On Friday March 14^th two members of MEA's Carbon Forum team travelled north to the Knutton Village Farm Conference at Newcastle Community High School in Newcastle-under-Lyme. The purpose of the event was to raise the profile of the Knutton Village Farm project, and Carbon Forum were there to run a workshop on Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies.

The workshop started with a short presentation introducing the technologies and looking at energy saving measures, before the participating delegates were divided into two groups for the workshop sessions.

One group took part in an energy saving exercise that involved them doing a quick lighting audit to see how much money they were wasting by using incandescent bulbs; many who took part were surprised by the results.

The other group went out into the school's nature garden to see a practical demonstration of renewable technologies on a very small scale - our solar hot water and wind power demonstration kits! The solar hot water kit performed very well, particularly for an overcast day in March. The kits inspired lots of interest and an enthusiastic discussion got under way before it was time to reconvene for the end of the workshop.