Renewable Energy
Science Fair Project Ideas

Students from middle school through college have won first prize at their science fairs by having fun and letting their imaginations run wild with the Picoturbine Educational Windmill Kit for energy science fair projects. Here are 20 renewable energy science fair project ideas that will help you to generate outstanding renewable energy science fair project ideas and experiments.

Before we begin let's look at safety precautions:

• Utility knives and scissors can be dangerous. Ask for parental guidance.


• Have something underneath the cardboard or paper to protect the surface you are working on.


• As an adult I have burned my hand with glue guns. Nasty and painful. Ask for help and guidance from an adult.


• The magnets are strong conductors of energy. Keep them away from your computer or other electronic devices. Keep away from credit cards, computer disks, audio tapes or any other materials where information is magnetically stored.

  Magnets do come with the Picoturbine Educational Windmill Set.

1. Test different blade configurations. Because PicoTurbine uses paper and cardboard it is easy to construct alternative blades. By changing the shape of the blades, what happens to the efficiency? You can use a fan or hair dryer at a fixed distance to make your comparisons. You can use a digital voltmeter to take exact measurements of each blade profile's effectivenss. Or, if you have a multimeter / voltmeter (they cost about $10 - $15), you can see at what distance the light / LED glows from the fan. The farther away, the better the blade works.
2. Test different size PicoTurbine blades: Narrower ones. Wider ones. Taller ones. Shorter ones. Then measure the power output as you did in the above experiment. Or measure how much power is required to start the blades to move (start-up speed) by measuring the distance of the fan / hair dryer from the blades and watch when the rotor starts up. Record your results.
3. Why must the coils be positioned clockwise or counterclockwise?
4. The PicoTurbine DC Experiments Kit is an inexpensive adjunct to the PicoTurbine Windmill Kit that will give you lots of additional testing options.
5. What are the advantages or disadvantages of the design or size of the blades?
6. Test different generator components.
7. Compare alternator designs. Try an alternator with 4 magnets. With 2 magnets. With 2 coils. With 4 coils. Try different distances between the coils and the magnets. Measure the output of the PicoTurbine and make a graph of the results.

8. What are the effects of different wind speeds with various blade configurations? Different generator components?
9. With the use of a multimeter / Voltmeter (available at Radio Shack or click here to order online), take measurements of electric output and use a PC spreadsheet program with SmartDraw and Excel to produce charts and graphs of the results for your renewable energy science fair project ideas report.
10. Use a simple picture wire as a conductor of heat. Show how wind power can product heat with the picture wire as your heating element. You are probably wondering how heat can produce cold wind. When wind produced by mechanical energy is turned into electricity, it easily produces heat.
11. For the Classroom: Have the kids divide into small groups and each group work on a different wind turbine. The effectiveness of different group's wind-turbines can then be compared. The teacher's guide gives examples of several different ways the kids can build the turbines and then make comparisons.

    (a) Which turbine produces the most electricity?

    (b) Which one starts up with the least amount of wind. Use a hair dryer act as the wind by placing the dryer at different distances from the PicoTurbine.

    (c) For primary age students have the children use differnt colored crayons to decorate the blades. Are all colors created equal? Are some colors more dense than others?

Include a multimeter / voltmeter with your renewable energy science fair project ideas.

1. Turn the selector on the digital multimeter / voltmeter to read Volts AC. The meter will not detect the number of volts of alternativing current your turbine produces.
2. Attach the test clips on the voltmeter to the wire leads on your turbine
3. Blow on the turbine to cause it to spin. Have another person help you by watching the readings on the display of the meter. Read and record your results. You should be able to produce between one and two volts by blowing on the turbine. Then you know that you have a well designed one.

   A more accurate way of measuring your turbine is to use a hair blow dryer, setting the heat control to "cool" or a vaccuum cleaner with the hose plugged into the discharge end. This will produce a consistent flow of energy. Then measure the different voltage on the multimeter / voltmeter.

4. By changing the blade design, you can measure the efficiency of your turbine. Or look for the sources of friction that will either slow down or speed the rotation. Or bring the coils closer or further away from the spinning magnets. Or use different size magnets and measure and record the difference between them.
5. What is the difference between alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC)? What are the advantages / disadvantages of each in relation to particular situations?

Solar / Renewable Energy Science Fair Project Ideas

1. Connect PV cells in series or in parallel and measure voltage and current under different sunlight intensities. To control your variables a bright lamp can be used. You can use different kind of bulbs to measure the different effects. Measure and record the differences.
2. Graph the power output at different angles. You can use a plastic protractor to measure the angle of the cell relative to the light source.

Hybrid Renewable Energy Science Fair Project Ideas

1. Experiment with renewable energy science fair project ideas by creating a minature "hybrid" energy power plant. Combine solar cells and a small windmill kit.
You can graphically demonstrate the complementary nature of these two free power sources. In many parts of the world, When it is winter the wind is more intense and the sun shines less. And the opposite is true in the summer. How about this for a science fair project hypothesis... A combination of solar and wind yields more consistant energy output.
2. For more advanced students...when using the energy science fair projects windmill kit, the alternator can be modified to run off of water power.
3. Do the above experiments with the different design and shape of the blades. Is there a difference when you have a hybrid run windmill? Advantages? Disadvantages?

For Renewable Energy Science Fair Project Ideas for High School Students
The PicoTurbine's manual has technical notes. They require knowledge of high school level math or physics.

Formulas and informationa for how much power can be extracted from different wind speeds.

Formulas and information for electricity production using alternators.

We would love your renewable energy science fair project ideas.
Please send them to info(at)super-science-fair-projects.com.
Replace the (at) with @ .