First, a curiosity: the name has nothing to do with the Medici, the family from Florence. According to legend, in the 12th century the emperor Frederick Barbarossa fell ill right here and was cured by a potion made with a snake. The town is said to be named after that “medicine”, and the snake is still on its coat of arms today.

Coffee under the porticoes

In a small town in Emilia-Romagna the day starts at the bar: an espresso drunk standing at the counter, a few words with the barista, and off you go. Cappuccino is a morning drink, perhaps with a cornetto, at a little table under the porticoes when the weather allows. Nothing more is needed.

Porticoes, towers and red brick

Like Bologna, Medicina lives under its porticoes. The best known is the Portico Venturoli, the “Porticone”: a long row of brick arches along the street, giving shade from the summer sun and shelter from the winter rain. Not far away, among the brick-coloured houses of the centre, rises the clock tower.

Barbarossa returns to the square

The legend of the name has not been forgotten. Medicina holds a historical re-enactment dedicated to Barbarossa, with medieval costumes, flag-throwers and period dinners: a cheerful way of telling its own story.

A town that listens to the sky

There is another surprise in the countryside around Medicina: the Northern Cross, a large radio telescope built in the 1960s and today part of Italy’s National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF). Its long rows of antennas listen to signals arriving from space.

Wind and sun on the plain

The plain of Emilia is not the windy coast of northern Europe: here the wind is often light. That is exactly why we made the low-wind blade set for the TESUP Atlas vertical wind turbine, which starts turning at just 2 m/s. Together with flexible solar panels, it lets you make your own energy at home even where the wind is never strong, day and night.

Whoever chooses TESUP, in Medicina, in Bologna or anywhere else, receives the turbine at home with the step-by-step installation guide and the MyTesup app to follow production and ask our team questions.

Discover the TESUP Atlas wind turbine

Photographs of Medicina from Wikimedia Commons, resized and cropped: Palazzo Comunale 01 - Medicina (BO).jpg by Matulus, CC BY-SA 4.0; Porticone Venturoli 2.jpg by Mongolo1984, CC BY-SA 4.0; Scorcio della torre orologio 01.jpg by Matulus, CC BY-SA 4.0; Comune di Medicina (BO), Portico del Palazzo Comunale.jpg by Matulus, CC BY-SA 4.0; Historical reenactment Il Barbarossa Medicina Italy 2019 (1).jpg by EvelinaRibarova, CC BY-SA 4.0; Paolo Monti - Servizio fotografico (Medicina, 1974) - BEIC 6348759.jpg by Paolo Monti, CC BY-SA 4.0. Coffee photos: Adobe Stock.

The new guide has 44 illustrated steps and a narrated video that walks you from the box to the first turn of the blades. Every step shows one action, the parts you need for it and the fitting bag they come in. The video is available in 23 languages, with subtitles, and the same steps play right on the Atlas product page.

The full guide, about five minutes. Below, the same steps as manual pages, chapter by chapter.

1. Unboxing

The body arrives in a strong plywood box with rope handles. Inside you will find the output cables, the hand crank, a TESUP A4 notebook and the anchor bolts. The high and moderate wind blade sets share one carton, together with the shaft, both flanges (their collars already fitted) and fitting bag B. If you ordered the low wind blade set, it comes in its own carton with its own shaft, two flanges, connection bars and fitting bag C.

▶︎ Watch this chapter

2. Mounting

Choose a place whose surface can carry the load; the right foundation depends on your ground, and a structural engineer can advise. Set the turbine body in its final position and fix the base with the four anchor bolts from bag A. Do not fit any blades until the base is completely stable.

▶︎ Watch this chapter

3. Fitting your blade set

The Atlas takes three blade sets, and the guide has a chapter for each. Every flange is marked, so the blades can only go into the right housings: H for the six high wind blades, M for the two moderate wind blades and L for the three low wind blade pairs. The rhythm is the same every time:

1. Slide the shaft onto the rotor shaft, keyway to key, double holes down.
2. Fit the bottom flange and tighten the two screws of its collar.
3. Insert the blades into their marked housings.
4. Slide the top flange down so all the snaps pass through, then tighten its collar.
5. Bend the snaps with a rubber mallet or by hand, each one the opposite way to its neighbour, so the blades sit stiff.
6. Tighten both grub screws onto the rotor shaft with the hex key from bag B. These are what hold the blades to the generator.

▶︎ Watch: high wind blades

▶︎ Watch: moderate wind blades

The low wind set starts turning at just 2 m/s. Its blades come in upper and lower halves, so there is one extra job: join each pair from the outer surface with an aluminium connection bar from bag C, then insert the three pairs into the L housings.

