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The
Camphill Community is a charitable organisation which cares for people with special
needs or a disability within the supportive community environment where able bodied
and those less able, physically or intellectually work, live and play together
as one. There are 90 Camphill Communities of varying sizes in 20 different countries.
The Camphill Community at Ballytobin outside Callan in Co. Kilkenny is one of
the biggest in Ireland with 90 people living in a campus of buildings over a 20
acre site, with several dozens more working in the community during the day. People
live in a variety of accommodation around the centre and there are several communal
buildings, such as a school, offices, catering facilities and a meeting hall.
The community places an emphasis on sustainable living in all its activities.
Some years ago
when the community decided that their old meeting hall had been outgrown by the
numbers in the community, they decided that they would like to both design a new
building which would be sustainable in all the senses and be relatively cheap
to heat and run.
In September 2002 the community officially opened their
new very beautiful building.
The circular building is almost totally constructed
of timber, was designed by a locally based architect in close conjunction with
members of the community.
The hall is interesting from many aspects, but
of specific interest is the fact that its heat needs are supplied from a centralised
heating system using as fuel cow slurry and other organic waste. |
Ballytobin living quarters heated
by biogas |
Cow slurry being unloaded at
biogas plant | The
process was grant aided by a number of agencies including Barrow Nore Suir Rural
Development (BNS) through the LEADER II programme, which provided substantial
part-funding of several aspects of a very innovative project. Support for 'innovation'
is the major driving force behind the LEADER programme for rural development and
BNS were delighted to be able to assist a project as pioneering on so many levels,
including environmental, social and economic. The community can now heat their
buildings through the centralised system at a much lower cost than if they bought
in the energy in a conventional manner. | The
process known as anaerobic digestion is a very simple natural process where bacteria
operating in the absence of oxygen (anaerobic) breakdown the slurry and organic
waste into a gas called biogas (mostly methane with some carbon dioxide) leaving
a virtually odorless liquid behind which can be used directly as a land fertilizer
or processed further to remove the solids for use as a garden soil conditioner
- a moss peat substitute. An added advantage of the anaerobic digestion system
is that the liquid is much more effective as a fertiliser for the farmers and
with little odour, there are less reasons for the general rural community to complain
either. In time Camphill hope to market some of the liquid as a garden fertiliser
which will complement their soil conditioner product. Camphill
has an arrangement with three local farmers who supply slurry to the biogas centre
where it is pumped into sealed vessels which draw the gas off. The gases is then
used as fuel to heat the buildings in Ballytobin and there are advanced plans
to use the gas to make electricity which will be both used within Ballytobin itself
and to sell to the electricity grid. As the community now uses 150,000 kilo watts
units of electricity and 500,000 kilo watts hours of primary energy for heating
per year this will be a considerable saving for them and to the environment. The
site where the biogas plant stands is surrounded by trees so as to be as unobtrusive
as possible. However to construct the plant some of the trees had to be felled,
some of the bigger trees are now the central supporting pillars of the new hall,
proving that this community takes the issue of innovation sustainability seriously.
BNS and LEADER are happy to assist them. | | |
