Wind Turbine building at Rossport Solidarity Camp

From the 10th to 16th of August, Rossport Solidarity Camp hosted it's 3rd wind turbine building course. You can read a report of the first one here: http://www.indymedia.ie/article/95731. As the 3 previous turbines that were built are still going strong (and powering both the camp and camp house), this year it was decided to go for something bigger and more challenging. This year it's was decided to build a 4.2 metre turbine that is planned eventually to be connected to the grid at the house of a local Shell to Sea campaigner.

The course which was originally scheduled to run from the 4th to the 10th August had to be delayed for 2 days after Shell go their TBM stuck, which as well as disrupting local traffic also disrupted the scheduling plans for the turbine course..

The course was once again run by the wind turbine collective V3 (http://www.v3power.co.uk), working from the Hugh Piggott design (http://scoraigwind.co.uk).

By the weeks end we had a working turbine built that once installed is hoped to produce in the region of 400 to 500 kWh per month.

Big thanks to all involved, in particular to the V3. Also thanks to environmental NGO Gluaiseacht (http://www.gluaiseacht.ie) for funding, who along with funding from Lush (http://www.lush.co.uk/our-values/campaigns) helped us run the course.

We will be installing the turbine in the week starting on the 17th September. The plan is initially to install the turbine for heating water, with eventually (finance permitting) the turbine to be connected to the grid.
We will also be running a wind turbine maintenance weekend on the 15th & 16th September, during which we will be doing maintenance work on the 3 camp turbines (and also doing some construction work on the 1.8m turbine we're currently building). Please let us know if you're coming (rossportsolidaritycamp@gmail.com). The cost is just a donation of what you can afford.

Carving the blades which are made from native Douglas fir.