Country: Germany

Address: Erni e.V.; Tannenheckerweg 5; 34127 Kassel

Email: info@erni-kollektiv.org

Website: https://erni-kollektiv.org/

We are ERNI (renewable Ideas) – small wind turbine collective. We emerged from the
BOEE collective (Ecological Energy Rebel Gang), which build up a lot of experience in
Hugh Piggott small wind turbines (SWT) from 2012 to 2015 by conducting SWT
building workshops. In 2016 ERNI merged with Berlin based KitRad e.V. to join
forces, experience and tools.
We are currently about 10 people from the areas of Kassel, Berlin, Leipzig and
Bayreuth. We come from the crafts, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering,
environmental construction, renewable energies as well as environmental and
resource management. We gained our knowledge through our studies, training and
autodidactic approaches.
We are organised as a collective enterprise. That means we try to manage ERNI
without hierarchical structures. We bear joint responsibility for everything and we
organize our remuneration in a need-oriented manner. We show that working on an
equal footing with others in solidary and cooperative contexts is possible.
Together we have set ourselves the goal of further developing small wind turbines
themselves along with the electrical infrastructure (charge controller etc.). For our
work and the development we try -whenever possible- to use open-source software
such as FreeCAD, QElectroTech, Octave or SciPy. We also aim to bundle and make
available knowledge for non-experts and interested people. The long-term plan is to
develop products and services in the area of hybrid and island energy systems.
What we do:
We offer do-it-yourself workshops for small wind turbines. We work according to
Hugh Piggott’s instructions, which we continuously improve/optimize. For the
workshops, we have a concept which allows all participants, to pass through all
different steps and working areas. Thus it allows participants to experience and learn
the necessary craftsmanship skills to build a wind turbine. We contribute to practical
and theoretical self-empowerment. An atmosphere of low-hierarchy, friendliness,
appreciation and open-mindedness is important to us – as is mutual learning and
exchange of knowledge. Through our diverse professional backgrounds we are also

available for questions and theoretical knowledge in different areas concerning
renewable energy systems and sustainability.
We offer our workshops in various formats. Between 1 and 6 days and 10 to 35
participants anything is possible. We adapt the content and goal together with our
partners to meet their respective needs. In addition to lectures and courses, which
are specifically aimed at universities and students with engineering and scientific
knowledge, we also offer educational workshops, e.g. in cooperation with adult
education centres and other institutions/foundations for which no previous
knowledge is required.
We prefer to support alternative housing projects in designing and planning their
power supply by means of becoming self-sufficient. Depending on the requirements,
we provide an individually selected team from our collective for giving workshops.