Micro wind turbine pvc blade design

This is a cool little project, a micro sized turbine that really will produce electricity! The blade was cut from a piece of 3.25" pvc pipe and measures 31" long. You can see the curvature of the blade, a result of the original round shape.

It's mounted through a 3/8" center hole to one end of an old bicycle hub. We cleaned out all the old grease, took out every second ball in the bearings, and used a light, lanolin based lubricant in an effort to reduce drag.

The leading edges where filed down to produce a smoother more aerodynamic shape, and the trailing edges were sanded smooth.
It takes very little wind to start it spinning, and a decent wind moves it along quite well.

  The next step will be to source out a used hard drive motor (?) to turn, some ni-cad batteries and led lights for the porch. More too come...