The Early Days of the Centre for AT - according to Undercurrents This collection brings together articles and news items published by Undercurrents, ‘the magazine of radical science and people’s technol-ogy’, between 1974 and 1979.____________________________________________________________

UC07/04 A.T. Goes Boom (1974)

UC08/01 The Princely Pursuit of A.T.UC08/12 Interview with Gerard Morgan-Grenville of the National Centre (1974)

UC13/33 NCAT. Gerard Morgan-Grenville sets out his view on where AT is at. (1975)

UC19/11 CATs Cradle: Martyn Partridge and Godfrey Boyle de-scribe their impressions of the Centre for Alternative Technology, in Machynlleth, North Wales. (1976)

UC22/35 CATalogue – Nigel Dudley: A congenial weekend at the CAT. (1977)

UC34/06 Energy Research (1979)

UC35/20 Stream Power – Martin Ashby: 33 Megawatts going to waste in the Dyfi Valley (1979)

UC37/05 Corporate AT (1979)

____________________________________________________________

The Archive of Undercurrents is at: undercurrents1972.wordpress.com/

, .- Undercurrent'; 7

AT. GOES BOOM"' IN THESE 'gold-rush (fays' of Alternative Technology, new camps are springing up where- ever there is land to mine for renewable energy. While some of the earliest projects lost their populations as the veins of enthusiasm, money and mortgsw ran thin, a lot more new strikes are coming in to keep the 'boom' in AT going.

One of the new (October 1973) camps Is ours at Machyl- leth, Wales which we have taken the extravagant liberty of calling 'The National Centre for the Develo~ment of Alternative ~echnolob . We think there ought to be centres-call them "Citizens' Advice Bureaux for Technology" if you like- which would open np AT to a lot more people, and help to @he the problems in devel- bpment of renewable energy Sources and other alternative technologies. The property is, we believe, large enough to handle the job of a 'National Centre'at least for the next few yeam On the a te there is adequate space for workshops, librariesmd accommodation, as well as a wide variety of natural ener- gy supplies, all set in a beautiful Welsh valley.

The Centre is itself a mine, a date quiny which closed in 1949. We heard of its existence from the Earth Workshop people and when we went to see it we knew it had just the combination of wind. water, sun, space and surroundinxs that we are after. ~ h e G amenities, com- bined with an annual rent of 5p to the quarry's pro-AT owner, amounted to an offer of generosity we couldn't believe or refuse. And so the Centre was born. The job now is to begin developing. Fortunately, the site came equipped with all the essentials, including 6,000 square feet ot ancestral slate cutting sheds. three cottanex. two

One of the derelict sheds which is being converted into a workshop a t the National Centre.

assorted tunnels, a bit of railway, and several thou* and tons of date of assorted sizes and shapes. So, this summer, we are trying to transform these resources into a habitable place, and to overlay the whole site with autonomous services.

The summer community is already beginning to assemble, although there is a great deal more room for people who can help with the transformation. We have cara- vans on the site to live in and

summer's work will be re- tracing old steps. Notable exceptions, however, will include a thorough examina- tion of solar collectors on date roofs, the development of very low cost Water turbines, a study of the use of railways to minimise the environmental impact of building sites, and the fabri- cation of a community-size methane digestor.

If enough people come to help, and a little bit more in the way of materials can be found, the Centre should be 'operational* by Christmas offering good accommoda- tion for as many as 12 full

A load of old hay . . . TABITHA'S FIRELESS COOK- ER is a trendy version of the old-fashioned hay-box, develop. ed by food-technolofist Tabithi - ~ e i z d e y , NOD.

The idea is that almost any dish which needs fairly lengthy cooking-like casseroles, curries and Christmas puddings-can be- boiledgently for 5 to 25 mm- W, quicklytucked 'into the cooker,'milleft, fully innilated, to (Èo fqFa fewhoun, or wernight, so that 'slow cookbg tika place without tiltfurther me of fuel", and without blira- ing the fwd.

All you need to provide is one double-handled metal pan with a lid, although the maxim- um size of hay allowed changes from 12 inches on one page of the instructions to 8% inches on another.

tab it ha*^ main argument against hay-boxes is their bulk, in today's cramped society, and the apparent lack of hay to make them with. She has come up with the ides of a cosy jackel made of some modern, name- less insulator, which wraps round yourcooking pot. There are pillows for the base anda folding box of the same material tucks up around it.

Marketed by Low Impact Technology for £14.40 exclud- ing postage, Tabitha's Fireless Cooker is a very expensive load of hay.

can provide food for anyone time people and as many as '

who can give us their time. 30 visitors, along with a 1 Over the next four months dam good workshop and As we go to @&printers, it the emphasis will be on con- comprehensive library. his been dpocted that Steve version of the sheds into Meanwhile, there is a lot Boulter, Tony williarns and w o r ~ o p ~ the installation of work to be done. Will YOU several other leading partici- of a hydro-electric scheme, join us? For a weekend, a pants in the &tional centre a refit of the miners' cottages or even to live as Part project have left. There (including a flat-plate collec- Our community this sum- appears t o be some dispute tor and total energy pack- mer. If You think You -, about how the Centre should age), installation and test of best fulfill its objective of aerogenerators now being Steve Boujfer. c/o School the advancement of atterna- built, enlargement of the of Environmental Studies, (ive technology. A new gardens, extension of the community has been formed,

- , railway and a host of other st- London, WC'. it seems. We'll have the full streams and reservoirs, projects. Much of this Tel01-387 7030 X650. story in our next issue . . . e

ity Technology in every field-from recreational arts. Community Technol- video and AT through to agriculture ogy is a new-formed branch of the and medicine', they say. It runs from woYkshop, concentrating on planning August 29 to September 1. If you and housing, and now concentrating would like to participate or visit it, on setting up an alternative means of write for further details to--

OVER THE PAST five years, the Bath producing houses in a low-capital Thornton Kay, Comtek '74, la The Arts Workshop has built up a commun- operation .'We are tunaim an exhibi- , Paragon, Bath, Somerset. Tel5 169 ity-based organisation eofafed in many . (ionlget togcthtr pf indirojutis and f- or 63717. 1 " 3

- - - -' !I where and brought down to Wales by lorry for the event. THE I On His tour of inspection, Prince Phillip will view a solar roof, a wind mill, and a methane digester, - all OF A.T. built off the site -and will inspect the Centre's work- shops. To crown the occasio! Mr. Sebastian de Ferranti has

DISBELIEF, followed by has, q t i l now, been largely Pilkingtons. Transport of the to use the occasion mused surprise, has been unaware of the jewel that has Royal Person round the for the unveiling of a new the reaction of most been nestling in its bosom. quarry will be by means of the tvoe of solar cell develomd Alternative Technology enthusiasts t o the news that the Duke of Edinburgh if visiting the National Centre for the Develop ment of Alternative

in Machynlleth, Wales, at end of October. Alternative Technology, until recently the almost- exclusive province of cranky eco-eccentrics, has become respectable with a rapidity that has taken most AT freaks' breath away.

