By CJ Hines

“From scratch” is a term associated with baking a cake or building a hot rod. Most of us don’t associate it with building supplemental forms of energy.
Two recent UNI graduates, Francis Praska and Ashref Alqassab, spent their last semester building a wind turbine, ‘from scratch.’ They also presented their project as part of the UNI Sustainability Series.

The project initially was to fulfill a requirement for Dr. Recayi Pecen’s class, electrical and information engineering technology, but both had personal reasons for building the turbine.

“I wanted to find a supplement to my own house. My research showed a turbine, tower and all the additional components would cost between $35,000 and $50,000. That was not going to happen,” Praska said. “I came across an article about a man from the UK who built a wind turbine with a brake drum. It was simple enough to understand and build, it met the budget I had to work with and seemed like a great way to get into wind power.”

Praska intended to go solo until Alqassab asked to join him. “I hesitated at first until he explained why.”

Alqassab, now of Waterloo, wanted to build a system that could work on his father’s Saudi Arabian ranch to run the water pumps. “I wanted to show my appreciation to him for putting me through school.”

With Alqassab’s help, the project expanded beyond its initial purpose. “I saw an opportunity to go beyond the simple lights and water heater system into a whole new world of possibilities.

It’s a decision that has made this project 100 times better than it ever would have been without him,” Praska said.

Together the two, both of whom earned their bachelor of science degree in electrical information and engineering technology, spent many hours in the classroom and on Praska’s farm in Elma building and installing the wind turbine.

The project wasn’t without problems. “It was mostly due to lack of experience, which cost us time, money and effort. But I was asked by one of the people who attended our presentation if knowing what I know now, would I build this turbine again? I said ‘absolutely, without hesitation,’” Praska said.

Now that the turbine is installed and working, Praska and Alqassab have begun collecting data. “We’ve been testing how long it takes to recharge the battery, what kind of wind conditions are ideal, what kind of load will drain the battery and other things,” Praska said.

Currently the turbine can generate about 1200kW of power, which is