Permaculture adventures in Sector39

trying to make sense of living in a crazy time

Archive for February, 2010

Build your own wind turbine

Feb 18

Posted by Steven Jones in courses, evolution, forest gardens, permaculture, renewable energy, sustainability | 1 Comment

windpower course

Windpower workshop, Feb 2010

The Sector39 crew are working away this year putting together what we are calling ours ‘Skills for Sustainability Programme.‘ The idea is to offer crash courses, tasters, introduction, skill-sharing and networking events  in key areas like local food, energy, bees, fruit trees etc. whatever we need to equip ourselves to relocalise at least some of our food and energy production.

We have had a lot of success with our 2 week permaculture courses and we are busy thinking how to break some of that into smaller chunks, to make it accessible to a broader range of people. Focussing on the skills, practical stuff and areas where there is the most common interest and seems to make a lot of sense as a starting place.

So organic growing – especially veg. is one starting point and we have a one day and 20 week – (Thursday afternoons) course a coming up. The 20 week one is externally funded, so don’t be shy about getting a place on it, it is potentially free.

And the other big one we are trying out for the first time is the Build your own wind turbine course, Its 3 days at the Workhouse last weekend of this month with V3power, a bunch of guys from Nottingham who run these courses all over the place.  We are really keen to get some people on this one, so please get in touch if you are interested, find out how to part pay in Dolydd’s or time dollars

These 1,2 and three days courses are lively and informative and also of course create a platform for people to share their knowledge and experience and come together to celebrate creativity and ingenuity.

Get in touch with us to find out more – but here are the details of the 3 day wind turbine course

Introduction to building a Wind Turbine

Friday 26th February to Sunday 28th February 2010

The Workhouse, Llanfyllin, Powys, SY22 5LE

This weekend course covers all the practical elements of building a wind turbine and gives an overview of all the technical aspects needed to create a wind based renewable energy system. We hope to build a working 1.2m wind turbine over course of the weekend.

Over the weekend, participants will get hands on experience in metal work including welding a turbine mounting, carving wooden blades and building the electrical generator.

We will also explore some of the theoretical aspects of building and installing a turbine, such as blade design, sighting your turbine and appropriate systems for storage and usage of the power you generate.

The course is suitable for complete beginners who haven’t used a tool since school, and for people with plenty of practical and technical knowledge looking to supplement what they already know.

We are very excited to be able to run a course in conjunction with the vibrant Workhouse project. The Workhouse is a centre for arts and environmental education set in the stunning Cain Valley mid Wales. The Workhouse is already home to the highly acclaimed Workhouse festival and is developing an exciting range of music, theatre, and arts events and a broad spectrum of educational and training courses including permaculture design, green crafts and music technology.

For more information about the venue please visit: www.llanfyllinworkhouse.org

The course costs £200 including food. Accomodation will include limited spaces inside the workhouse and camping in the grounds; there are also a number of local B&Bs for those that would prefer. It’s sure to be a lovely weekend, getting to know all the different participants at a beautiful rural location. A discount is also available for people who are unwaged. Please ask.

To book on to the course, please email info@v3power.co.uk and you can check out our website www.v3power.co.uk to see more about who we are and what we do. There is more info here at S39

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From Credit crunch to energy crunch

Feb 18

Posted by Steven Jones in courses, energy, peak oil | No Comments

The next five years will see us face another crunch – the oil crunch. This time, we do have the chance to prepare.  The challenge is to use that time well. As we reach maximum oil extraction rates, the era of cheap oil is behind us. We must plan for a world in which oil prices are likely to be both higher and more volatile and where oil price shocks have the potential to destabilise economic, political and social activity.

Quote from the Itpoes report Feb 2010 (Industry Task force on Peak Oil and Energy Security)
Read the whole report
Oil supply past and projected

Oil supply past and projected

I have already posted quite a lot of stuff on Peak oil but this is a very good contemporary report that brings it all into sharp focus. Supported by folk such as Branson, on the sharp end of the business world and looking ahead, Jeremy Leggett, oil geologist turncoat – who defected to the solar industry and the CEO of Scottish and Southern Energy.