The AT -crowd from the Centre have spent most of the last year beavering away on renovating the out- buildings of the old quarry where the Centre has its home and on tinkering with solar heaters and wind generators. They have had little opportu- nity t o fraternise with the locate.

Prince Phillip's visit should change all that. He's scheduled to arrive at Machynlleth station

Elevated interest in the by Royal Train. NO doubt the mbject is not even confined local Mayor, John Beaumont to Britiih Royals, as the - who also happens to be the d t of Queen Juliana of the owner of the National Netherlands to Sietz Leetlang's Centre'n quarry - will be then rather simih'r "Small Earth to meethim. From the station.

-doubtless for security reasons. But after his depart- we, the Centre is to be throw open t o the media and public and a pleasant time is guaran- teed for all. The Society for Environmental improvement Limited which runs the Natia nal Centre. seems destined to become. at least in the mind (

the general public, the standa bearer of the Alternative Ted

I nobgy "movement" in Britai Yet very little is known about the Society in AT circles - apart for the vague general impression that it has hidden wealth and considerable Est-

~roject" near Eindhoven in g ~ o y a l Highneu will be ablishment backing. To shed mid-October makes abundant- transported, in a Harbilt elect- at least some additional light ly dear. Equally dear is the. ric &laid on specially for the

Morgin-Gnmvi'r on the act'vities and motiv- fact t lut Alternative Tech- occasion. t o the Centre itself. Normally. the little railway ations of this embryonic AT mbgy enthuabsti are wing There hewill inspect the wagons are pushed around the Superstar, Undercurrents tohave to learn toddl in "Ideal Home", bought by the site by hand. but on this visited the National Centre one way or another with centre at last year's Ideal Homes occasion the Duke will be a few weeks ago and talked increuif ly frequent overtures Exhibition, re-built on the propelled by a proper narrow- to the Chairman of the Soc- from the Establishment. site, and now fitted with ultra- gauge steam locomotive, con- iety, Gerard Morgan-Grenvillt

tow toss insulation and special structed by a loving railway Our interview with him appei The little town of Machynlleth double glazing supplied by enthusiast u p ~ o r t h some- 0" page 12 .

it is possible for anyone - so, panning out a few ounces yeah, anyone resident in of gold per month is not

MINER KEY CONFUSION SEEMS to be McLaren's defeat in the the main reaction to the Mines election will allow him to (Working facilities and devote more time to the Support) (Amendment) Act, affairs of English China passed late at night near the Clays Ltd, of which he is end of 1974's first Parliament, a director. Perhaps he will As reported in the last Under- even catch a glance of currents, this Private Member's Cornwall's lovely Arne Bill was proposed by Peninsula before the Martin McLaren, then Con- machinery of his act allows servative for Bristol NW. English China days to strip Details of the act are still it bare and give it the 'lunar' hazy (due tothe inactivity look so characteristic of of the subversive-ridden HM their deserted workings Stationery Office) but the Our Vancouver correxpon- Bill was definitely made law dent writes:- with only 20 members (18 The 'Mines (Working f a d - for, two against) in the ities and Support) (Amend- dumber. Althoush 20 ment) Bill, is a piece

BC - to go into the local a bad way to pass the time, office of the Department of doesn't wreck the environ- Mines and obtain, for the ment and may even bring in princely outlay of five abuckdl two ... dollars, a small piece of Sup*% a bunch of AT-freak paper known as a Free armed with geological ham- Miner's Licence, which mers, shovels and geological permits the holder to pros- maps, were to be found dig- pect for minerals anywhere ging up the PM% front lawn in the province with the at Chequers . . . hauled off exception of areas designa- to the nearest Fuzz House ted as National or Provincial screaming 'Expedient in the Parks. national interest' . . . it's a

The Miner's Licence is lovely thought. thus virtually a Licence of Geological maps are Permission to Trespass - to obtainable from the Geolog- the extent that a whole lotta ical Museum. Exhibition people have been headin' fer Road. South Kensington, the hills armed with rock pick or from Stanfords on Lone and gold pan. tiling mineral Acre. Hammers from the claims and settling down to Geological Museum, from live on their claims in log a firm called Cutrock in cabins, geodesic domes, etc Finchley, or can be adapted . . .The Provincial Gumment from bricklayer's hammers. recently got wise to this But don't tell anyone I told and now insists that the you. . .

memben is jut half the of legislation that could number needed for a Quor- conceivably backfire to the um, t l h difficulty was cir- embarrassment of the Hon cuatvpted by deft use of the Member for Bristo! NW. q ~ q ~ S t i n d i n i Order 40. Here in British Columbia, claims be worked, but even

THE SOCIETY for Environmental Improvemnt Limited, a registered Charity, was set up in the Autumn of 1972 in the role of link oroanliation between big business and the environmental movement. Its Chairman in Gerard Morgan-Grenvilla; other directors include Michael Bray, who controls Stuart Wrightson Ltd., reputed to be the second-largest insurance company in the world, Dhna Eccte, and Timothy Jonw. Gerard Morgan-Granvilla is an industrialist who, with hit brother , rum a stainlan-iteel processing plant, Chichestar StainIan Steel, and a company dealing in fancy glassware and china. Dexam International.

What are the historical antecedents o f the project? How did you yourself get interested in the environment and in alternative technology? Well, I came through industry - I work- ed in industry for twenty odd years. I became involved in questions o f indus' trial pollution and then, on the market- ing side, became involved in trying to

The Society has managed to attract quite a few famous mini as its patrons: , make marketing forecasts. As a resul

Lord Annan, Promt of University College London, Lord Robem, former of this I began to feel that a number

Chairman of the National Coal Board, Sir Bernard Walay Cohen, former Lord Of factors were influm" Mayor of London and Roy Jenkins, the Home Secretary, are just a few of pretty decisively the buying

the y t a b l a who dignify i t s letterheads. of people in the Western wo

The Society's brief history has not been without incident, however. It) led me to look at the whole

first full-time Director ,Peter Whiiley I ex-Cassalls publisher and husband syndrome. I think -on a slightly

of Lady Angela Whiteley1 quit in 1973 becameof a dlçagrwmen parallel course - I came to the thing

with Morgan-Granville. And in June 1974, Stew Boulter, the Soddty's through conservation. I'm a painter by hobby and i constantly perhaps

~echhcal Manager, was fired by Morgan Grenvilla ,allegedly b & w hare a slhlltly over-sensitive eye for he had, according to Morgan-Gren~lla,'lort the confldeooe' of Ml Mlow- - things that hve been spoiled. hi^ is. workam at the Centre, and became ha had uken up a part time tectumhip at Univmjty College, London, while Mill working for the Socirty.

a straight çw In which quite a lot of people hive come into the environ-

Boulter contwda that he waa dinniÑ beoiuw bà 0- dbgWmmt ment movement -they have just with the direction In which the Cmtra wu moving ç the tlm -towards been concerned by pieces of litter a more inwrd-looklng osmmunlty, instad of the owgoing technical advice they have seen on the street and centre which he had envbaged. M u e n d has now been reversed. lly they equate that paper with Boulter also lay* he took his part-time laeturaihip with Bbrorg~n-Granville's permission, and that it gaw the Society access to valuable University ing just a visual eyesore but

facH'@es in any caw. waste of paper. Then they.

