Wind turbine construction course at Brighton Earthship

V3 Power ran a course at the Earthship in November 2007 where 10 members of the public spent two days constructing a 2.4m Hugh Piggott wind turbine.

V3 Power build small wind turbines and run courses teaching people how to make their own turbines. They are based in Nottingham but got invited to the earthship to run a course in November 2007

By running courses where people can learn how to build, install and maintain their own turbine they offer people and communities the chance to release themselves from reliance on the national grid while making a real difference to the climate change problem. So, get involved

The plan is to run further courses on the south coast if there is sufficient interest. Contact

info@v3power.org to find out more.

V3 Power
e-mail: info@v3power.org
Homepage: http://www.v3power.org

Comments

Hide the following 13 comments

Commercial promotion and indymedia

03.01.2008 15:11

Nice pics, but can someone tell us why this is on the newswire?

As far as I can tell this directly promotes a commercial venture. I dare say someone will pipe up and say it promotes alternative, sustainable forms of energy too. To be honest, I don't really know what that's got to do with indymedia either.

Why don't you use another medium to promote yourselves?

Someone who finds green capitalism really problematic

Welcome to Heathrow...

03.01.2008 17:57

Please correct me if I'm wrong but this does not look like capitalism to me.
These people would be very welcome to get involved with the upcoming campaign to try to turn the threatened villages near Heathrow Airport into a high tech eco village which is not about making money either.

Jubal Harshaw
mail e-mail: earthaidcampaign@yahoo.co.uk
Homepage: http://nothirdrunway.blogspot.com

empowering not capitalist

03.01.2008 18:03

Perhaps you should read the links further before commenting

This is a course showing people how to build a wind turbine. Whats so capitalist about that?

from the website of V3:

Conceived/Formed/Established in the summer of 2006 we are a group of self-employed wind turbine builders/teachers/engineers working together as a cooperative.

By running courses where people can learn how to build, install and maintain their own turbine we offer people and communities the chance to release themselves from reliance on the national grid while making a real difference to the climate

Bring it on! Excellent stuff!

Unless you'd rather sit there and consume leccy from nuclear off the grid of course...

windy miller

How much power does it develop?

03.01.2008 20:43

Enough to power my computer long enough to download these huge images?

Think about it!

bob

Green washing up

03.01.2008 20:50

I wish i had a house like that

I wish i had some land like that

I wish i could afford that

I wish my council would allow that

I wish i was rich so i could fulfill all my green dreams

I wish i was a capitalist

Oh shit i am

Best go back to self flagellation and getting my power from nuclear energy

The inherent contradiction of a market based economy that can only survive on growth, ie. markets need to grow, whether green or capitalist, against saving the planet.

Or do we still want capitalism, except in this case with a green tinge.

Someone else who finds green capitalism really problematic

This house is amazing!

03.01.2008 21:21

OK, I guess technically, if they charged money for this course they are capitalist, so what???
Green capitalism will be investing money in some financial venture, say shell's off shore platforms or something. this is about DIY, it's about liberating people from the dependence on a centralised power production, and so it is essentially anti capitalist, it takes that little control away from the power companies.
Also, you can blame Indymedia for being capitalist too! they are hosted on a server somewhere, someone has paid for it (or skipped it :) ) some people made it in a factory in a far away land, and some companies are making good money out of it (at the very least it's the electricity company and internet provider) I doubt any of these are DIY.
If you can explain to me how this is "capitalist" i would really appreciate it.
We need hundreds of courses like that, we can, to use a cliché, "decentralise power".

Well done!

Rupert Murdoch

Caring, sharing?

04.01.2008 01:36

Anti-capitalist doesn't mean you have to be anti-money. In fact better to be a brazen capitalist than antimony.

The greenest in-vestment would be a woollen one.

Hoarsefly

Green Wash Continued

04.01.2008 10:02

Yes people need to make a living in a capitalist society, either that or depend on the state handout or a trustifarian handout lifestyle.