Basically it is saying when the global economy starts to pick up again (if ) then there won’t be the spare capacity in the oil infrastructure to satisfy demand. Or not for long, it examines three different scenarios, none good if you are a ‘business as usual’ kind thinking person. In fact as prices for energy have been relatively low until last year, then there has been massive under-investment in new drilling, wells and other infrastructure, as well as training the next generation of oil engineers. So the time lag on developing the new fields that have been found is going to be a significant factor too.

It also reminds us that 5% of global production come from one field, Ghawar in Saudi, and it is over 50 years old now and they are having to pumping 100,000 tonnes of sea water underneath it to keep the pressure up, it could fail at any moment. For all the high technology, satelite imaging and computer processing power we now have at our disposal the world has not found a new super giant field anything like this since 1961. Rather even than worrying where the peak is, perhaps the more pertinant question to ask  is ‘how much longer can we hope to sustain current levels of 86m b/d production?’. It is all starting to look a bit precarious.

We need to be scaling down our fossil fuel demands now, just on the scarcity issue, let alone the climate change issue.

One the climate change subject, if we aren’t all bored of having to repeatedly have those conversations over again on the subject -do check the Skeptical Science website.. sceptical of climate sceptics that is.. very well laid out arguments and data on the old Climate change chestnut. I  increasingly think that actually there is no point to trying to imagine we can find a cure the problem, everyone agrees to treaty on climate change any. its absurd. it matters not really, more is just going all out to invest in renewables and stop kidding ourselves. Peak Oil. Climate change.. whatever.. we just have to concentrate on fostering self reliance, re-localisation, stronger communities etc..low input, productive farming systems.. the rest will sort its self out then . eventually everyone will be forced to realise that low energy sustainable systems are not a political choice, or some kind of opinion, it is a simple imperative, based on physics and biology.

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$12 Million an hour!

Feb 10

Posted by Steven Jones in energy, global warming, peak oil, renewable energy, sustainability | No Comments

Sunset and Moonrise at the North Pole last week

With the moon at its closest to earth, sunset at the north Pole last week

Not really relevant , but I couldn’t resist posting this stunning image that has been rattling its way around the Internet all week. It is of sunset at the North Pole, with the Moon at its nearest point to earth – somehow it serves as a metaphor for the times we are in. Serious change is upon us.. the moon is at its nearest and the oil age is ending! One cycle leads to another.

$12 million dollars an hour!… That’s what the Chinese are spending on renwable energy generation and clean technologies at the moment, a recent conference heard

The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) has reported that China “doubled its entire installed capacity each year since 2005.” Last year, they became the largest wind market in the world, passing the U.S. and Europe.

The USA installed 9.9 gigawatts; they installed 13.

China is now also producing nearly 50% of the world’s solar cells annually, but that’s likely to grow to 70%. And they’re doing it more cheaply than their established German counterparts. (In fact, German companies have been finding it’s cheaper to buy from the Chinese than it is to make their own.)

For all the negative China stories ( they are building a new coal power station every 8 weeks or whatever) the reality is they are clear focussed on investment in sustainable energy; yes they have just signed a huge coal deal with (climate change denying) Australia (I wonder why) but a large part of that coal generated energy is going to be used to build renewables. (See Energy and Capital for source) and rest largely to make cheap throw away shit for the US/ EU market – because we are still suckers for that shit.

Not only that, but China is also planning to invest heavily in renewables factories and plant in the US, while the rest of the world is bickering about the details of climate change accords, it seems to me that China is going ahead full steam in converting its huge economy to be the first to really corner the renewables market. Maybe the whole AGW debate is a red herring, we dont even have to come with an agreement, or maybe we do but basically we just need to get on with it… but whilst the children in parliament bicker and fight we just need to get on with the inevitable.. oil is running out, the carbon age is over all bar the shouting and anyone who is not seeing the emerging picture really needs to go the opticians and get their eyes checked. (or their economists fired)

Invest in renewable energy generation and energy efficency, relocalise your food supply, and start researching into organics and teaching the nation permaculture design, anything else is simply a waste of time. We have been travelling in the wrong direction for a long time, and just because we as a nation and economy have so much invested in consumerism and oil use, still doesn’t change the fact that we have been wasting our energies going in the wrong direction and we have to change. As James Howard Kuntsler has said – the sub-urban consumerist economy has been the biggest mis-allocation of resources in our planet’s history.