2 dispute, which at one stage became so acrimoniow that Boulter was se that paper in fact requires an red a one-way ticket to the 'States I he i s a US citizen) in lieu of his incredible quantity of timber just to

notice money, now appears to have been settled - a t least financially. produce. Then they see that i t i s no(

But Finance lies at the heart of the Centre's problems at the moment. recycled, and one thing leads to

Big Industry, originally envisaged as the source of most of the Society's another. But one of the things we've funds, could hardly be shorter of cash thaa days. The initial £50.00 found at this centre is that almost no which started the Society off two ymrs ago I supplied by a backer two people have come here for the who s t i l l insists on anonymity) will hardly lest much longer. same reason. . And with a figure of £200.00 being talked about as the sum needed to The industrial activIfrkthat you were nnwate all tha qirrry's outbuilding!, let up engineering workihopa and involved in led you to realise that provide living eccomodation on site, the S h t y for Environmental there was going to be a resource shortage? Improvement will nod a lot of money toon if any of illoriginal grandiose ambitions is to be real id.

Yes, it made me realise that we were in

In this interview, G w r d Morgan-Granvilla the aims and philosophy for an apparently endless period of steeply rising prices. This gave one - if for no other reason, because one's livelihood depended on it - a fairly vested interest inactually determining what was going to happen in the future. How did this concern of yours for the environment and the rapidly-approach- in8 resource andenem crisis of industry

. . , . ~ . . .. . . . , .

t.+$*~:d?wttkttm.*#. ~ ... m y O t k f ~ * - W ~ . Wry Leach was publishing his mernor- did these people get involved i n y w r ibteseries of articles In the Observer society? HI 'Spaceship Earth'. That woke up a Well, i t was a deliberate policy. A lot ot of people tosbme of the facts and of people regard alternative technology W s . Thus in my case it gave a great as some sort of rationale forold-style mpetus to a feeling that was probably . anarchism - whereas there are in fact i lmdy there, and I startedlooking a large number of people who head round and reading things and talking ' industry, government, large organisa- o people and travelling about a bit and tions, who are every bit as aware as are wcaW quite convinced that the sort these otherpeople that something if things that are beginning to be seen needs to be done. But for reasons uw, were in fact ~ o i n g to happen. I which are perfectly obvious, they are hen thought, well, everyone whocan . sort of frozen in their particular b anything about this ought to try and positions, and can't easily move. So bsomething. So I set about tryingto one of the things that we set out to do ct some funds, and as you know got right from the beginning was to wne. Then we spent about a year just establish a bridge which anyone could mking at the whole environmental walk. To try to make this a bit mar< roblem and trying to see what we ;. obvious, we deliberately set out to w l d do that was not being done by . enlist the support of some of the nyone else and which could be done wise men of our age. The people we rn the sort o f money that we had, and have got on our letterhead are amongst he sortof skills which we might be the more effective. more intelligent

able to obtain. Everything fellinto people in various departments. T h i s A small, axpwimontal s o h mtà hettw. place suddenly and this centre was born as an Idea, and very shortly after- wards In practice as a project. Have you yourself been the primary driving force behind the whole thing or were there any other people at the beginning who got Involved. I did skrt It, but I regard myself as part- time conductor of the orchestra. i have a fairly silent role inthe thing - the people upon whose skill one depends for any sort of success are the players in the orchestra and most of the work W e and right at the beginning has been done by other people -such a large number o f people that I think it would be difficult to lame one or two dominant figures. You've got a lo t of very e m i n mum

policy is construed by some people to mean that we get huge hidden subsidies, or that we are a sort of professionally-infiltrated department of the Establishment, or wen that we're funded by the CIA - all sorts of funny ideas.. . Furthermore, I think one needs to realise that the people towards the top of the pyramid are vastly more effective interms of what i s done than the people at the bottom of the pyramid -this is absolutely obvious. Therefore if you can enlist the support of the people at the top, you've got a chance of achieving, fy conventionalmqam, really worthwhilethings It would be naive to think that someonelike the Duke of Edinburgh isn't an incredibly

Thb small Polton wheel may ioon be humnine o m of the watarfalb a t tha

powerful figure i n the country. No matter what anyone's views might be on the monarchy and i t s overtones, 1 think most people in the wuntry realise that he, as an individual, i s simply a man caught in a position who is trying to do the best thing by the job he's got, which is apretty

<:*. :unenviable one. Therefore he is someone whose sympathy is most ~ valuable to the whole AT movement, and he is someone who is walking i across this pretty delicate bridge which we are in the process of put- View from o m of tin Ida1 Homo window.

level by peopie who work In business than i s generally appreciated. . . I think that people perhaps at the lower end of today's pyramid fail to apprec-

I iate that some of the people who control industry are in fact highly intelligent and fairlv wise. fairlv far-

gat hk solar cells simply because he believes in what we're doing. His brother, Boswell (sic) de Ferranti, has actually spent a lot more time and money than anyone else trying to develop heat pumps, because he thought they were a good thing. I Wouldn't deny his competence, or Ms intelligence or his sincerity. What I would be worried about is that he will seek solutbm to the problems of society i n such a way that thosisolu- tiem will continue to imply Ferranti and roughly the same kind of industrial structure that there is now. For instance, astructure with companies owned by shareholders rather than owned by the people who work for them, a structure where you have private enterprise rather like we have now rather than some kind of possibly municipal or local ownership. . small cooperatives and that kind of thing. Sebastian de Fannt I will want to fee lots of solar celk coming o f f the Ferranti production line. Sincerely, he may believe that it wilt be better for society -and it might be a bit better - but It won't be as food as it could be if the people were workhq~ on thm thim diunselves. Even though that might be 1çà efficient. I think that you've got to re- that high technology develops from high technology, and somebody tike Furami isa high technology wizard. Now, we agreed earlier that high technology i s in principle, desirable because it can free a lot of people from nasty repetitive jobs. Solar cells are in the forefront o f today's technoi- ogy, and if a firm like Ferranti which has the resources can produce these things by means of high technology, I think there's a place for them. I'd be delighted if people like Ferranti make solar cells, provided that the ixoole who are workim on those

that there are alternative waysof living which are socially good, and envirotinkntally good -that just in terms of the science of the environ- ment they are sustainable -then the more intelligent people at the top of the pyramid will start to take a real interest. I think that there's far too much talk at the moment and not enough doing. There are thousands o f communes around the country, far more than are recorded. But they are unbelievably fragile, and they don't really add up to a saleable philosophy for man- kind in the latter part of the 20th century. Some new and obviously workable way of living in a community has got to be discovered. But some commun- hies probably have discovered It, just by having the right combination of people. . .

