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| << September26, 2005 - Turtle Essays edition no 148 dated 26.9.2005 |
October11, 2005 - Turtle Essays Edition no 150 dated 10.10.2005 >> |
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Turtle Essays Edition no 149 dated 3rd October 2005 ** Want a Grand Tour of the Cape Peninsula visit : Http://www.turtlesa.com/Peninsula_tour.html to book your seat ** Turtle Essays needs more regular readers: Here is the subscribe address 50058-subscribe@zinester.com ** In this edition: Editor's Blurb Hopefield Wind Energy Editor's Blurb. Hi there folks. Welcome to all my new and regular readers. Its been a week of getting things done as I gear myself up togetting on the road with visitors to cape Town. Unfortunately there has been another shark attack in the Fish Hoek Bay where my cousins husband was attacked by a Great White while kayakking in the bay. Fortunately for Dave Wright, the shark, after overturning the kayak decided that the boat looked more appetising than he did and took a bite out of it before swimming off. Of course Dave after retrieving his boat from the shark has never rowed as fast as he did to get to shore in his life. A few months ago an elderly lady was not so lucky and got taken by a shark and has not been sen again. Its been school holidays here in Cape Town so my wife and I took a drive into the country and visited the windfarm at Klipheuwel and Hopefield on our way to Langebaan. You can find my articles below. Please enjoy. Geoff Fairman ** Hopefield. Hidden away in the Swartland half way between Malmesbury and Vredenberg is the little town of Hopefield. It's one of those places that if you blink as you approach the town you will be past it. The town has one main feature that catches your eye as you drive along the R45 road to Vredenberg and that is the local Dutch Reformed Church. If it was not for the DRC church and its parish which was established in 1851 the town would not be here today. The town started in 1844 on the farm Lange Kuil which is situated along the banks of the Zoutrivier. In May 1853 after a small village had grown up on the farm Lange Kuil permission was granted in the Government Gazette for a town to be established there. It was named Hopefield in honour of Secretary of the Government and Receiver of Revenue at the time. For the first 33 years of its existence the parish had no church building and eventually in January 1877 the corner stone of the church was laid. With the growing community in Hopefield the church was soon in need of extra space so about in 1910 two new wings and the steeple of the church were added. At the same time a new Forster & Andrews organ (one of only ten in South Africa) was also added. The enlarged church was inaugurated in December 1911. From the time of the establishment of the town till 1914 when the town was declared a Municipality the church maintained jurisdiction over all matters of the town. It even overruled the management committee elected by the inhabitants of Hopefield in 1903. Today however Hopefield has become the centre of an agricultural region serving farmers in the wheat and grain, dairy, meat, honey and waterblommetjie industries. It also has a modern retirement centre for the aged and an education centre. Being in the heart of a Fynbos region the town has become a tourist attraction for wild flowers with the veld transforming itself with spectacular displays during August and September each year. Hopefield is a nature lovers paradise with a large wetland area which attracts birdlife and provides trails for hikers to enjoy. The Commando horse and tractor trail has become very popular as it encompassses spectacular scenery that visitors would not otherwise see. Hopefield is hot in summer and is mild in winter making it an ideal place to visit during the cooler months of the year. Other than the Dutch Reformed Church there are a number of tourist attractions in the town which include a replica of an original ???hartebeeshuisie??? (reed house) and two historical Cape Dutch homesteads which have recently been declared national monuments. In the local information centre a replica of the famous Saldanha man and fossils of animals found at Elandsfontein a fossil park a couple of kilometres away are displayed. I'm sure that residents of Hopefield would enjoy a visit from you next time you travel along the R45 on your way to Vredenburg or Malmesbury. Lets see you there soon. Geoff Fairman ** Wind Energy Cape Town is lambasted by strong south east winds for most of the summer months and then in winter the wind changes and we have the north western gales hammering the Atlantic coastline. It is these winds that firstly Escom has tried to capture with its test facility at Klipheuwel and that Darling Independent Power Producer company, Darlipp will be trying to capture when it sets up its wind farm on a farm called Windhoek in the Darling area. South Africa has a growing demand for energy and current facilities will not be able to produce enough by the year 2013 to cater for the needs of all South Africas people. It is with this in mind that research has been undertaken by Eskom and the government to establish ways and means of meeting the energy needs of its people. Green energy as wind energy is called is a renewable resource and it is this type of energy that South Africa hopes to utilise in the future in an attempt to save natural resources such as coal. The Eskom research project near Klipheuwel is very impressive. It has three turbines, a Danish Vesta and two French Jeumonts which have produced a total of 9,826 GWh since the commissioning of the first wind turbine in 2002. The new Darlipp company estimates that the Darling wind farm will be delivering about 13.5 gigawatt hours per year, once established. Cape Town requires approximately 10 000 gigawatt hours a year so energy produced by the new wind turbines will not make a large dent in the supply. Darlipp will be installing four turbines in the first phase of their project and envisage erecting a further six turbines on the same site at a later stage. Before doing so they need to first establish what effect the turbines will have on the surrounding areas. With a target of producing 4% of total consumption of energy by other means (not nuclear or burning of fossil fuels) these wind farms if successful will go along way to meeting the governments targets. South Africa is also researching a number of other projects to produce electricity as well. The solar dish stirling system is one of them but tests using this method have been fraught with problems and low electricity production so a decision has been made not to continue with this method until viable technology can be produced. A pilot biomass gasification technology project is being established in the Eastern Cape. Energy produced from the gasifier will be utilised for development within a community living around around a sawmill in the Eastern Cape.. Ocean energy is also being studied as a primary energy source for utilisation in South Africa. Technology to harness the ocean's energy is being sought at present. Fuel cells are being investigated by University of the Western Cape . A prototype 50 W battery charger is currently being developed to be ready for demonstration some time this year. The government should be encouraged to continue with its research for alternatives to nuclear energy as Koeberg Nuclear Power station could cause major environmental damage to the Western Cape should it have a nuclear accident. We hope and pray that this will never happen. Geoff Fairman ** For my personal details, contact address, and warnings regarding products advertised in this ezine please read the disclaimers which can be found at: http://www.turtlesa.com/Disclaimer.html |
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| << September26, 2005 - Turtle Essays edition no 148 dated 26.9.2005 |
October11, 2005 - Turtle Essays Edition no 150 dated 10.10.2005 >> |
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