Renewables
Below is an attempt to summarise my experience working with and living with renewable energy. It is already out of date, incomplete, a draft version containing notes to myself and many acronyms, nevertheless I have it here on line as it may be useful…
Education:
MSc in Renewable Energy Systems Technology engineering (the CREST course), the première renewable energy engineering masters program in the UK (ongoing).- BSc in Physics, University of Kent at Canterbury UK (Graduated August 2000).
Solar PV:
June & July 2009: Driving Greenpeace’s solar truck, the Rolling Sunlight, 20, 000 miles in 60 days, following the Vans Warped tour.
November and December 2008, and March 2009: Building and testing of monitoring systems for large, multiple technology, PV systems on a major commercial retailer’s outlets for Perpetual Energy at three sites in Europe and one in USA.
I have completed the two CREST solar units (see above, under “Education”) and been involved with numerous solar PV installations, from a few watts to many hundred-kilowatts.
While at CAT I taught on solar PV and solar thermal courses and designed a solar practical session for the AEES MSc.
I was personally responsible for the installation of Greenpeace UK’s PV array at Glastonbury Festival 2005 and 2007.
I spent a month in 2008 touring the West Coast of the USA on the Rolling Sunlight, Greenpeace USA’s solar truck, collecting stories on global warming and climate change and talking to people about PV.
Technical Author on Biofuels and Biodiesel:
I am a respected specialist in the biofuels sector having designed and built site-specific biodiesel reactors, taught on biofuels courses in the UK and USA.
I was commissioned to write a book on biofuels, biodiesel and vegetable oil for McGraw-Hill; find out more and buy your copy here. Run Your Diesel Vehicle On Biofuels is now widely regarded as the definitive manual for DIY biodiesel production and vegetable oil conversion.
At the Centre for Alternative Technology:
- I lived and worked at Centre for Alternative Technology , CAT, in Mid Wales (UK) from 2000 until 2005.
- I worked for CAT’s Courses Department as the “Technical Course Coordinator” where I coordinated and taught on hundreds of CAT short courses and CAT’s Postgraduate Courses
- I also built, and still run, the CAT’s AEES course’s unofficial website.
- I lived at CAT for a number of years as a member of their intentional community.
Solar Thermal:
Solar water heating, work with CL and the VEHC, loads of stuff at CAT, teaching at CAT, running the Solar Thermal practical session for the AEES course, and the CREST Solar 1 and Solar 2 modules.
Wind Energy:
I have worked with Ecogen and Bro Dyfi Community Renewables on wind projects and accumulated a significant of practical experience of wind power while working at CAT. Below are four pictures I took while working on the 500kw Bro Dyfi Community Renewables turbine:
I have been involved with the erection of several met-mast, weather monitoring masts. Below are three pictures of a 60 meter mast we put up in Cornwall in 2008.
