out, fire up your 3D printer. There are several possible designs.