A windmill is a machine that is powered by the energy of the wind. It is designed to convert the energy of the wind into more useful forms using rotating blades or sails. The term also refers to the structure it is commonly built on. In much of Europe, windmills served originally to grind grain, though later applications included pumping water and, more recently, generation of electricity. Recent electricity generating versions are referred to as wind turbines.

With the rising prices of fuels, industries that are dependent on burning oil and coal are also increasing the costs of their services. Among the most important industries affected by this inflation is power generation. Because of this people are looking for ways to cut down the need for conventional sources of electricity so that they can decrease or eliminate their electric bills and at the same time, prevent the Earth from further degeneration. One of the effective ways of doing this is using windmill electricity. You can build your own windmill power generator with the help of this plan. All hardware and material used in this project, is easily available from your local hardware store and scrap/junk yard.

What are wind turbines made of?
The towers are mostly tubular and made of steel. The blades are made of fiberglass-reinforced polyester or wood-epoxy.

How big is a wind turbine?
Utility-scale wind turbines for land-based wind farms come in various sizes, with rotor diameters ranging from about 50 meters to about 90 meters, and with towers of roughly the same size. A 90-meter machine, definitely at the large end of the scale at this writing (2005), with a 90-meter tower would have a total height from the tower base to the tip of the rotor of approximately 135 meters (442 feet).
Offshore turbine designs now under development will have larger rotors—at the moment, the largest has a 110-meter rotor diameter—because it is easier to transport large rotor blades by ship than by land.
Small wind turbines intended for residential or small business use are much smaller. Most have rotor diameters of 8 meters or less and would be mounted on towers of 40 meters in height or less.

How much electricity can one wind turbine generate?
The ability to generate electricity is measured in watts. Watts are very small units, so the terms kilowatt (kW, 1,000 watts), megawatt (MW, 1 million watts), and gigawatt (pronounced "jig-a-watt," GW, 1 billion watts) are most commonly used to describe the capacity of generating units like wind turbines or other power plants.
Electricity production and consumption are most commonly measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh). A kilowatt-hour means one kilowatt (1,000 watts) of electricity produced or consumed for one hour. One 50-watt light bulb left on for 20 hours consumes one kilowatt-hour of electricity (50 watts x 20 hours = 1,000 watt-hours = 1 kilowatt-hour).

The output of a wind turbine depends on the turbine's size and the wind's speed through the rotor. Wind turbines being manufactured now have power ratings ranging from 250 watts to 5 megawatts (MW).
Example: A 10-kW wind turbine can generate about 10,000 kWh annually at a site with wind speeds averaging 12 miles per hour, or about enough to power a typical household. A 5-MW turbine can produce more than 15 million kWh in a year--enough to power more than 1, 400 households. The average U.S. household consumes about 10,000 kWh of electricity each year.

Turbine subsystems include:

1. a rotor, or blades, which convert the wind's energy into rotational shaft energy;
2. a nacelle (enclosure) containing a drive train, usually including a gearbox* and a generator;
3. a tower, to support the rotor and drive train; and electronic equipment such as controls, electrical cables, ground support equipment, and interconnection equipment.

Tools you need:

1. Diodes 30 amp and Band saw for metal cuts
2. Table saw / hand saw
3. Jig saw, drill press or hand drill
4. Duct tape and heating torch
5. Magnets ( ferrite blocks or neodymium n40 blocks 1” x 2”
6. Flexible wire (14 AWG size)
7. 2 pieces 1” bearing blocks
8. 2 part epoxy, small welder and masking tape
9. 1” x 24” round rod for rotor shaft.
10. Soldering gun and Polyester resin

Some topics covered in this guide:

Power for the future
List of materials and tools
Jigs and moulds
Stator construction
Rotor construction
Wind blade assembly/construction
Testing and connecting
Critical Review of free energy
Steel Flywheel Disk
Split Taper Bushing
Generator housing assembly
Generator coil
Brush assembly