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Green Future Action 16 Pages + Sponsor Info “I really welcome this celebration of Cornish history and culture, but especially the link with climate change actions. We have a greater chance of changing our ways if young people stand up and take a lead, through just this type of educational initiative.” Edwina Hannaford, Cornwall Council Cabinet member for Climate Change & Neighbourhoods GREEN FUTURE ACTIONS 1st Edition - May 2021 This supplement is an adjunct to a larger book, about the man above - Joseph Treffry. But here, rather than looking back at his life, we are looking forward & asking one big question: - ‘What would he tell us to do, in order to meet the ambitious 2030 target for Cornwall to become Carbon Neutral?’ In the following pages, you will find a wide range of ideas. Some we know to be practical as they are being tested right now. Others may seem fanciful or crazy. But that’s fine, because we need not 100s but 1000s of ideas to be proposed and evaluated, very fast. If only a handful prove feasible then these Treffry flights of fancy will have been worthwhile. Find out more and sign your support online at http://www.betterways2learn.co.uk/green-campaigns/ © C. Stephenson 2021 Printed & Sponsored by St Austell Print Company SAPC is recognised as one of Cornwall’s most sustainable businesses GREEN FUTURE ACTIONS INTRODUCTION Joseph Austen Treffry was an exceptional entrepreneur and mining engineer from Fowey. Although he would not describe himself this way, he was a Green Activitist throughout his life. His special expertise was creating hydro energy systems (water and water wheels) rather than making power from coal and steam. He was so ahead of his time! CONTENTS Pages 3 & 4 Green Action ideas for Fowey area, linked to Episode 1 of Treffry Tales. Topics = Pasture improvements & carbon sequestration; tree planting & the Forest for Cornwall; methane reduction in dairy farming; hydro energy & storage around Hill Hay. Pages 5 & 6 Green Action ideas for Luxulyan Valley leat system, linked to Episode 2. Topics = Lower and Upper leats (1823 & 1839) + turbine 2006; analysis of water sources; proposals for types of wheel and turbine in new locations; link to Open University info. Pages 7 & 8 Green Action ideas for Par Harbour + other soon-to-be-redundant clay-drying and storing facilities, linked with Episode 3 tales. Topics = Building site waste management; new types of building materials & hydro energy storage; innovative green construction techniques; all-in-one insulated roofs; wind pods. Pages 9 & 10 Green Action ideas for long abandoned mine houses & shafts, of Episode 4. Topics = storage of energy, dropping weights down shafts; also super capacitor electrodes. Pages 11 & 12 Green Action ideas related to Granite and other rocks in Episode 5. Topics = mining opportunities today, geo-thermal energy & lithium brine, lithium rocks. Pages 13 & 14 Green Action ideas linked to Treffry’s legacies in Episode 6. Topics = 2 GREEN FUTURE ACTIONS 1 What would Treffry do for the FOWEY and GOLANT area, if he were alive today? First he would take a hard look at the farming practices on his land. We’ve heard how very committed he was to improving the soil with lime. This has recently been recognised as still relevant today:- Staying with farming, there are already experiments happening on dairy farms locally to gather data and establish baselines in a study of carbon sequestration in grass pastures. The image left is from an organic farm called Mossgiel in Scotland, to show us that dairy farm- ing is not so bad for CO2! Good quality grass- land can more than offset what cows produce. Although Treffry cut down some trees, we also know that in one season he planted 30,000! No doubt he would support & encourage Cornwall Council plans for a Forest of over 13m new trees. Where could the planting occur in this area? And more widely in Treffry territory? Search ’Grow more trees’ at Cornwall Wildlife Trust for advice. Another thing he might ask us to support is the very recent switch by Westcountry Mussels of Fowey, from seafood to seaweed farming, in St. Austell Bay. Again this links with cows! Experiments in California and Japan have shown that including some types of seaweed in food for cows, can achieve a great reduction in methane emissions. The most effective so far seems to have been a tropical red seaweed, but UK seaweed, such as kelp, may still produce good results. However, the commercial growth & harvesting of kelp could be damaging to habitats. And ironically, global warming may see a decline in kelp in our wa- ters. As with all new initiatives, it is often a question of weighing up conflicting require- ments. See https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fvets.2020.597430/full 3 GREEN FUTURE ACTIONS 1 Lastly, seeing