A Thai farmer has built his own wind turbine from scratch – to provide electricity for himself and neighbours.

Prapan Palapol, 65, made the 50ft-tall structure to cut electricity bills and use wind energy on his farm in Surin, northern Thailand.

The farmer left school when he was 13 but loves DIY. His neighbours were amazed when he finished the giant turbine beside his house on February 8.

Prapan said: ‘I’m really happy with my turbine because it will save money and I can share the electricity with everyone else in the village.’

The pensioner planted crops in 1.6-hectares of land surrounding his house for a living while installing solar cells for neighbours as a side job.

The solar panels were able to provide the community with free electricity and pump water for irrigating the crops.

However, after some time, the solar cells needed repair and maintenance but the uneducated farmers did not know about electrical work.

The concerned old man knew about a a little about turbines as he he used to work in a car repair shop then had experience working with machines and metal parts which helped him figure out its construction.

With some help from books and several trial and errors, he was able to build the windmill and turbine for his farm.

The delighter farmer said: ‘Most farmers don’t understand the electronic system in the solar cells, so they would often call me to fix it.

‘So I thought that alternative energy doesn’t need to come only from the sun, there is still the wind.’

The wind turbine provides free electricity for his house, neighbours and for the machines to irrigate his farmland.

Soon after, he started creating more of the prototypes for his neighbours and using a sliced-up steel drum for the blades.

He has been setting up the wind turbine system for two years now and hadn’t found any problems with the system.

He has spent around 40,000 Baht building the device.