Images courtesy of CAT, in reverse order: The "Whole Home" display, the community-owned and run Vestas V17 wind turbine, and volunteers out for a hike in the Welsh countryside.
These notes are for students considering attending my upcoming Environmental Science (ES) seminar on renewable energy, to be held over next spring break at the Centre for Alternative Technology, or CAT, Machynlleth, Wales.
This will be my fourth visit to CAT, and each time I've become more fascinated with the history and boot-strap effort that has gone into development of what is now Europe's best, and probably best-loved, demonstration center for renewable technology and energy efficiency.
I decided I would like to share this exceptional place with students, not in the least because I desire that Unity College become at least as good a site for the demonstration and application of renewable and energy efficiency technology, a process I imagine being led by students in the Sustainability Design and Technology degree program, and others, involving many more hands on projects such as the wind turbine near the Eco-Cottage, or the new animal barn.
(Adding to this interest is the personal fact that my maternal grandmother was born in Macynlleth and grew up around there, a Welsh-speaking Welsh farm girl, living until just after WW1 and her thirteenth year on a small plot close by in the village of Pennal. Being a "Jones" (the most common Welsh surname) from Pennal meant she was part of a large, but long-lost, extended family. I probably have large numbers of direct relatives all around that area, both walking the streets and deposited in the graveyards, none of whom I have ever known at all. An orphan and step-child, she was pressed into household service for a wealthy upper-class English family in the industrial city of Sheffield (at age thirteen!), and so lost her Welsh heritage, but she never abandoned her Welsh identity and passed it on to her two grandchildren, myself and my sister, who now makes her home in Wales.)
Accordingly, we will travel together via Boston and London to CAT at the beginning of Spring Break 2010. For Americans visiting the UK, of which Wales is a semi-independent principality (a country whose head of state is a prince), with it's own language and government, a valid US passport but no visa is required. (There is a Welsh branch of the US Embassy here.)
Your participation in this class requires your attendance at CAT from Saturday 13th to Friday 19th March (6 nights). There are no exceptions and it will not be permissible to be absent from the site during this time, unless it is on an official hike or other organized activity.
It will still be the dead of winter here in Maine, but thanks to the wonders of thermohaline circulation, it will be early spring in Wales, quite warm, possibly sunny, likely rainy and misty, with daffodils in the roadsides and green leaves budding on the earliest trees. Wildlife will be active. Newborn Welsh lambs will be playing in farm fields and hills.
It will be good weather for long, possibly soggy walks over those fields and hills, and for contemplating rural life. It is unlikely there will be any snow except perhaps on the mountaintops close by, particularly Cader Idris, the mythical seat of Idris the (rather intellectual) giant.
Some of us will no doubt manage to climb Cader Idris, snow or no, and take other long and short walks close by CAT.
(Walking, by the way, will be the primary form of transportation while at CAT. If you are able, and simply don't like to walk, don't come on this field trip. You will hate it. If you have a temporary or permanent disability and can't walk, or can't walk easily, please come see me for accommodations.)
At CAT we will participate in various activities led by the staff, "mucking-in" in whatever is going on as the Centre gets ready for its summer visitor season. There is a new classroom building going up, an education center for renewable energy and energy efficiency classes at the university level, there will be a garden that needs help being planted, exhibits to fix up or make anew, and so on. The various renewable energy technologies will be explained and demonstrated, and you will visit the wind turbine test bed just above the center on the hillside.
You will also visit the nearby town of Machynlleth to attend market day, visit the historical parliament building of Owain Glyndŵr (Welsh rebel leader, much mythologized as Glendower in Shakespeare's Henry IV), and in general, partake of Welsh culture, hospitality, and food.
(I'm sure Professor Murphy will approve of the Shakespeare reference.)
We will meet for our seminar discussion daily for at least two hours to discuss the important scientific, engineering and philosophical aspects of wind turbines, solar panels, Welshcakes, Welsh goats, Shakespeare, Glyndŵr, Welsh rugby, particularly the ongoing Internationals which I will no doubt be following closely as always, having not one but two teams to support (Wales and England), Welsh Rarebit the Welsh language and other important and relevant issues, as they come up. The technique of case comparison will come in very useful, both formally and informally. You will no doubt learn at least a few words of Welsh.
Fifteen such seminar hours are required, as will be your response in the form of written work both reflective and formal. Photography and video will be an acceptable response format for reflective work. The discussions will be led by you, the CAT staff, and myself, hopefully in that order of priority.
We will stay in the accommodation provided by CAT, a cabin that runs on renewable energy. The rooms have bunks, four to a room, and there is a sitting room and veranda, as well as a kitchen. We will self cater our own breakfasts and some lunches and some dinners. We have two other other eating options: the CAT cafe, or a two-mile hike to Machynlleth to eat out in the several good restaurants there, featuring either local Welsh cuisine, standard British fare (fish and chips, etc) or British-style Indian food. CAT's presence has made most restaurants aware of the vegetarian option.
Emergency numbers will be provided so you parents or family may contact you in Wales. You will have Internet access and so email available shortly after our arrival. Payphones are available at CAT (wind-powered ones), if you have credit or coinage in sufficient quantity. If you plan on using the payphone and were expecting to have long, loving conversations with your boyfriend, girlfriend or dog, be aware that this will be expensive. I spent £20, around $35, on one call home while in Wales recently. Use email instead.
Better yet, try to actually be in Wales.
Your cell phone will not work at all, unless it is one of the special types set up to do so under the different European system. I believe they are called "Tri-Band phones."
(It will do you good to do without this alleged amenity in any case.)
So, that's about it: the who, what, where, when, how, and why of our Spring Break field trip class to Wales. Write me or see me if you have other questions:
mwomersley@unity.edu
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