these things on a small scale? Yes - we have done just that, actually. The problem now is to find someone with prototype facilities to actually make it, and maybe we can then sell it to a small manufacturer - it's the sort of thing in fact could be made in a garage - for a royalty. We might find ourselves that way. But basically, we . . hope to f ~ n d ourselves by 'gale money', and through publications.

l'vedone a roundup, and they're very rare. The ones that survive - funnily enough, the same ones that have survived throughout the centuries - tend to be the religious ones. I think a very important point to realise i s that we've got an external interest here at the centre whereas most corn- munities are internal - they're interested in their own survival. doing , . . . , , , , > ; their own thing. Of course we're int+&

in t , b t w e are a hue in . order to serve.peopie outsidee 3 f@.. which hqz&+dy been very 'yaluabla, , . , . .: , . .. ~. ,

inproduciksolidarity ,:;. ;. . ' . . ' . people here. There'sa crvkK. . . . ,

, ,.. .. . , . . - need t o r n a s s f s o f : i i i k e this one, where people & n ~ l l y . . . .

get togetherand +w+w you can have a better life. We've had person after person here, people fromthe 7 entire social spectrum who've said 'Thank goodness we've found a place where it i s happening' - where people

'an ecologically-wasteful process that vacs up too many natural resources - at@ isn't inofdlnately profitable. TO turn towardsthe futureofthe . ~

I think these are the dangers. But it Centre,.are you hopingthat it will hmt be a more intelligent approach 'to try to devise analternative system

fa; at the present time. It would be my naive to think that out o f the

dercurrents

A tetter from Gerald Morgan-Grenvilk Of the numerous things of which I have a t one time or another been accused perhaps the most paradoxical is that I have sold out AT to the Establishment. The means by which some suspect that this has been done i s by having set up a focal point for AT which, by an insidious process of big company and big name involvement, has subverted the original aims of AT to the profit based interests of Big Business. Remarks to this effect made at Comtek and some other AT venues have prompted me to amplify the happenings at the National Centre for Alternative Technology - NCAT - better known as the Quarry.

Anyone who has read the attempts of others to encapsulate in a few words the central ethicof AT and from this to pontificate on the social and technical means of its establishment, will know that it is a dangerous task, since the range of i t s individual interpretations is limitless - so the things which I say are personal and do not necessarily reflect the views of those at the Quarry, past or present.

Any 'foreigner' taking a look at the Alternative scene in Britain (or Europe) could be forgiven for failing to see any consistency or continuity. Projects come and go leaving scarcely a ripple, and the ideological casualties are almost as frequently encountered as the wreckage of AT windmill prototypes. In this general context I cherish the ambition of trying to create some kind of Alternative bastion, which can providesome element of stability in the highly fragile situation in which most AT types find themselves. I conceive that this nucleus be sufficiently large and cohesive to develop its own internal dynamic - philosophical, social, technological and financial. The Quarry is now a small part of the way towards th is goal.

Readers of 'Undercurrents' will mostly subscribe to the ideas that society could be fairer, that it is possible to live with greater regard for environmental con- siderations, that small is frequently beautiful, that unnecessary or dangerous technologies should be avoided, that land should be for people, and all the rest of the AT creed, which is so platitudinously intoned and so little exemplified - for the simple reason that exemplification is extremely difficult. How do you, when it comes to the point, become self-sufficient on almost no money, prevent a nuclear Dower station being built, ground bncorde, fix a solar collector on the 17th storey of a high-rise block of flats - or fight a faceless bureaucracy?

You don't, because you can't. But what you can do i s to select those areas where you can do something, enlist the co- ooeration of others who share vour aims.

The National Centre for Alternative Techno logy at MachynUeth, now in existence for over two years, has been one of the more con- traversal recent developments in AT. Follow ingreports in Undercurrents Sand elsewhere, and frequent criticism of the centre at A T events, they have asked for space in Under-

currents In which to discuss their ideas, and give news of developments at Llwyngwern Quarry, NCAT's home. Below. Gerard Mom Grenville states his views on the centre's role

The article is not intended to reflect the collective views of NCAT. or of Undercurrer or its members.

others to do battle. Thesomething which you choose will depend on your particular view of AT. The winning - or losing - of such battles should be reported more frequently in 'Undercurrents' if we are to profit from the efforts of others.

To me, ATis not too much to do with drawing the dole, telephone tapping or getting stoned. To me it is rather more to do with the energetic development of a sustainable and better life, in which people work together for the common good. NCAT reflects t h i s ideal. Such a life presupposes independence from those whose policies are antagonistic, and some of the technology at NCAT provides a means to this end. To me the pursuit of such an ideal is now a matter of urgency, faced as we are with a bureaucracy employing one in four of the workforce. I believe, passionately, that man should have the fullest possible personal freedom -so long as he respects the tribal codes of behaviour. I suspect that most people who subscribe to an alternative society cherish the same belief. Yet 1 am fre- quently astounded by the political naivety which may almost be said to characterise the movement. Whether or not we are political escapists or activists, whilst we indulge in such notions as Kropotkin anarchism, the fact is that we are all being pushed towards a totalitarian

their way, NCAT, Undercurrents, and other corporate and

individual freaks will be swept off the board - make no mistake about this; individualism and real personal freedor are absolutely irreconcilable with the totalitarian state: you need look no further than any such state to see the living proof of this. I believe that a far more militant role

now required of those who claim to uphold the basic human rights. If the / movement is to make a lasting and wor whilejmpact it must be prepared to defend i t s cardinal principles with acti( We live in a fool's paradise whilst other capitalist and communist alike, conspir to force us into conformity.