▶︎ Watch: low wind blades

4. Finishing

Plug the main output into your inverter or batteries with the MC4 connectors; the electrical work should be done by a qualified electrician. Set the maximum voltage in the My TESUP app or with the rotary encoder, to suit your batteries or up to the 400 V limit when you power the house through an inverter. Scan the QR code to pair the app, then go round every fastener once more.

▶︎ Watch this chapter

5. Connecting to your home

Run the MC4 output cable underground in a conduit, out of reach of children and protected from the weather. A small grid-tie inverter turns the Atlas output into mains electricity and plugs into an ordinary wall socket. The rules for plug-in generation differ from country to country, so check yours first.

▶︎ Watch this chapter

6. Power by hand

The last chapter is for the day the grid goes down. Lift the upper body off, fit the hand crank that comes in the box onto the rotor shaft and turn it steadily, either way. The screen shows the voltage you generate. It is enough to keep a phone, a radio or a light going.

▶︎ Watch this chapter

Before you start

1. Keep The Book by TESUP to hand: always follow it.
2. You need a spanner and a rubber mallet; the mallet is not in the box. The hex key is in bag B.
3. Plan the cable route and the inverter position before the turbine goes up.
4. Check every fastener at the end. Loose fastening can damage the turbine and cause injury.

A nuclear accident, rockets hitting a nuclear plant in a war, or a nuclear warhead. The scenarios differ, but the advice for the first hours is the same, and those first hours decide most of the outcome.

The film is on Instagram if the embedded player does not load. Watch on Instagram

Why the first 24 to 72 hours matter most

Radioactive fallout is at its most dangerous in the first hours after it settles. Its radiation decays quickly: after a day it is a small fraction of what it was, and after two to three days it is a small fraction of that. The goal of everything below is simple: keep fallout dust off your body and out of your lungs for that window, and let time do the rest.

Step 1: get inside immediately

Go into the nearest solid building, brick or concrete if you can choose. Then go as deep into it as possible: the basement, or the middle of the building on a lower floor, away from windows and outer walls. Walls and distance from the outside are what protect you. A car is not shelter.

Step 2: seal the room

Close every door and window. Switch off fans, ventilation systems and air conditioning that pull in outside air. Bring pets inside. If you can, choose a room with few windows and keep the door shut.

Step 3: avoid fallout dust

Fallout is dust. If you were outside when it fell, take off your outer clothing before you join other people and seal it in a plastic bag, away from where you shelter. Removing the outer layer takes most of the contamination with it. Then wash exposed skin and hair with soap and water, or wipe with a wet cloth if water is short. Do not scratch or rub your skin.

Step 4: stay inside

Stay inside for at least 24 hours, and until the authorities say it is safe to leave. Do not go out to look, to fetch things or to check on the car. Sealed, packaged food and bottled water are safe to use. Leaving early is the most common mistake.

Step 5: stay tuned

Official instructions come by radio and by emergency alerts on your phone. Keep a battery or hand-crank radio in the house and keep your phone charged. Mobile networks may be overloaded or down, so radio is the fallback.

Power during the shelter period

Power lines can fail or be shut down. Phones, radios and lights run on batteries, and batteries drain within a day. Plan a power source that does not depend on the grid before you need it.

Household wind turbine bodies work in a useful way here: on a roof the wind turns them, and indoors a hand crank does. Turning one by hand produces usable electricity, enough for a phone, a radio and a light in the days that matter most. Whatever you choose, test it once before an emergency, not during one.

Keep this checklist

1. Get inside. Brick or concrete, basement or middle of the building, away from windows.
2. Seal the room. Doors and windows closed, ventilation and air conditioning off, pets inside.
3. Avoid the dust. Outer clothing off and bagged, skin and hair washed.
4. Stay inside at least 24 hours, until the authorities say it is safe.
5. Stay tuned. Radio and emergency alerts; battery or hand-crank radio; phone charged.
6. Plan power that does not depend on the grid.

TESUP makes household wind turbines and flexible solar panels. This article is for information only. Household wind turbines · Magnum turbines

Cut before it is bent

The body starts as a flat sheet. Before any bending, the openings are cut: a window for the screen and holes for the MC4 connectors, the control knob, the sensor port and the antenna. Cutting first keeps every opening exactly where it belongs once the sheet takes its final shape.

Bent on a press brake

The sheet is then formed on a press brake around a round tool. One smooth bend gives the body its rounded shape and makes it much stiffer than a flat panel, so it stays true on a windy roof for years. Each cover is bent the same way, which is why every Atlas body lines up with its blades and flanges without forcing.