on the 1908 map that there were 4 reservoirs on the hillside, from Trezare to Higher Penventinue, Lower Penventinue and a ‘Shipping Reservoir’ near Lescrow (now seemingly a storage unit for boats) what use is being made of the other 3? And where is the water, surely it cannot all have disappeared (a question recently posed to South West Water)? So could we pipe water in a ’penstock’ from on high, building up pressure for driving a turbine system close to Hill Hay workshops & Mill Pool Yard? We will elaborate on some of the technical aspects of this in Episode 2. Thank you for permission to reproduce this image from the U.S. Department of Energy (who incidentally have a rather impressive and fascinating section called the Water Power Technologies Office with an equally interesting annual progress report https://www.energy.gov/eere/ water/water-power-technologies-office-accomplishments- 2019-2020). The UK could learn from this! Although our government put out the statement below, in practice it is still way too hard to achieve. A wonderful end to this would be enabling a change of Fowey Town Buses to electric, powered by hydro, which would need grant funding & Cornwall Council support. If not viable, then there is a Western Power substation close by, to feed the grid and/or residences and workshops which could receive power. What next? Feasibility studies ... 1) Let’s encourage the farmers to work with the seaweed company & Exeter University. 2) For the reservoirs, keep pushing South West Water. Then, as Fowey is home to a company which makes wheels and turbines - www.freeflow69.com, let’s commission a feasibility study combining a hydro expert such as www.on-stream.co.uk in Devon, or (further away in Stroud) https://www.renewablesfirst.co.uk/project-blog/case-study- kenningstock-mill-river-camel-cornwall/ 4 GREEN FUTURE ACTIONS 2 What would Treffry do with the leats, if he were alive today? We would totally understand if he wanted to focus entirely on replacing the water wheel in the pit (wouldn’t we all love that?). But he was not emotional or sentimental; hence surely he would tell us to think more widely of locations and types of wheel or turbine. Doubtless Treffry would be disappointed that the successful ten years of turbine operation in Penpell Wood came to an end. But, in the longer term, perhaps that is not such a great location. What about others? Well, there will be major problems to solve, before any new installation in top or lower leat. First ownership of land: - the relevant areas are split between Cornwall Council, The Cornwall Heritage Trust and local private landowners … we have already heard how challenging that was 200 years ago, and it would be again. Secondly, previous flood risks:- residents in the Bridges area of Luxulyan would be totally opposed to re-starting the top leat, because it used to back-up and flood their houses quite regularly. Thirdly connection to the grid. Western Power has two different substations, previously connected into hydro turbines, close to Ponts Mill. They are on private land, but hopefully could be re-activated. Lastly and most critically, water supply. At least 50% of the water previously available has been switched off to protect the masonry of the aqueduct. But could more water be found? Further up the hill? Well, possibly. Suitable Poncelet wheel, from Free Flow69 When you read Episode 5 and see the aerial pics of 2 flooded quarries, it does suggest another option. There could be a steel or GRP (glass reinforced plastic) launder or large pipe, probably above ground, draining water from the quarries along the redundant Colcerrow tramway. Would this be viable financially? If it could be, then the wheel pit is much closer to the water source for a new wheel to be installed, instead of the 2006 turbine site. 5 Readers who want to explore this topic more widely, plus those touched on in the other Episodes, may like to search the excellent free Open University short courses, https://www.open.edu/openlearn/nature- environment/environmental-studies/introduction- sustainable-energy/content-section-0?active- tab=description-tab The other alternative must surely be to turn attention to the Par River below. This does not have the same ’head’ of kinaesthetic energy as the leat, from gravity, but does have a far greater flow. Any installation in the water would have to meet strict fish protection measures. If using run-of-river turbines connected to one bank, presumably a channel could be made along the opposite bank for fish. Could it be feasible to connect small turbines in series down the length of the river, accumulating power? A suitable model turbine might be the PicoPica 500 example left, made in Japan, designed for small scale low head environ- ments, generating up to 500W.
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