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Showing results 6 - 10 of 82 for the category: Technology.


20 Oct 2011

The first Transition podcast! A visit to the Tres Hombres, tasting a revolution in shipping

Last week I did a course with the Media Trust on how to make podcasts (highly recommended).  So, here, with some fanfare, is the first ‘Transition podcast’, I hope you like it.  If so, do embed it in other places.  It means I spent the time I would spend writing editing pieces of audio.  Let me know what you think.  So, the podcast is about a fascinating morning I spent visiting the sailing ship Tres Hombres which visited Brixham earlier this week.  It explores the potential of sail-powered shipping as the price of oil rises and the economy tightens.  It’s an exciting story.

Here are some photos to accompany the podcast….

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18 Oct 2011

Community Renewable Energy Finance 2.0

Today’s post is by Fraser Durham of Anahat Energy, and suggests a different model for community renewable energy finance, which could be very useful for Transition initiatives. 

In a world where income disparity is increasing and social regression is inherent in the current structure of the UK’s Feed-In Tariff (FIT), we need to rethink how community renewable energy projects are structured & financed to ensure full community benefit lies at the heart of the process and that energy reduction is still focused upon as part of a community “power down” process.

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22 Sep 2011

A Story of Transition in 10 Objects: Number 3. Part of an old gas lamp

Here is the third film in the ‘Story of Transition in 10 objects’ series, this time looking at a part from an old Victorian gas lamp from Malvern. You will be able to read more about this, and many other Transition stories, in the forthcoming ‘The Transition Companion’.

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5 Jul 2011

The potential of natural materials in retrofitting our homes

I have, on occasion, reflected here at Transition Culture about how the natural building movement, with its leaning towards natural building materials such as straw, clay, hemp and so on, has yet to really explore how those materials might be used to retrofit existing homes.  Virtually all of the work done around those materials focuses on new build, but finally, it seems some work is happening on retrofits.  An MPhil dissertation done at University of Cambridge by Keven Le Doujet entitled “Opportunities for the large scale implementation of straw based external insulation as a retrofit solution of existing UK buildings: how much of a good idea is it to externally insulate existing UK buildings with straw bales?” explores this very question.  It is a fantastic and comprehensive piece of work which is a pleasure to read.

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21 Jun 2011

Reasons to be Cheerful. Chris Bird on Transition Town Totnes’s Ashden Award

TTT's Fiona Ward accepts the Ashden Award from Kevin McCloud.

On Thursday 16th June Grand Designs TV guru, Kevin McCloud, presented the Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy and Behaviour Change to the Transition Together project run by Transition Town Totnes (TTT).   The award, worth £10,000 plus support and mentoring from the Ashden Trust over the next 12 months, came just 18 months after TTT were awarded £625,000 as part of the previous government’s Low Carbon Community Challenge. This money made it possible to scale up the previous Transition Together programme and make grants available to install solar PV systems in participating households (you can read Ashden’s very thorough case study here).

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