So, if you come to the Quarry, apart from the possibility of seeing lumps of slate being hurled at suspected bureau- crats, you will by next summer also set a great many working devices which wi.. help you to be independent of the system and to live more self-sufficiently. Wind- ' mills a-plenty, solar collectors by the dozen, water turbines and a methane generator which has actually been known to generate methane. (Both commercially available and DIY units are shown: a range of DIY pamphlets is already available). We are also getting into organic horticulture and carp rearing. (Food for the inmates i s vegetarian whole food). If everything goes according to plan, you may even see a house which provides for all i t s own services. There will be a much enlarged new exhibition hall with many new things, an informa- tion office and an AT bookshop, where, if you haven't already done so, you can take out a subscription to 'Under- currents'. We are also planning some AT discussion weekends this winter: please contact us if you are interested. To enter you will probably have to pay 50p by next summer. It isnot a rip-off: it i s the least we can charge if we are to realise the project - as it is most of us are virtually or entirely unpaid. (Weneed more money - subscription forms available!)

If you would likeyour views on the pvelopment of NCAT to be pondered and perhaps incorporated, please write to us. Gerard Mown-GrenvHe

National Centre for Alternative Technology, Llwyngwem Quarry, Machynlleth, Powys (Machynlleth 2400). regime',by anunholy but concerted produce a plan capable of reatisation,

stickto it, and win small battles one at alliance ofpower seekers, if thev have

The Centre for Alternative Technology I

WALKING UP THE ROAD from 'Coast's principal tourist attractions. The dominating. A father eulogises about the Machynlleth the first thing you see i s . Centre for Alternative Technology is oil-drum savonius to his teenage daughter: a Darrieus windmill perchted, on a hillside, designed to impress, to turn people on to "That's what I call ingenious," he says. steel blades shiningin the early'morning the sort of ideas which Undercurrents "Don't you think i t 's a bit ugly?" she sun. A little further onward and. more readers may well ,$ake for granted, replies with tentative scepticism; a classic windmillscome into view, a few odds and possibly torescue AT from the hairy contradiction, methinks. Whatwould the ends too remote to identify, signs of fringe and put it fairly and squarely in the neighbours say, back in Rochdale?, inhabitation, a former slate quarry starkly middle of things. A windmill in the garden? For most of the grey among hills and valleys green in all People live and work at the Centre, and visitors a universe of possibilities is directions, even in this year of drought. the result of their efforts i s on view for opening up, a fantasy of clean and healthy On every road for miles around AA route visitors to admire. This means the whole independent lives, hard work and intrinsic markers indicate a 'sun and windpower gamut of ecologically acceptable energy satisfaction, fresh food and country air. exhibition': a modest enough description sources, from familiar wind and solar How can it all be turned into reality? of what has become one of the Cambrian , power devices, through such ambitious

work and inspiration. Nothing isshoddy or discarded, even the most utilitarian of

be; capitalism couchant, maybe? resources and materials, support local 1 There are signs of political ambivalence; action grouDs such as FOE. ConSoc and

I clearly the people at the Centre are adept anti-nuclear movements, and encourage at riding two horses at once. The l i s t of labour-intensive rather than cawital- I

I theirc~mmercial and industrial sponsors intensive methods of production. is a remarkable cross-section of the British And there i s a strong Dn-It-Yourself I c a s t establishment, from ICI to emphasis, too. Although the Centre

liedied entirely Irom heat pumps powered example, who knows what else? - and . by a 3KW windmill. This necessitates ' a vast array of batteries in places where

normal households hang their overcoats and is, I suppose, an inspiring example of humankind's mastery over nature. But I'm'highly doubtful about any attempt to

The train now approaching the end of the line is mainstay of the CATS own internal transport system, a modernised version of the old quarry railway. Looks good, but like its BR equivalent I don't think it's actually used much.

build an autonomous house up to North American standards of comfort and would much prefer to respond (and see other people respond) to the onset of cold weather by putting on a thick woolly sweater and enjoying the elements for what they are. The converted quarry-. workers' cottages seemed much nicer and much cheaper, which i s to say, much more caring of scarce resources.

There's an idea that won't lie down, and it's something to do with materials. The Centre has gone to great lengths to use local, natural 'vernacular' materials ' wherever possible and, mundane though it may be, I would single out the recently

they're not actually extracted or manu- factured in situations of rustic splendour, either. If people were to become com- placent about using AT hardware in pursuit of ecological harmony, without considering implications of alienation and pollution at the point of production, then it would amount to exporting the hard work for some other nameless individual to take care of, and there's nothing very progressive about that It would smack of privilege, in fact.

This is not intended as a specific criticism of the Centre since the same contradiction pervades the whole of AT. We're full of fancy ideas about how to build gadgets cheaply using just a few nuts and bolts and bits and pieces of wire and glass and plastic and whatnot, but some- . one somewhere has to make these things,

l'his%&as methane ought to produce enough m d to s u p x e coo- n d of an average home - if anyone could be bothered to get their hands ditty feeding it with a slimy of fanuyard manure, vegetable waste and water each day. Which of course no one can.

and it's not iust our smartness and hard completed toilets ass neat example '

work that goes into the final effect, but ascetic simplicity in both design and their smartness and hard work, too. I'm construction. But a lot of the other materials used there are anything bu

not advocating a campaign of total auto-

local - steel, aluminium and glass for nomy from extraction to finished product but I do feel that if our movement is to

A trio of windmills whirls far above the Centre continue being useful then some serious perched on top of a huxe mountain of date. thoueht will haveto be given to the actual Rained by the blades of the big DAF us mechanics of and not just to Ceggbeatel*) machine from Canada are a Swiss slick ways of trapping natural energy. Qektm (rwt) and a 200 watt U.S. Winw ~ i n d c h a i g ~ (left). .The -8 supplies 4kw That means the clothes we wear, the of high grade electrical energy: seems a shame furniture we use, the vehicles we ride in, flat it's'immediately degraded to mere heat for the consumer and household .

an electric. Aga cooker. Why not use :?auiniiig stove? plenty of waste utensils we already have but might well 39 , .... ...,, want to replace one of these days. -

Probably the most significant event to occur to AT since i t s inception has been the Lucas initiative and the subsequent carnoaians bv workers elsewhere to work on socially useful products. (See Under- currents 18). For the foreseeable future the crucial economic life of the country 4 will continue to take place in factories, and any search for relevance must inevitably start there too. I hope that the Centre for Alternative Technology, with all their overwhelming enthusiasm and proven expertise, will come to regard this sort of research as a suitable contribution to make. Having sketched out a rough idea of what constitutes an ecologically sustainable way of life the next important stage is to devise ways in which i t s para- phernalia can be produced in circum- stances which acknowledge the needs of

Where did the water go? John Eyles look wistfully at one of the CATS drought-stncke Pelton wheels. Normally it should deliver 2k at 120 gallonsa minute.

outlets for people'sskills, and institutic through which they can make their vie' effective. The IY approach, although a definite adv g ce on consumerism, is I in itself enough because many material and products require acomplex level o cooperation and it's at t h i s point that notions of crude autonomy break dowi