Watch the bending in our short video on Instagram: Watch on Instagram

The front panel

The finished front panel is the part you use. On the left are the MC4 connectors: one pair for the main output to your inverter or battery, and the alternative inputs for wind and solar. In the middle, a red LED screen shows the live voltage, so you can see at a glance what the system is doing. Next to it are the control knob and the sensor port.

Using standard MC4 connectors means wind turbines and solar panels plug straight in, with no special tools and no loose terminals on the roof.

On a real roof

Here is a complete system on a city rooftop. A TESUP Magnum and a row of flexible solar panels are connected to the Atlas through MC4 connectors. The Atlas then feeds the inverter, which sits in a weatherproof cabinet on the same roof.

The blades are bent here too

The same care goes into the Atlas blades. They are bent to shape, painted and checked before they are packed for assembly.

What it means for you

A body that is cut, bent and fitted with care is a body you never have to think about. Your wind turbine and solar panels plug in with standard connectors, the screen shows you the voltage, and the whole system runs from one tidy panel.

Dozens of parts, one machine

Take the Atlas apart and you find a top and a bottom flange, a set of curved aluminium blades, a main shaft, a generator with copper windings and permanent magnets, bearings, a body made of covers and side sheets, a control panel with connectors, a display and a sensor port, and the cabling and fasteners that hold it all together. Each part is made to its own drawing, and each one has to meet the next within fractions of a millimetre.

Metal that has to be exactly right

Metal is where a wind turbine is won or lost. Each Atlas blade starts as a flat sheet of 1.2 mm aluminium. It is cut, then formed into a precise curve, because the shape of that curve decides how much energy the blade can take from the wind. The flanges that hold the blades are cut to tight tolerances, so the rotor spins true and stays balanced.

Shafts are machined and fitted by hand, and steel frames and fixtures are welded by trained welders. None of this can be rushed: a weld that is slightly off or a shaft that is slightly out of line shows up later as noise, vibration or wear.

The Magnum body is aluminium, made in precision moulds so that every body has exactly the same shape and fit.

The generator: copper, magnets and patience

The generator is the heart of the turbine. Enamelled copper wire is wound into coils, the coils are fitted into the stator, and the windings are tied, insulated and checked. Permanent magnets turn the spinning rotor into electricity. It is careful, repetitive work, and a single loose turn or a damaged coating can cost efficiency for years.

Electronics you can rely on

Power from the generator goes through our charge controller, which manages charging and connects to the MyTESUP app. Every controller is assembled and wired by hand, and every connection is checked before the cover goes on.

Tested, then packed with care

Every unit is tested before it ships. Then it is packed with care, so that it reaches you in the condition it left us.

Why this matters to you

A wind turbine works outdoors, through storms, frost and summer heat, for many years. Precise metalwork, careful winding and checked electronics are what make it quiet, efficient and safe for that long. It is also why we back our turbines with a 2-year warranty and a support team that knows every part inside them.

Over the last one to two years, the materials that go into every Magnum have become a lot more expensive. Here is what it really costs to build one today.

What is inside a Magnum

A Magnum turns wind into electricity with a permanent-magnet generator. That generator needs three things above all: strong magnets, a lot of copper and a sturdy aluminium structure around them. All three have risen in price, some of them sharply.

Magnets: +65%

The permanent magnets in the generator are what turn the spinning rotor into electricity. We buy exactly the same magnet today as we did last year, so the comparison is like for like: since February 2026 we have paid 65% more for each one than we did in June 2025.

Rare earths: +60%

Those magnets are made from rare earths, mainly an oxide of neodymium and praseodymium (NdPr). In 2025, China tightened its controls on rare-earth exports, and the raw material became scarcer. By February 2026 the spot price had risen 89% compared with February 2025. It has eased a little since, but on 27 October 2026 it was still 60% higher.

Copper: +58%

Copper carries the current: it is in the generator windings and in the cabling. In September 2026 it reached a record high on the London Metal Exchange, and through September and October it has traded about 58% above its 2024 average. Mine supply is tight and stocks in exchange warehouses are very low.

Copper winding wire: +37%

Every Magnum generator is wound with enamelled copper wire. Our own invoices for the same 0.70 mm wire show the price per kilo, in euros, up 37% between June 2024 and October 2026. That is the wire that goes into every generator we build.

Aluminium: +26%

Aluminium gives the Magnum its frame, blade parts and housings: strong, light and resistant to the weather. On the London Metal Exchange it is now about 26% above its 2024 average, and in September 2026 it touched 36% above. Stocks in exchange warehouses are at their lowest for decades.

Energy, machinery and labour costs have also risen over the same period.

