Diana's Science Festival Blog

7th September 2009

Day 3

Guildford Primary School

Today was a tour day, with one in the morning and one in the afternoon!

In the morning I went on the ‘Tour of renewable energy systems local to Guildford’ and the first stop was the primary school where 39 photovoltaic solar panels are installed in the roof. A digital board showed us how much power was being generated at the time we were there. As the day was a bit grey, 2.49 Kw of power was being generated by the panels with 5 Kw the maximum possible. We then left the primary school to visit a small scale hydroelectricity turbine on the river Wey. This water mill is owned and managed by the council and is helping it to meet the targets of renewable energy production. According to the engineer in charge of the project, the water mill has the capacity to power 50 average electricity consumption houses per year, saving about 120 tonnes of carbon per year.

Guildford Water Mill

The next stop took us out of the town and to a place quite curious: some old barns had been transformed in camping barns and are now able to accommodate hikers, cyclists and whoever wants to try this new concept of camping. Everything is being recovered as sustainably as possible and they even implemented a rain water harvesting system with the water being used for showers and toilet flushes. The visit finished in the Bricks and Bread Sustainable Living Centre where several businesses exhibit the eco products they have available to developers involved in the construction of eco-homes.

After this long tour and to switch off from my professional interests I filled the afternoon with “Guilford through the ages”. This walking tour showed me how Guilford has developed into the town it is today. We visited the Guildhall, the Abbot Hospital, the Saxon church of St. Mary, the castle and its grounds and stopped at historic sites in the High Street and surroundings.

After a tiring day, I relaxed in the evening by attending “Darwin’s unsolved problem” and watching the play “Three Women After the Soul of William James”

Camping Barn

Diana

Day 4