If we're to have any chance of establi ing a natural energy economy then we'l need more than the occasional news- worthy solar panel here and there, we'l need literally millions of them. If we're to avoid the horrors of the mass- production assembly lined la Henry Fo then we'tl have to advance on two fronl One n the technical problem of develop ing ways in which solar panels and wind mills and whatever else can be built efficiently without turning people into zombies, and the other i s the political

The big multi-bladed wind pump in the cent circulates water through a test ng which spoi a motley assortment of win panels - mostlj commercial, some D-I-Y. Sceptical visitors ca prove it an work8 by washing their hands in solar-heated water at a nearby basin.

problem of ensuring that the control of capital and resources passes into the hands of those that use and need them. (That's you and me," in case you think 1 mean the Politburo.) The Centre's 130-odd entre preneurial supporters will happily con- serve energy all the way to the bank unless the right soft of pressure is maintained, and it's UD to the rest of us

those who produce it This means devising m to make sure they don't. 1 m a n u f a c u r method; with suitable % , .. Martyn Partridge

-

Undercurrents 22 f

And after all, it was all guaranteed organic, I mean, I knew where it had been.

As for the rest of the story, the matted-haired wild man seen at the launderette (you know how they never open the windows there), the fumiga- tion saga (not to mention the ostracism of a pioneer by his fellows), well, that's for another time. What I want to say is, i t worked, didn't it? That must have been quite some pressure bottled up in there. Eureka, as someone said drily. Eureka somethin' awful.

Robin Johnson

it up nearly to the top, probably un- wisely, as the pipe could clog with scum, I guess, but I wanted to drive out as much air as possible. I flushed the system out with carbon dioxide. You could use the C02 from wine or beer fermentation: there's a use for everything!

So, I had the thing all set up. I got a deck chair and lay back to watch the gas holder rise. After four weeks nothing had happened. This was last summer. I went round the joints with a paintbrush and weak detergent searching for leaks. None. Then, almost overnight, up it went. I took the stuff to work and found 10% C02 and no oxygen. That evening I connected up a bunsen, opened the taps and applied a light. It worked. 1 found thai 8 or 10 bricks on the gas holder squeeze the gas enough to give a useful flame; i t ' s about the same as mains gas pressure.

I use the stuff for soldering in the shed. There's enough there for that. Just as I expected, the system has hiber- nated for winter. Perhaps it won't start up again when it warms. Perhaps there's an inch or two of scum on the surface inside. Mind you, I've never seen any scum trying to get up the pipes coming from the digesters.

I hope to get round to lagging the digesters or shrouding them with poly bag greenhouses, or piling dung round the outside to keep them warm. And I , can't wait to get the slurry on my garden.

. Mick Hanson

Apart from being a research centre and a permanent exhibition of AT hardware, the Centre for Alternative Technology also acts as a meeting place for people to discuss the wider implications of the movement. Nigel Dudley describes a recent weekend course.

IN FEBRUARY, Howard Liddell of Hull College of Architecture combined with the members of the Centre for Alternative Technology to put on a course at the Centre, for some of his students and a few of our own visitors that had expressed an interest in learning more. Whilst none of the six speakers said any- thing radically new they presented in total an interesting history of the chang- ing attitudes to AT, and highlighted some of the problems of community living.

The first speaker was Graham Caine of the Street Farmers, who opened on the Friday night with a rather downbeat talk about the experimental house and other activities going on in London a few years ago. He seemed to take the view that things were quite fun to try, but the practicability of them was not all that important, and the projects were abandon- ed when interest waned. Robert and Brenda Vale followed the next morning with a broadly similar theme, albeit on a more sophisticated level. Having complet- ed their part of the studies on the Cambridge autonomous house they are working on a new building of their own and an attempt at rural self-sufficiency. All three speakers were concerned with the viability of personal self-sufficiency. This contrasted sharply with Howard Liddell's own talk, in which a number of experiments in community self- sufficiency were examined. These includ- ed a Canadian simulation study, a Scottish valley, Gibraltar, and his own study on the resource potential of Hull.

This development seems to mirror a lot of AT thinking. In the beginning, a few people were interested chiefly in personal survival. This attitude has now been accepted as impractical for large numbers of people, both from the physical aspects of space and resources, and from the social point of view of being cut off from everybody else. This was confirmed by the fourth speaker, John Seymour. Surprisingly, the original self-sufficiency king was not too interest- ed in this on a personal level, and would much rather see a self-sufficient com- munity. Seymour also stressed the need for a devolutionary philosophy. 'If the Farmers Weekly carry on with their present policy they'll end up with only one reader', he stated cynically, and call- ed for a rational approach to the distribu- tion of resources, citing the example of his adopted Pembrokeshire, where grain is imported from Canada, and their own wheat is sold elsewhere.

On Sunday the theme of 'small i s beautiful' was continued and expanded

by Leopold ~ o f i r . These six speakers showed were AT has come from, and where it i s now: intensely interested in the small scale, and the community as an autonomous unit. The difficulties in this were expressed by the last speaker, Philip Brachi, late of the BRAD commune, who spoke very honestly about why the com- munity had failed and where it had gone wrong. In many ways BRAD (Biotechnic Research and Development) was a pre- cursor to our own CAT. Set up by Robin Clarke in 1973, it was to research various forms of alternative technology and communal living, centred on a large farmhouse in mid-Wales. Although it end- ed after only three years, the legacy it l e f t behind i s probably greater than any of-the participants realised; we get their mail now, which s t i l l averages half a dozen letters a day. Philip spoke about the internal frictions that had split the commune, between those that simply wanted to experiment with the technol- ogy and those that wanted to investigate the community aspects and the inter- relationships of the group.

This sheds interesting light on the Centre's own history, and its success so far, and on the problems of other autono- mous communities. Until now, we have been working so flat out on getting the Centre together that we have never had time to examine the community aspects to any depth. From what Philip said, this i s probably why we have survived. It seems to be a case of the less said the better we will get on!

In addition to the course, the Hull group arrived a couple of days early, and lived and worked with us for that time. As well as promoting the informal attitude that we always aim at, the studen felt they had learned more in those two days than they did at the actual course, which i s interesting as they only did very manual work, and most of that in pouring rain. As we are thinking of running more courses in the future, this is of especial interest; we have always believed that talk without actually doing any work i s of

. limited use, and it is good to see other

people thinking the same. Perhaps in the years to come we'll all retire from actual work, and spend our time taking money from potential students who will come to do it for us!

