Phoenix Turbine Builders Club

2005 Review: Moving on to Phase II

December 2005

This is north country where we live -- away from the hustle and bustle of the big cities, and just right for the kind of work we are doing. 

I grew up in one of the largest cities in the U.S. -- Detroit -- waning auto capital of the world. I say "waning" because European and Asian automakers are slowly but surely taking global market share from GM and Ford. With one in seven U.S. jobs tied to the domestic automotive industry, things don't look so good for us now. And it's not just the auto industry that's depressed.

The republicans keep telling us that the economy is looking up -- but what about those climbing interest rates? The clown in the white house says that inflation is low (if you exclude food and fuel) -- but what about those climbing interest rates? The economy does indeed look good for republicans and other ilk who believe in, and actively worship, the religion of greed. But for the rest of us who must pay the ever-increasing costs of food and fuel, things look drastically different.

One of the main reasons we began this club was to share information with other new engine enthusiasts, and try to inspire them to do the same. We have always believed that the way to truly change the world for the better is to get people to move at the grass roots level of global society. It's the masses of individuals who need to be set free from the high costs of greed capitalism, and empowered with new energy technologies to cut off the "money fix" from the utility industry.

We've come a long way over the last few years. We have discussed numerous ways to build turbines, and diverse ways of powering them -- and all within the reach of regular people. You don't have to be a rocket scientist or rich utility magnate to exercise what we have shown.

A number of club members have contracted us to custom-build for them turbines based on our 4.5-inch design, and that will keep us busy all winter long.

We began the year with two main goals in mind: to offer a small turbine to our club members that would be an ideal size for home power generation, and to explore how we might capture and utilize the ultimate power source -- the sun.

I believe we have succeeded on both fronts and, while the research, development and improvements to these basic systems will go on for years to come, it's time to move on to a new phase in our efforts. It's time to bring closure to Phase I and open up Phase II.

In Phase I we explored basic technology -- how to build components of systems and how to get them to effectively work. In the coming years, Phase II will focus on the application of basic concepts. And as more of our club members begin working with our standardized turbine design, we will be able to begin extracting real numbers from real applications.