What this means for you

We have not changed the Magnum to save money. It is built with the same magnets, the same copper and the same aluminium as before, and every unit is tested before it ships. Our lead times stay the same.

What has changed is what those materials cost. Most of them are still close to their highest prices in years. That is why our Black Friday price is a real saving on a turbine whose parts cost more to buy than ever.

If you have been thinking about adding your own wind power at home, this is a good moment to do it.

Sources: TESUP purchase invoices (magnets, copper wire); Shanghai Metals Market; World Bank Commodity Price Data (Pink Sheet); London Metal Exchange. Prices to October 2026.

The great winter swap

The Met Office's long-term averages for the UK tell the story in two lines. Sunshine falls from 173 hours in July to just 47 hours in January. Over the same months, the average wind speed rises from 7.9 to 10.8 knots, or from about 4 to 5.5 metres per second. As the sun fades, the wind picks up.

A little more wind, a lot more energy

Wind speed and wind energy are not the same thing. The energy in the wind rises with the cube of its speed, so a small step up in speed makes a big difference. January's average wind is about 37% faster than July's, but it carries roughly 2.6 times the energy. In the same months, the sun shines about 3.7 times less.

Two halves of the year

Split the year in two and the pattern is even clearer. October to March brings only 30% of the year's sunshine: 421 of 1,403 hours. By our estimate from the monthly averages, it brings nearly two-thirds of the year's wind energy. Government figures for small renewable installations show the same rhythm: wind does its best work in autumn and winter, solar in spring and summer.

The night shift

Winter evenings are when a home needs light and heat, and by then the sun has already set. The wind does not keep office hours. It blows after dark, through long nights and grey days. Atlas with Low-Wind blades starts turning at just 2 metres per second, well below the January average, so it keeps working through the calmer days too.

Sun and wind, one team

This is why wind and solar work so well together. Our flexible solar panels lead from April to September, and Atlas and Magnum lead from October to March. Together they spread your home's own power across the whole year, instead of leaving you short just when the evenings are longest.

Sunshine and wind: Met Office UK climate averages, 1991 to 2020 (wind at 10 m). Seasonal pattern: UK government Feed-in Tariff load factor analysis. Sunset times for London on 24 and 25 October 2026. Turbine figures: TESUP product data. Wind energy share estimated from monthly mean wind speeds.

Two storms in one week

Storm Austen was named on 20 October and brought yellow wind warnings to South West England, South Wales and the south coast. Storm Boelo followed at the weekend, with amber warnings for Scotland, parts of Northern Ireland and northern England, widespread gusts of 60 to 70 mph and up to 80 mph on exposed coasts. In wind-speed terms, that is about 27 to 36 metres per second.

Zoom out and October looks even busier. Hurricane Isaias made landfall near Destin, Florida, on 9 October with winds of 105 mph. Its remnants then fed a new low that deepened rapidly near Iceland on 14 October, with gusts of about 128 mph. Storm Adam brought floods to eastern Spain, and Storm Austen went on to hit Brittany with gusts of 100 mph before crossing into Germany.

Where the storm sits on our turbines' range

Every turbine is built for a range of wind. Atlas, our vertical-axis turbine, takes one of three swappable blade sets: Low-Wind for 2 to 20 m/s, Moderate-Wind for 4 to 25 m/s and High-Wind for 5 to 35 m/s. The High-Wind set has six smaller blades and is made for storm-prone coastal sites, so it covers gusts of up to about 78 mph. Magnum, our three-blade horizontal turbine, starts generating at 6 m/s and keeps climbing to its peak at 22 m/s.

Windy days are the best days

Strong wind is when a turbine earns its keep. Magnum makes 1 kW at 10 m/s, 3.5 kW at its rated 15 m/s and 10.9 kW at 22 m/s. Power rises steeply with wind speed: double the wind from 10 to 20 m/s and Magnum's output grows about eight times, from 1 kW to 8.2 kW. One stormy afternoon can make more electricity than a whole calm week.

How Atlas and Magnum protect themselves

Both turbines use the same motor, rated for 15 kW continuous and 22 kW peak. Atlas typically delivers about 1 kW and Magnum up to 10.9 kW, so the motor always has headroom when a gust hits. With a TESUP charge controller, there is a second layer: the controller brakes the turbine automatically when its output goes above the limit you choose, in the MyTESUP app or on the controller itself. It is storm protection you can set from your phone.

Five things to check before the next gale

1. Set your brake limit in the MyTESUP app before the storm arrives.
2. If your Atlas has Low-Wind blades and the forecast shows sustained winds above 20 m/s, take them off or switch to Moderate-Wind or High-Wind blades.
3. Check that the mounting bolts and brackets are tight.
4. Secure loose cables so they cannot whip in the wind.
5. After the storm, take a look and listen. If anything looks or sounds different, contact our support team.

