The ESD MPhil students had a successful fieldtrip to Mid Wales at the start of April. The purpose of the Field Trip was to visit a number of organisations dealing largely in Development, Energy, or Sustainable Technologies mostly in the context of mid Wales.
The students visited the Severn Trent Water anaerobic digestion plant Coleshill, Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth, Rhiedol Hydro and Rheidol Wind Farm. They met entrepreneurs from Dulas (solar, biomass, wind and hydro technoloiges) and John Williamson, the architect of Canolfan Hyddgen, which is the first building in the world to achieve BREEAM & Passivhaus certifications simultaneously. The students will be reporting back on whether the core activities of these organisations can be scaled up or scaled out to achieve wide sustainability benefits to the UK or the developing world, how would such scaling be achieved and what are the barriers preventing this at present and how can they be overcome?