I suppose all the pieces that go to make up the wind turbine are made by pixies at the bottom of the garden, spun out of the finest yoghurt and secured atop a hemp pole.

Anti-capitalist for you but not for everyone else who cannot afford your 'green credentials'.
*it takes that little control away from the power companies*
Only if you can afford labour, cable, inverter, back up battery storage system and solar panels for when its not windy. Otherwise its back into the grid.

Where are all the windmills, on all the tenements, in all the cities?

*In fact better to be a brazen capitalist than antimony* As soon as you question any part of green lifestylism, this is the sort of wise answer you get.

Yes people working cooperatively is good. The labour/money/exchange system is what has brought us to where we are today. If we still have the same system except with a green outlook, does that still mean we have a rich/poor divide? Or will that 'disappear' once we have saved the planet?

Someone else who finds green capitalism really problematic

decentralise power

04.01.2008 11:35

"I suppose all the pieces that go to make up the wind turbine are made by pixies at the bottom of the garden, spun out of the finest yoghurt and secured atop a hemp pole."

Actually you are not too far from the truth there. nearly all the pieces are very accessible and very cheap and can be obtained in any scrap yard or out of your neighbourhood dumping bin. This is not green capitalism at all, this is how to get yourself off the grid and decentralise power to create an autonomous space. You can hardly get more radical than these guys.

Sean in Brighton

Thatcher would be proud

04.01.2008 12:03

Of course it's about green capitalism, which is effectively co-opting radical confrontational struggle and anti-capitalism.

It's a logical path for Thatcher's children who have been normalised in a culture of possessive individualism.

So what, with my mummy and daddy's trust fund, I've built my windmill for £2000 or whatever you're quoting, and i've spent thousands of pounds on panels and batteries and no-one on my housing estate has a chance of doing anything similar cos they're in debt upto their eyeballs or have to worry bout paying bills. Or oh my god, they've gotta do that four letter word on Indymedia, WORK!

Hurrrah Jubal, I'm off the grid! Bring on the eco-village at Heathrow!

The wheels of global capital are still turning and the injustices and oppression of people and the planet are accelerating. But i'm alright Tarquin, cos i'm off the grid!

All bow down to the lifestylism of green capitalism and what heralds a new dawn for the lifestylers on indymedia.

fuck green capitalism

There's more to this than meets the eye...

04.01.2008 20:45

There is a lot more to the proposal for turning the threatened area near Heathrow into an eco-village than making wind turbines from discarded scrap.
We are hoping to also be able to help the local people create a new political and economic system that will change things for the better.

These ideas were posted on Indymedia UK on 31 December 2007 under the title "Will the Children's Revolution Save the Human Race from Extinction?"
Lending support to the local people in the threatened villages to take control of their own destiny seems like a good start in the right direction to ensuring the survival of future generations.

Jubal Harshaw
mail e-mail: earthaidcampaign@yahoo.co.uk
Homepage: http://nothirdrunway.blogspot.com

hot air

05.01.2008 12:52

So what, with my mummy and daddy's trust fund, I've built my windmill for £2000 or whatever you're quoting, and i've spent thousands of pounds on panels and batteries and no-one on my housing estate has a chance of doing anything similar cos they're in debt upto their eyeballs or have to worry bout paying bills. Or oh my god, they've gotta do that four letter word on Indymedia, WORK!

See, this is why you should go to a V3 event, you think a wind turbine costs £2000and it's impossible to do for anyone who is working class, averaged out over the last 12 months I have earnt less than I would have got on the dole and housing benefit (self employed).

I share workshop space with V3, and I know on my buget I could build a turbine.

BTW, I am working class too.

12 members of the public?

08.01.2008 19:18

So 12 members of the public made this turbine did they? What an odd phrase. Why not '12 people'? Everyone is a member of the public, except perhaps prisoners, who are kept away from the public domain.

simon