Yesterday, I had a "lekker dag" because I led my colleagues in touring Oude Molen Eco-Village, Lynedoch Eco-Village, and Klipheuwel demonstration wind farm (a tour which I organised).
See some of the photos taken by myself and Jeffrey Williams.
At Oude Molen Eco-Village, which is located at Pinelands in Cape Town, we were tour guided by John. He narrated the history of Oude Molen and Alexander Hospital. There are quite a number of projects that are running at the site, such as Organic Farming, art work, woodwork (to make garden furniture), music studios, horse riding, etc.
There are also future projects which will act as a model to be followed in South Africa. Such projects as Biolytix solid waste system linked to a Methane plant. This system will take in human solid waste and allow it to decomposed organically/naturally; the water residue after filtering could be used to flush the toilets, the dry solid waste could be burned to produce methane gas which can be converted into a cooking methane, and the humus (soil residue from the solid waste) could be used as a fertiliser in the soil. Oude Molen is also planning to use Air Cars within their site.
Lynedoch Eco-Village, which is located near Stellenbosch, was our next stop.
The group was taken around the Eco-Village which also houses the Sustainability Instute - the first International ecological learning centre in Africa. The Lynedoch demonstrate sustainability living, which is displayed in the green design of the buildings (recycled building material, mug bricks, skylighting, passive air cooling), use of renewable energy technologies (PV panels, Solar Water Heaters) and other sustainable technologies (e.g. biolytix waste system, bio-digester).
After introducing my Organisation, Ms Eve Annecke - the director of the Sustainability Institute and Lynedoch Eco-Village - presented the history and the purpose of this ecological village (Eve is standing next to me).
You can see two of the subsidised houses fitted with Solar Water Heaters (SWH); they are built using hydrophome (mud-and-grass) bricks. The indwellers make a significant cut on their electricity bill by using the SWH. On-site in the Village, there is a demonstration of RE (PV panel and small wind turbine) use to pump water.
After Lynedoch, we visited Spier premises whether they practise organic farming, waste management (seperation and recycling), RE (electric gates powered by PV power), card-key activation of the hotel-room electricity, etc. Below, look at the mud bricks that are being developed by local people; these bricks will be used to construct the African Cultural Centre.
We then droved to ESKOM's Klipheuwel demonstration wind farm, which is located north of Durbanville in Cape Town. Three wind turbines were mounted between August 2002 and February 2003 (all imported from other countries). All three of them have capacity to produce 3.1 MegaWatt of electricity. This is clean technology which does not emit greenhouse gases which contribute to global warming and climate change.
See more pics...
We all entered inside the Vestas V66 which is 66 meters tall with each blade 32 meters long. Wow! These things are really huge! (The technicians have proposed to install lifts inside the turbines as it's really tough to climb up inside these masts.)
I am climbing up inside V66...
