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Scoraig Wind Turbine Workshop 2012: Building a 3m DIY Wind Turbine with Hugh Piggott

By OffGrid Masterplan | April 2026 | Filed under: Wind Energy Guides

After years chasing small wind turbines for off‑grid blocks in central QLD, I know Hugh Piggott. The Scottish engineer has spent decades teaching people to build turbines from scratch, and his Scoraig Wind workshops on a remote peninsula in northwest Scotland are a fixture in the renewable‑energy crowd.

I’ve watched the PureSelfMade video from the May 2012 workshop. It’s a short clip, but it nails the week’s grind and shows the turbine we built. The finished machine is a 3‑metre diameter turbine at 24V, using a fresh ferrite‑magnet layout and the zebra‑head tail fin that’s become one of Hugh’s signatures.

Scoraig Workshop: What Actually Happens When You Build a 3 m Turbine

Hugh Piggott runs his Scoraig workshops on his remote peninsula property on Scotland's west coast, where the wind is relentless. People fly in from all over to spend a week fabricating a 3m turbine from scratch. There are no pre-made kits; you build every component on-site, leaving with a working machine and a proper grasp of how it all fits together.

I spent a week at the 2012 Scoraig Wind Turbine Workshop building a 3-metre diameter machine. This size turbine puts out real power for off-grid setups. Running at 24V nominal, it charges batteries in small to medium solar-wind hybrid systems. In decent wind sites, a 3m turbine churns out 100 to 300 watts continuously in moderate winds, and more when gusts hit.

3m Ferrite Magnet Turbine: The Build Decisions We Made

The 2012 workshop rig ran on ferrite magnets instead of the neodymium blocks that were then strangling the market. I bought ferrite because it was cheap and I could pick it up locally, which kept the whole job within budget. The catch was that the design had to be tighter, and the winding layout in the alternator was the make‑or‑break factor.

At the 2012 Scoraig workshop I watched Hugh Piggott’s zebra head tail furling work. It uses a vane that catches the wind and physically swings the turbine out of the wind, rather than relying on springs or centrifugal force. When a gust hit, the vane flipped the rotor out of the wind and kept the machine under its rated speed, preventing overspeed and saving the bearings from early wear. No whine, just a clean cut‑out that has held up in the installs I’ve serviced.

Why Small Wind Turbines Work on My Off‑Grid Shed

I've mounted small wind turbines on off‑grid jobs where solar alone won't cut it. In many spots wind howls through winter nights while the sun shines only in summer days, so the two resources rarely line up. Coupling a wind turbine with solar panels and a battery bank levels out those seasonal and daily swings, giving you a steadier supply than either stack on its own.

The Scoraig peninsula gets excellent wind exposure, but the lessons from the workshops apply broadly. Hugh Piggott's designs are documented in detail in his books, and the underlying principles of low-speed alternator design, blade aerodynamics, and furling system engineering translate to most wind sites with reasonable average wind speeds.

Use the Wind Turbine Sizing Calculator to estimate what size turbine would suit your property based on your average wind speed and daily energy consumption.

Resources I used for the 2012 Scoraig build

Hugh Piggott's website at scoraigwind.co.uk is the authoritative source for workshop schedules, his books on wind turbine design, and technical articles on small wind energy. His book Wind Turbines: A Hands-On Guide to Building Your Own Small Wind Turbine is considered essential reading for anyone serious about DIY wind power and covers everything from alternator design to tower construction.

I also keep an eye on PureSelfMade’s site at pureselfmade.com; it logs this turbine build and the rest of the workshop crew’s renewable‑energy projects.

What I bought for the 3‑metre turbine

Final Thoughts

That Scoraig wind workshop video from 2012 is a brief but sharp look at why these builds stick. The view is stunning, the turbine is beautiful in its functional simplicity, and the sense of community around learning practical renewable energy skills comes through clearly.

If you are serious about small wind power, the Scoraig workshops remain the best place to learn by doing. Hugh Piggott's books are also excellent resources for people who cannot attend in person. And if you are combining wind with an existing solar system, use the Alternative Energy Calculator to model how a wind turbine would complement your solar array at your specific location.

Video and content courtesy of PureSelfMade. OffGrid Masterplan is an independent review platform. We have not been compensated for this content.