Nigel Dudley

For anvone who didn't read about us in Under- currents 19. we are open to the visitors every day, and also sell information sheets, DIY plans and other books, but please enclose an SAE with any enquiries, as we're still very short of time and money. The Centre is at Llywngweren Quarry, Machynlleth, Powy Wales. Tel. Machynlleth 2400.

sites, the power can only be of usd at the * mill site itself. The electrical power output o f a turbine is obviously usable away from the actual generating station andis available to any electrical load.. Today the problems of fluctuating flow o f water and load governing are solved by turbines capable of changing so as to maximize their efficiency at a wide range of flows, and incorporate electronic load! governors,

After assessing the power obtained in the past my attention turned to the theoretical physical resource of water power. Just how much power is daily dissipated by water running o f f from the land to the sea? The maps o f the average, rainfall for the Dyfi valley were obtained from the Institute o f Hydrology and each o f 163 small catchments within the whole Dyfi catchment were examined to assess their average rainfall. It is found by hydrological studies that 80% of the rain falling on land runs offwia streams and rivers. This figure drops to 60% in forested areas. After working out the average theoretical flow for each stream I made an estimate of the available head for each stream. The actual power

'availablefrom a river is pfopoflional t o . the available head and the flow. This . - ( r '--r. poweryas calculated for each catchment .' . idv- .. .-.. . .-2 3.2%" and all the 1163 results summed up. The

order o f magnitude o f average theoretical poweravailable for the Dyfi catchment is around 33 Megawatts. Ecommics would reduce the figure to 9 or 1Q Mega- watts o f available energy but this is still

^ ONE OF themost promisingsources o f . other qurcesbrought to light +out 120

'A ren@vable energy that is often ignored y Old waterwheel sjtes (excluding minipg "pnderplayed a that o f small scale water' wheels) <ind at least 70 old water turbine

power. This may be partly because the sites, in the 471 sq. km of the Dyfi ty,tter power resource h a been known catchment. All-these sites summed up

I!' and used in the past or because o f i t s --t would represent a total o f about 1% 'f relative tack of the 'romantic' appeal o f megawatts that was once obtained in the

'9. ç2 the windmill iilhnuetted against the Dyfi valley. This is a mere shadow of the &sky. Indeed a modern turbine could be

" potential resource as will be seen later. <completely hidden from view under- The old waterwheel sites vary in 5 ground, generating power with no condition from completely derelict to a - environmental or visual impact upon the 'few in working order, but the turbine sites '. taixtscape. fared better and at least 15 o f these still - Whatever the reason for this lack of operate and hive mostly generated

enough etectridty for their owners at minimal cost for several decades: The use

% Megawatts that was

.z. , ? ' f. '- . . I riffcts the equivalent cost o f maim Stedricity.

+

T o reduce this initial cost there is the v(̂

posibitity df using secondhand equip- - .

( melit for which one firm operates a secondhand machinery 'market'. It is very important to remember however that turbine equipment i s usually tailor-made ' to particular site characteristics of head and flow o f water and 'using a turbine in a - < . A -- m - - 'Â¥ _ a new location may mean a reduction in that turbine's efficiency.

It is also possible to make turbines 4 7 ---- ----- (especially the most efficient cross-flow -\" ,= turbines) on a do-it-yourself basis. e &,

11 , ' ' Â V'

- a > < , i Legal bars The other major stumbling block to the AL?ERNAT~vE,TEcHNOLOGY has arrived - if being taken up by , wider use o f this resource is the legal industry and aover is "wiving". How can we mak* sure that AT situation with regard to 'water abstrac- is not going to be to ly co-opted toserve the interests of the dominant ' -

' tion'. The waLerResources Act Q~ instituth (or ''n~Iin$j dasms'')? Dave Elliott looks at theqmlitics of set up Water Authorities throughout the AT ad*a mmm F*.m of wh to be brm&t up at United Kingdom and empowered them to impose a licencing and charging system the N A n A (Network for Alternative Technology and Technology for each waterpower site. If water mills Cunferenc* b A w * and turbines incurred any cost to the The sooner the private sector eon be Authorities or detracted from the quality bmughtdnto exMojm~m of mwemw - or quantity o f the water in any way one could understand users being charged, but

Mot iondl - in the Dyfj valley I have never encounter- IMW , . from^f//

ed any water power site that incurs costs to the Authority or that in any way Dale D. Myers - US DepL of Energy

pollutes the stream, or reducesthe amount private and public i n v e s q n t in alter- of water. Mills merely temporarily divert Mivetechnology in the energy field is, as the water-and put it all back. yet, small in the UK -only f 16m having

Despite the unfortunate legal situation beenallocated by Itegwwimerit so far - the outlook for small scale water Power i s but inkrest i&p~wi&,*gwst the bjg undoubtedly vary good. The Dept. of firms, like Taylor Woodrow and British Energy are looking into the ecofiomics of Aer-e - key of the Wind new hydro electric plants at sites that Energy R & 6 Comortia. Lucas have been u@ in the past and possibly vickers are 9 t h keen t o exploit on the spillways o f reservoir dams. ' %

power while a large number of d n l y A t the moment theGovernment is stpall firms have entered the solar field

urging people to save energy (the Save-It - mft , m ; q has an annual UK market Campaign) Whilst on the other hand turnover o f Etm. Many AT enthusiasts heavily penalizing small water Power '

fi +QM flits - as# i-mf environmental impact and health and i. operators who wu ld save the country a their belief that 'AT* is thà way ahead. safety assessment and so on. j Ã

great deal o f non-renewable resources and ~n fte 0 t h ~ hand theft is no guaran- * Supporting campaigns by workers bring cheap, pollution-free power and tee that the sort bf AT that large scale like those at Lucas, Victors, Par~nn, employment to many areas. If any industrial conglomerates (or even small etc. for the development of soci readers ate interested and Would like t o entrepeneurs)~ill develop is going to be useful alternatives. have further information about the Dyfi sort t h a b h -AT valley study or Water-Power as a vrfioie feel i s appropriate. The emphasis will be  Lobbying vigorouslyrfor the adoptit they should write t o CAT, Mach~nlleth, on large scale energy systems that can

of socially appropriate technology - : Powys, where there is also a working and therefore against inappropriate ,, . feed the grid, (like wavepower, or even, turbine on show to the public. technologies like nuclear power. x ,

orbital solar satellites beaming energy to * Developing our own 'Community , -',y , MartirrAshby earth by microwave), or, alternatively,

on a small secbnd-rate planned obsoles- technology' on a self-help basis, /cent units sold to gulllbie consumers - demonstrate the viability of alte~ both o f which Scenario's implying the lives. continuation of existingpatterns of There are, obviously, plenty of practic. centralised control, arid alienation and problem$ in each case - we need more exploitation of producers and consum- resources, more channels of communic ers. These are precisely the trends that tion, and influence - all o f which AT was meant to reverse. So there is a no doubt discuss at NATTA. But 1 problem. are also some more general strategic

