The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) ( cy, Canolfan y Dechnoleg Amgen) is an eco-centre in

Powys Powys (; ) is a county and preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain. Geog ...

, mid-

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, dedicated to demonstrating and teaching sustainable development. CAT, despite its name, no longer concentrates its efforts exclusively on

alternative technology Alternative technology is a term used to refer to technologies that are more environmentally friendly than the functionally equivalent technologies dominant in current practice. The term was coined by Peter Harper, one of the founders of the Centr ...

, but provides information on all aspects of sustainable living. It is open to visitors, offers postgraduate degrees as well as shorter residential and one day courses; and publishes information on renewable energy, sustainable architecture,

organic farming Organic farming, also known as ecological farming or biological farming,Labelling, article 30 o''Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 on organic production and labelling of organic products and re ...

, gardening, and sustainable living. CAT also runs education programmes for schools and sells environmentally friendly items through its on site shop, restaurant and mail order department.

History

Centre for Alternative Technology - geograph

Centre for Alternative Technology (28723902941)

CAT was founded by businessman-turned-environmentalist Gerard Morgan-Grenville, and opened in 1973 in the disused Llwyngwern slate

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...

near

Machynlleth Machynlleth () is a market town, community and electoral ward in Powys, Wales and within the historic boundaries of Montgomeryshire. It is in the Dyfi Valley at the intersection of the A487 and the A489 roads. At the 2001 Census it had a pop ...

(once served by the narrow-gauge

Corris Railway The Corris Railway ( cy, Rheilffordd Corris) is a narrow gauge preserved railway based in Corris on the border between Merionethshire (now Gwynedd) and Montgomeryshire (now Powys) in Mid-Wales. The line opened in 1859 as a horse tramway, runni ...

), where it occupies a seven-acre (28,000 m²) site. The organisation was originally known as the "British National Centre for the development of Alternative Technology". Inspiration for the early CAT pioneers included the then-recent books ''

Small Is Beautiful ''Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered'' is a collection of essays published in 1973 by German-born British economist E. F. Schumacher. The title "Small Is Beautiful" came from a principle espoused by Schumach ...

'', ''

A Blueprint for Survival ''A Blueprint for Survival'' was an influential environmentalist text that drew attention to the urgency and magnitude of environmental problems. First published as a special edition of ''The Ecologist'' in January 1972, it was later published in ...

'', and ''

The Limits to Growth ''The Limits to Growth'' (''LTG'') is a 1972 report that discussed the possibility of exponential economic and population growth with finite supply of resources, studied by computer simulation. The study used the World3 computer model to simula ...

'' as well as an aim to explore alternative ways of living. CAT was previously aligned to the Urban Centre for Appropriate Technology (UCAT), which was based in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

and has since evolved into the Centre for Sustainable Energy. David Lea and Pat Borer won the Gold Medal for Architecture at the National Eisteddfod of Wales of 2001 for their work on the WISE building at the CAT.

Visitor centre

In 1975 a permanent exhibition opened in order to generate wider interest. The site with of interactive displays is the largest tourist attraction in the area. It is open all-year except Christmas, seven days a week. It is a registered charity. The facilities and exhibits include: *the water-balanced CAT

funicular A funicular (, , ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to opposite e ...

, the Centre for Alternative Technology Railway * solar,

hydropower Hydropower (from el, ὕδωρ, "water"), also known as water power, is the use of falling or fast-running water to produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by converting the gravitational potential or kinetic energy of a w ...

and

wind power Wind power or wind energy is mostly the use of wind turbines to generate electricity. Wind power is a popular, sustainable, renewable energy source that has a much smaller impact on the environment than burning fossil fuels. Historically ...