Make the storms work for you

More named storms will come before spring. With the right blade set and your brake limit in place, every gale becomes free power for your home. Not sure which turbine or blades suit your site? Our team will help you choose.

Storm details: Met Office, October 2026. Turbine figures: TESUP product data. Wind speeds converted at 1 m/s = 2.24 mph.

TESUP operates locally in 36 countries, and this month's turbines reached far beyond our home markets. Here is the month on a map. We only show countries, so every customer's name and address stays private.

Five continents in one month

Most turbines stayed in Europe, but plenty travelled much further: to the United States, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan. Some will start turning in the spring sunshine of the southern hemisphere, while others arrive just in time for the autumn winds of the north.

Europe, from the Finnish lakes to the Atlantic

In Europe, turbines went to 18 countries: the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Greece and Bulgaria.

One month, one planet

Put the whole month together and it looks like this. Twenty hours of time difference separate the US West Coast from New Zealand, so somewhere on the map the sun is always up. The longest trip was more than 18,000 km, and the destinations stretch from 61 degrees north to 40 degrees south.

Atlas led the way

Atlas, our vertical-axis wind turbine, was the most popular choice again. It turns around a vertical shaft, so it catches wind from any direction without turning to face it. That suits rooftops, gardens and gusty sites anywhere on the map.

Low wind? No problem

Every Atlas comes with a choice of blades. The standard set suits everyday wind. The low-wind set starts turning at just 2 m/s, for places where the wind is light for much of the year. This month the two were almost neck and neck, and some customers took both so they can swap later.

Magnum, as a complete kit

Magnum is our horizontal-axis turbine with a 15 kW motor and up to 12 kW peak. Most Magnum customers chose the complete kit, with the blade set and charge controller in the same order, and many added the battery version for a battery system.

Boxed, labelled and on the way

Every turbine leaves our workshop in its own box, labelled with its serial number and wrapped on a pallet. We send each order with a tracking number, so customers can follow their turbine on its way to them.

Thank you

To everyone who ordered this month, from the Finnish lakes to New Zealand: thank you. Your turbines are why we keep building. Wherever you are, in one of the 36 countries where we operate locally or beyond, start with the turbine that suits your wind.

Source: TESUP order data, 26 September to 24 October 2026. Photographs and graphics: TESUP.

A windy day on the river

Walk along the river at Hammersmith on a day like this and you can feel the wind pushing up the Thames. The water is choppy, the light keeps changing and the trees on the far bank bend and settle, bend and settle. Every gust is energy that a turbine could turn into electricity.

The windy-day sum

More than 100,000 TESUP wind turbines have been sold around the world. Imagine each of them making 10 kWh today. That is 1,000,000 kWh, a full gigawatt-hour, in a single day.

What a gigawatt-hour looks like

A typical UK home uses about 2,700 kWh of electricity a year, or roughly 7.4 kWh a day. So 1,000,000 kWh would cover around 135,000 homes for the whole day. Or boil about 37 million cups of tea. Or drive an electric car around 6 million km, nearly 150 times round the Earth.

Is 10 kWh a day realistic?

Ten kWh in a day means an average of about 420 W, around the clock. On a gusty day that is within reach of an Atlas or a Magnum, but the wind is never the same everywhere, and real output depends on the site, the height, the turbine and the blade set. So treat this as a what-if, not a meter reading. On calmer days the numbers are smaller, which is exactly why Atlas has a low-wind blade set that starts turning at just 2 m/s.

Hammersmith Bridge

The green suspension bridge in these photos opened in 1887. It was designed by Sir Joseph Bazalgette, the engineer behind London's Victorian sewers, and it replaced the first Hammersmith Bridge of 1827, the first suspension bridge across the Thames. Every spring the Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge passes underneath it.

The planes tell you the wind

Planes land into the wind. When the wind blows from the west, as it does in London for much of the year, aircraft heading for Heathrow come in over the city from the east, right across the river at Hammersmith. So when you see them lined up overhead, there is a westerly breeze, and somewhere a turbine is turning.

Your share of the wind

If you have a roof, a garden or a field that catches the breeze, you could be part of the next windy-day sum. Pick the turbine that suits your wind and let the gusts do the work.

Sources: Ofgem, typical domestic consumption values; Heathrow Airport, runway operations; Wikipedia, Hammersmith Bridge. The windy-day sum is an illustration, not measured output. Photographs: TESUP, Hammersmith, October 2026.