There are of course several strategies problems, which I want to raise as an we can adopt to try to avoid thein. hors-d'oeuvre. Some o f them wi l l be discussed in more ' For me the key problem is 'polil detailjat the N A m A conference, so 1 - or rather political and economic. i n won't waste trees going over them in original dream of the AT movement, o detail. But briefly they a+? at least die 'radical technology' sect, wx> .

t ,< , v that* couldgenerate an interest i n a '& ̂* - . , * ,$ubject i~ b t X M i t e t h a l i v e Md- technology *& by iQ very nature - - -g

,- * , \ ; ',- r I i^pr&@ detailed scrutii t A , would, ({̂ itop ̂*,change, -

e m a m n m i "̂B - ~ a - . . - - - w . FHE BRITISH GOVERNMENT builta full-mia air-turbine could build a ahip aimi* (lid fat producing electricity from the www-and given it perhammore efficient then) the

to the J a p * n ~ . Kaimai have bnn cloud downi

~ ~ ~ n w h i l ~ , back in the old at Falmwth. dockyards which bwum of a lade of order*.

suntry, our engineers, inventor! and scientists are ~nf ined to playingabout with models that a n never bigger US entrepreneurs

on a six foot square concram

thin one-tenth scale. This incredible example of

Britain playing the rawmd-troud shilmthroplat, and doing for a d t h v . ~ronwrous counw what ... . it i a not pnpwed to do for itÑif ma ma a mul t of a dociaion by th* Labour Government to ;olfaborf in the International Ewgy AMncy's rave energy woBrtnm.

The Jan- ham launched a BOO-ton h im. the Kaiei. with 22 kç In thibottom. As the ÑV

r l n and fall. Mr b wahed out and iuckedin end air turbinn lining an the deck we WIN (pinning. Each onqdrlves an alternator and the riactricity flows.

The method was invented by a Japenew. Yoshio Mfsuda, and he h a 300 nevMtion bubvs working in the Pacific without wed for any haail fuel to kwp tha light shining. Trinity House is noy bu tor British vatm.

British timidity Britain decidtd to dwelop the idea md the National Enginmaring Liboratory at Eaat Kilbridt imorwed on his scheme to make Ã

r&a efficient dwict. (The Maw& hip mil haw holes in the bottom; Britain'scontribution is to have the hold in the side, rather like port- hole, and thus capture pore of the wve powrl.

But, becauseof thecaution of the Government and, it muat be admitted, wmà of the mgincms and scientists working on wave anergy in Britain, i t has been dMided to launch the Brltiah ship at-anstanth scalein the mouth of the Clyde. We like to make pr ms ~iowiv, feeding everything i n t r committees and computers.

And thus it came about that we decided to help the Japanese with their fen efficient experiment-but at full-scale.

"The British contribution is a chamber five metres high. Under t conditions, with 9 limulmed wave of fivemetres, the mean turbine output power hot been 100 kilowatts; with larger simulated www, the mean power increased up to 170 kilowatts. Britain's most ambitious schemes so for have been producing about o w kilowatt.

The generator being sent to. Japan wm built under contract for the Deowtrnent of Energy by an mminaflrina firm nemed &wax at

US Windpower Inc. (USWP) a 18-mployw Masachunttt company, has bust open the timriean electricity utility market for rthewable energy by contracting with the Californian Department of Water Ruourcd to supply 100 ma@watrs for 20 y n at 3% cents a kwh.

The company will inatell up to 2.000 50kW mills on state land near Pacheco Pass, an area of high and conatant winds 80 miles south d of San Francisco. Backed by privota venture capttal;the engineer* of US Windpower have deveiopç the 'model T Ford' of windmills: it is made of mesi* produced off-the-shelf chew end lightweight components end is. designed for auambly by two people. the 44' tower has a built- in winch that allows the hub and drive train to be installed end repaired without a crane; it rets

- footim which is the on& permanent construction needed.

A model deal If they a n deliver at the bargain

Corporate price they have contracted for lend soma wind pundits are sceptical), alternative USWP's ~ h m e is likely to become - - a model for the adoption of AT In th? US. Already three other small wind companies have signed similar deals end USWP is mgotiating with large users in other parts of the , country. Thev forecast that bv 1985 &air annual turnover w& be $75 million and oroduction !hC4l milis.

California alone has identified 100,000 MW of potential wind- power on state land end plans to ha ma^ one-lanth of this by the vn r 2000. And a m a l l know, what California don todey the ran of the USA does ten y m later. INsw Roor~l

Homes it dome

Tha doma homa (or 'Intamrated Llft-Support Sy<t*ms bboratory'l of Robm and LM Rdna in Nm Mtxko, USA. will ba f l l u r d in two N txogremmwuf the Open Unhaitv's IMW fwnd-fon coura, Living with Technolow. Powamd only bv the u n and tha wind. tha dome haw bÑ

tha domw work and nmlon thà i m o l i t i o ~ u of uch idf-suffkimt I iv im Thay will ba b rmdo~ton BBC2 at 11.16~11 on&tur&y 6 Jinuiry ¥id Smturetay 19 JBNTV 1980.

Meanwhla, Suva Bur lid othw UIIV promofre d domes lib tha Shelter book ?am will not reprint or upom Orlr woria line* thç no l o r n Miwa in domw. Thw don't think thw m ~rticulxlv amloold

technology A RECENT VISIT to thi Centre for Alternative Tochnolomv in darkat Powa r w d d that the faithful m completely undiicourfd by the multinatiomis moving in onthoect.

But even they would h im bam surprw to hear therrmlva baing oubliciaed bv Or Jack Birks. -1ng Oirmctor l~mchnicill of EP, at the launch of BP's rxw, md not very exciting, energy r n ~ r c h prizes.

According to Bit, W wndk ¥bou £7. million a you on ranowable ewgy r e ~ r c h and dwalopnrnt, and is In tha proem of putting all that undo- on* roof at its Sunbuw r w r c h labc on the outskirts of iondon. And It will bl rather an unusual roof, bacaun th~ building will not only h o w DM rauerchm but demonabme the idm they ere working on, ~pecieliy solar, wind and hat- pumps. "A kind of compmv mrak of an idea which is. 1 Ñ innnam to rud, aIrMdy going on in k t h Wain" w how Birks dmcritad It. although uutoriai stand~da will probably ba high* and mats Ià visible. ,

The Centre for Alternative Technology i d f i s planning to build a laroe 60ft diameter wind genfmr.-lts wrpw would bà to d iaw the Cantrç' a m ahortu in the summer end provide a dmionatretwn of a ¥villag d e ' ¥chem which they currently btiçv is the most amnomk.

Thç are having difficulty In reisim the finance w thav haw hn&ad an -1. AW -&nwoua souls interntad in the ipomorehb (cham ahouldwrim to CAT, Llangwm Quarry. Michynllth,