*a low-energy house *a site-wide electricity grid powered by renewable energy *displays of organic gardening methods *a

hydraulic ram A hydraulic ram, or hydram, is a cyclic water pump powered by hydropower. It takes in water at one "hydraulic head" (pressure) and flow rate, and outputs water at a higher hydraulic head and lower flow rate. The device uses the water hammer ef ...

pump * strawbale and

rammed earth Rammed earth is a technique for constructing foundations, floors, and walls using compacted natural raw materials such as earth, chalk, lime, or gravel. It is an ancient method that has been revived recently as a sustainable building method. ...

buildings * Britain's largest green bookshop * Vegetarian/vegan restaurant * Events, activities and courses that take place throughout the year

Education

The centre offers a range of courses which are between a day and a week in length. Some of these courses are offered to the general public while others are accredited courses for professional installers. CAT is involved with school education through training teachers, producing materials and offering special tours and materials on site. The Centre includes a Graduate School of the Environment. It offers postgraduate courses in renewable energy, architecture and environmental studies. Since 2008 the centre has run a Professional Diploma in Architecture course in ''Advanced Environmental and Energy Studies'', which allows students to obtain an accredited Part II architectural qualification.

Wales Institute for Sustainable Education

In summer 2010, CAT inaugurated the Wales Institute for Sustainable Education (WISE), a large educational building designed as a case study of sustainable architecture. The building contains a lecture theatre and accommodation and demonstrates ecological building principles such as

passive solar building design In passive solar building design, windows, walls, and floors are made to collect, store, reflect, and distribute solar energy, in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer. This is called passive solar design because, unli ...

and

heat recovery ventilation Heat recovery ventilation (HRV), also known as mechanical ventilation heat recovery (MVHR), is an energy recovery ventilation system which works between two air sources at different temperatures. Heat recovery is a method which is used to reduce ...

as well as low-impact building materials such as

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin ...

, hemp,

lime Lime commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a color between yellow and green Lime may also refer to: Botany ...

and

. The external walls of the building are made from 500mm thick hempcrete, whereas the lecture theatre has 7.2m high walls made from 320t of

. A building management system is used to monitor a wide variety of parameters inside the building, providing data for research projects by CAT's sustainable architecture students. The building is used for teaching postgraduate degrees and short courses and is also available as a conference venue and exhibition space. In 2010 the WISE building was awarded the first place in ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

s list of ''Top 10 Buildings 2010'' and came fourth in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' ''Top 10'' list of buildings for 2010. It received a Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Award in 2011.Jonathan Glance
''RIBA awards offer a bird's eye view of British architecture''
The Guardian, 19 May 2011. Retrieved 2011-11-13.

Energy

CAT originally relied on a collection of water, wind and solar power, but following power shortages it began to receive power from the National Grid. Shortly afterwards, in 2004, a large new

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each yea ...

was built using funds generated by selling shares in the project to the community, Bro Dyfi Community renewables. From 2009 September onwards CAT has operated a

microgrid A microgrid is a local electrical grid with defined electrical boundaries, acting as a single and controllable entity. It is able to operate in grid-connected and in island mode.

system, which includes elements of on- and off-grid operation. CAT gets its water from an existing man-made reservoir in the slate quarry in which it is based and processes its own sewage in its

reedbeds A reedbed or reed bed is a natural habitat found in floodplains, waterlogged depressions and estuaries. Reedbeds are part of a succession from young reeds colonising open water or wet ground through a gradation of increasingly dry ground. As ...

Regional impact

The presence of the Centre in the Dyfi Valley has brought an increased environmental emphasis to the area, which is now designated as a UNESCO

Biosphere Reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

. In the nearest town,

, CAT plc formerly operated a wholefood vegetarian café and a separate shop. Following the closure of CAT plc the CAT charity retained ownership of the vegetarian cafe but subsequently sold it to its workers. The cafe is now run as a private enterprise but continues to operate as a vegetarian cafe. The wholefood shop was closed, since the building was not owned by CAT. However a new wholefood shop, Dyfi Wholefoods, was opened by the staff who were made redundant. An industrial estate (the Dyfi Eco Park) near Machynlleth railway station houses the offices of Dulas Ltd, a renewable-energy company founded by ex-CAT employees.

References

External links

*
CAT's Zero Carbon Britain project
{{Coord, 52, 37, 20.86, N, 3, 50, 29.55, W, region:GB, display=title 1973 establishments in Wales Appropriate technology organizations Architecture schools in Wales Buildings and structures in Powys Charities based in Wales Conservation in Wales Energy conservation in the United Kingdom Environmental technology Low-energy building Organic gardening Permaculture organizations Education in Powys Renewable energy organizations Sustainable design Sustainable technologies Sustainability in the United Kingdom Horticultural organisations based in the United Kingdom Machynlleth Welsh Eisteddfod Gold Medal winners