EXPLORING ENERGY EXPO AT THE HERMANUS FLOWER FESTIVAL
FERNKLOOF NATURE RESERVE, HERMANUS
25 – 28 SEPTEMBER 2014
09h00 – 17h00 daily
Flower Festival and Energy Expo: R20 adults, under 12 free
The fabulous Fernkloof Nature Reserve is the setting for the Hermanus Flower Festival which this year pays tribute to botanical explorers, both past and present. These are the people who found and named the thousands of fynbos species.
But the magnificent fynbos on display will only be the start of the exploration possibilities on offer.
The Whale Coast Conservation exhibit will explore the topic of the energy of the sun which was captured in plants over millions of years. These prehistoric plants were converted by pressure, temperature and time into the fossil fuels (oil, coal, gas) on which our civilisation now depends.
But reckless use of fossil fuels has contributed to climate change which is threatening the existence of life on the planet.
Climate change is real, it is happening, it is at least partly caused by humans and their use of fossil fuels. It has never been more important to generate electricity sustainably and to use energy wisely.
The Whale Coast Conservation Expo, Exploring Energy, will help us to explore ways of doing this:
- Discover the energy-wise technologies available to help us save electricity; save money; and feel good about reducing our carbon footprint.
- Explore how we have used different forms of energy in the past. For example, the development of the steam engine and its use of fossil fuels started the industrial revolution. The invention of the electric motor led to our total reliance on electricity as a source of power. The challenge now is how we can become less reliant on electricity from the grid so that when it fails we are not left totally ‘in the dark’.
- Relax in a typical domestic lounge that shows you how to keep the TV, decoder, WiFi, laptop and LED lights going during ‘load shedding’.
- Get advice on how you can incrementally become more self-reliant in terms of energy, according to your individual needs.
- Take the opportunity to make waves in a model of a wave energy converter and see how it will convert wave energy into electricity. Hermanus has its own innovative project underway to generate sustainable energy from the waves in Walker Bay. Mean Sea Level’s Wave Energy Converter is already under construction at Abagold and is an exciting innovation in clean affordable energy.
- Watch a model steam roller puff along and remind us of the huge role played by steam since the Industrial Revolution. Much of our technology today still depends on steam for generating electricity. The expo will pay tribute to some of the famous energy explorers such as James Watt.
- Learn how solar energy can be generated and stored in a battery to drive a model electric train. We pay tribute to men like Faraday who developed the electric motor.
- Find out how a photovoltaic cell actually generates electricity from sunlight.
To get the answer to these and many other energy-related questions, come to the Whale Coast Conservation Energy Expo at the Hermanus Flower Festival.
Entry to Fernkloof Nature Reserve and Flower Festival: R20, under 12 free. Entry to the Energy Expo is free.