In a development which may put the wind up big turbine manufacturers, Max Robson, a 22-yr old Portsmouth University student, has built a 11.3W wind turbine for less than $40.  The turbine is made from 100 percent recycled materials and able to be built by unskilled workers in less than a day anywhere in the world.

Max has never set foot in a Third World country but he now hopes to change that. He wants to take his idea to aid organisations which help throughout the Third World to develop it further – and to travel and see first-hand conditions in some of the world’s poorest countries. Max’s design converts kinetic energy in wind into electrical energy stored in a battery and he has designed it so it could be made from a wide variety of scrap found locally.

He said: “My dad wanted to do something like this but I beat him to it. He had the idea of designing a scrap wind turbine but it was my idea to use it in the developing world. I wanted to design and build something worthwhile and I am also interested in design being environmentally friendly.”

Dad Ashley studied mechanical engineering at the University of Portsmouth 20 years ago and one of his classmates was John Bishop who later became a lecturer and Max’s tutor. Max has designed the wind turbine to be affordable, sustainable and help those in the poorest parts of the world. His prototype was built using scrap found on roadsides and in front gardens.

Max has just been awarded a first class honours degree in product design and modern materials from the Department of Mechanical and Design Engineering. He comes from a family of if not engineers then people who can and do make, adapt and tinker with machines. His father had once mentioned he would like to come up with a sustainable and cheap form of energy production but Max took the seed of the idea further and developed a product for his final project.

He said: “I am interested in everything from Nanotechnology to traditional technologies and the course has equipped me to use old and new. The wind turbine I have designed is 1.8m wide so it isn’t too much of a burden on the surrounding environment. The prototype generates 11.3 watts and charges a battery which when fully charged could run lighting for 63 hours or a radio for about 30 hours.
“This isn’t going to change lives in the developing world dramatically but a device like this could make their lives a lot easier. It cost me £20 to build the prototype and in the developing world it would be a lot less. The nearest alternative wind turbine on the market costs £2,000.”

Since graduating Max has been accepted onto the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship ‘Flying Start’ scheme.