$12 Million an hour.. that is serious investment and that is what it takes to turn this juggernaut around.. meanwhile we are pumping our savings and putting ourselvs in hock for a generation or more trying to prop up a collapsing economic paradigm. Oh yes lets us bail out the poor car industry….  no lets not!

Oil is not the future.. Greenpeace image

Oil is not the future.. Greenpeace image from a recent campaign

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Organic Gardening Courses at the Workhouse

Feb 8

Posted by Steven Jones in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Hot off the press! We are teaming up with Emma Maxwell and Coleg Harlech to offer a 20 week (60 hour) certificated course in organic gardening at the Workhouse. The course will be for 3 hours a week, on a Thursday afternoons from 12.30 – 3.30, and it is planned so that people needing to collect children from the local school can still attend.

Each week there will be a mixture of theory and practial and the course will be there to support you right through the growing season. (We wont be running sessions on the 2 weeks of the easter holiday and the half term week and there will be one practical saturday session in April (tbc).

Its £190 per person for the whole 20 week course, and the good news is that it will be straightforward to get funding via WEA or the ILA Wales. Prices are flexible (fixed by WEA) If you are retired on a penions or full benefits then it is £140. Those on means tested benefits (eg tax credits) then its £40 for the whole course. Those without any level 1 qualifications (eg GCSE) can apply for an ILA and get 100% funding for the course

Call them on their freephone number to apply for your grant. You can book your place via the Coleg Harlech.  We are just confirming all the details, so watch this space but I am keen to advertise the course as it starts soon.

20 Week organic gardening course

20 week (60 hour) organic gardening course at the Workhouse

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Arrogance, ignorance and greed

Feb 5

Posted by Steven Jones in Uncategorized | No Comments


New video for the protest song from Show of Hands.. says it all really…. ‘Your on your yacht while we are on our knees, You stop by every tough you pass to feed, with your arrogance, igoranace and greed’

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British topsoil ‘Gone in 60 years’

Feb 4

Posted by Steven Jones in Uncategorized | No Comments

Read this for the full article, which was in the Telegraph recently. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/farming/6828878/Britain-facing-food-crisis-as-worlds-soil-vanishes-in-60-years.html

Yes we have known about this a long time now in permaculture circles, but agriculture as we currently know is destroying our soils and although productive in the short term is the road to ruin. Intensive agriculture, ploughing, chemicals and all the rest is destroying soil structure and making them much more prone to erosion. An estimated 75 billion tonnes of soil is lost annually around the world with more than 80 per cent of the world’s farming land “moderately or severely eroded”, the Carbon Farming (http://carbonfarming.blogspot.com/) conference heard.  Also soil is a great store of carbon, and everytime we plough it up and expose it to sunlight much of that is oxidised and released back into the air. I am reminded of Arthur Hollins’ book; The Farmer the Plough and the Devil. Arthur of Ford Hall farm Shropshire was a pioneer of zero tillage agriculture, and his life long experience as a farmer convinced him that ploughing the soil is the very worst thing we can do to it.

To quote Bill Mollison, co-founder of the Permaculture concept, “If we dont stop agriculture then we are all dead!”… dramatic words perhaps, but in the light of the terrible damage we are doing to our ecological capital I think this is something we need to pay close attention to. Once again i am reminded that while we have been so fixated on the remaining stocks of our non-renewable resources like oil and various metal, it is the potentially renewable ones like topsoil, water, fish and trees that are actually the most under threat. I don not know of another system other than permaculture which spells out exactly how we might respond to challenges such as these.

Come on the May 2 week permaculture design course at the Workhouse to find out more and to meet like minded people.

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