Do-it-yourself wind power

Last summer, the attention of visitors to Assateague State Park in the U.S. state of Maryland wasn’t so much captured by the wild horses roaming the grounds as by a 28-foot-high whirring wind turbine powering the batteries of a pop-up camper at one of the 350 campsites spread alongside two miles of Atlantic Ocean.

Its creator is Michael Powers, who lives near Baltimore. Having gone with his wife and three children to Assateague for many summers, he figured the island’s constant breeze could provide power for his camper’s two 13.8-volt batteries.

Powers, who by day manages a computer engineering team, first set up the turbine in his backyard—which, he notes, didn’t thrill his suburban neighbours. The whole thing cost about $80, including a motor and rotor he bought on eBay. The wind supplied enough energy to power the campers’ lights, refrigerator, oven fan and water pump.

This year, Powers plans to increase the turbine’s efficiency by using fibreglass blades. He’s even considering harnessing the wind to power a fan that blows air across an ammonia-based evaporator, thereby providing air-conditioning. Once he sets up again at Assateague, Powers and his windmill are sure to draw another crowd of curious campers. “Everyone stops to talk about it,” Powers says. “My family thought it was weird that I had this up, but they’re used to it.”