Awarding the 1st place to the GUST team, the jury appreciated the long-standing achievements of students from the TUL Power Engineering Student Research Group on the world and national arena, including their victory in competitions: International Small Wind Turbine Contest in the Netherlands and EKOinnovators and participation in many international conferences, as well as presentations at world fairs in the USA and Germany.
Anna Baszczyńska, a student of biomedical engineering at TUL and the Head of the GUST project, talks about the competition.
The competition consisted of two stages. The first was to submit an application containing a description of the project's operation and its innovation, as well as technical documentation. In the second stage, during the presentation, we demonstrated the originality of our backyard wind turbine resulting from its modularity, the use of 3D printing, the use of a turntable and our electronic system. During the modernisation of the turbine, the UN report "Sustainable Development Goals" was the guideline for the design. Thanks to our turbine, it will be possible to provide electricity to residents in areas where access to electricity is very limited. We can also see and monitor how much demand there is for such environmentally friendly energy solutions.
GUST is a small domestic wind turbine with a height of up to 2 metres and a rotor diameter of 1.6 metres - generating power of 460 W in 10 m/s wind. The shape and number of blades have not come by chance - as the young constructors say: - The rotor has been thoroughly tested in the wind tunnel at Lodz University of Technology, during a competition in the Netherlands and in a laboratory in Paris.
The activities of the Power Engineering Student Research Group at TUL are supported by researchers from the Institute of Turbomachinery where the students have their own laboratory and access to modern equipment.
Students will receive PLN 3,000 as a prize, but the competition's organisers - the Independent Students' Association - also wish to help young designers commercialise their projects and attract investors.