A miniature combined horizontal wind-turbine and PV demonstration kit for K-12 STEM programs

Increasing green energy usage has become a priority for towns and municipalities. A general lack of awareness regarding the many benefits of green energy remains a formidable impediment for wide spread adoption of green technologies. A potential solution to this problem is educating K-12 students and increasing their awareness of the benefits of green energy. Doing so will lead to an increase in the community's overall awareness, through secondary knowledge dissemination, especially of those communities not easily reachable through adults. Furthermore as part of a STEM educational series, demonstration of a windturbine system will greatly benefit the students understanding of wind-turbine designs. To this end, two undergraduate engineering students, during summer 2015 term, designed and implemented a miniature horizontal wind-turbine demonstration kit for K- 12 STEM programs. This paper outlines the design process and presents the implemented prototypes.