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Millennium visits the Centre for Alternative Technology, Wales. by
Drive along the winding coastal road that hugs the beautiful west cost of Wales, (there's lovely - Tech Ed) and eventually you will stumble across the small town of Machynlleth. Wander a further 3 km north and you are struck with awe by the steeply rising hills and crags sprouting what appear to be windmills. And you would be right, because nestling on the edge of a disused quarry lies Britain's Centre for Alternative Technology - CAT to its friends.
Machynlleth - Wind Generator
Although CAT is a registered charity, it is also a company, limited by guarantee, and as such, the need to gain revenue has become increasingly important over the years. Whilst it is run as a co-operative, CAT liaises with powerful, Government based research organisations, including Harwell.
Originally founded in 1975, by a group referring to themselves as crazy idealists, CAT, and the alternative technology it promotes is now very much in the mainstream of British research and development. Commercial realism has meant that the very organisation itself has changed. All of the original team has flown the nest, though many of them have stayed within the world of alternative technology.
Armed with camera and tape recorder we dropped in to the centre on a hot Sunday afternoon of 7 April 1996, where we were entertained by carpenter and staff member of eight years standing, Paul Trimby. He actually built the visitor station at the bottom of the hill and the famous eco-cabins. We asked him how it all started?
Visitors Centre
He explained, "CAT was set up as part of the mid 70's get away from the rat race, kind of philosophy. It was part of a self-sufficiency movement that was big at the time."
He continued, "Because of the way environmental technology has changed, our emphasis has moved away from self-sufficiency towards more education, formalised education. We run courses and our education department tries to move technology towards modules in the national. We've gone away from the 'we want to get away from it all' philosophy to wanting to influence mainstream technological development."
We wanted to know how much their revenue is generated by people paying to get in and buying food at their vegie restaurant. Paul told us, "CAT is funded almost entirely by its own means. Tourism and education. We aim for 70,000 visitors a year."
We asked Paul to gaze into the proverbial crystal ball tell us how saw alternative technology developing in the next twenty years or so
Poly Tunnels, for growing vegetables
He said, "I think our route is fairly well established in terms of promoting alternative technologies. I think the term sustainable development is more appropriate. Education is an ongoing project, I guess it's content will change."
Paul continued, "Our Government and various European governments have an interest in these things. Most of our projects use standard physics and engineering, put into a different context or used towards a different goal. Often there's nothing new about the ideas, it's just the way they are applied."
Though CAT's relationship with Government is limited, most of its contact is via ETSU - Engineering Technology Support Unit, based at Harwell research centre. It undertakes most of the funding for renewable energy programs and CAT enjoys have a friendly relationship with them.
Solar Cell demonstration
Paul said, "We meet them all over the place. The world of renewable energy is quite small."
We asked, "Does this mean you are trying to integrate back into the mainstream technological development?
He replied, "We need to keep in touch with both the radical edge and the more mainstream technology. Alternative technology itself has changed. For example wind power was a cranky notion when we started up. It is now a mainstream technology. Things have changed and we've had to change with them."
With a head count of 25, many of the people running CAT actually live on site, in homes designed to be environmentally friendly. Even the hillside railway that carries visitors to the top of the quarry is powered by water.
Water driven train
Paul added that all staff are salaried, "We are all paid the same, although compared with the real world we're not paid very much. We're a co-operative and it's fun."
So who makes the decisions, we asked?
Paul told us, "The structure of decision making is quite difficult. The organisation is divided up into 14 fairly autonomous units, who have budgets and budgetary targets and are very much left to carry those targets and work on their own. The permanent staff body makes decisions about policy as a whole. These are things that are outside the remit of any one particular group such as pay levels, work conditions, employment conditions, projects which are outside any one groups ability to fund or staff them"
He continued, "For example we're going to a build single turbine wind farm. This is too big for just one group to take control of."
Much larger than the windmills that currently cover the nearby hills, this new project will actually supply power to the national grid. CAT's new turbine, will deliver 700 kW peak output, although this is tiny in comparison with the national average.
Paul told us there are 28 wind farms all over the UK, producing up to 10 megawatts each. He said, "I think the total national installed capacity is about 167 megawatts."
Pressing Paul to gaze harder into the future, he told us that the most important development work is currently taking place on Photo Voltaics, or solar batteries. Commercially viable solar cells should probably be available within ten years
Simply whip out your trusty electronic notebook, and aerial, hook up the solar panel, and sit under a tree on some far away tropical island, slurping cans of chilled Chainsaw Brew lager, whilst surfing the net all day, as dusky maidens...
Check out CAT's web site http://www.foe.co.uk/CAT
