Eco-village Biogas Seminar with T.H. Culhane at Tamera Solar Village, Portugal

Have time at the end of this month? Have you been interested in visiting the Tamera Ecovillage Solar Test Field, with its amazing greenhouse and food waste heated Stirling engine and Solar Kitchen, constructed wetland water retention landscape and permaculture gardens, but wondered when the best time would be to make the trip? This is your chance! There is still time and space for you to become a part of the Global Campus biogas team and turn your European Vacation into "Spring trip to Tamera in Portugal" and come home a biogas apostle.

As part of the Tamera Solar Test Village Blueprint Workshop, the Ecovillage Network is giving everybody a chance this month to learn hands on how to build three different types of biodigester and becoming part of the small biogas trainer of trainers tribe in the Tamera Global Campus! Book your ticket now and join us!

Here is the invitation that has gone out to the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN). Please share it with everybody you know who would be interested in being part of this "(r)evolution":

"The ecovillages of Europe are becoming centers of hands­on knowledge about small­ and medium­scale biogas systems, which turn organic waste into combustible gas and rich liquid fertilizer. In April 2015, Tamera will host a workshop, covering several community­ scale biogas systems.

The seminar will be lead by Thomas “T.H.” Culhane who has been an educator promoting biogas for 6 years, showing people in slums around the world and in the global south, how they can produce their own energy for cooking, while at the same time disposing of their organic wastes.

In the Solar Village Testfield, a “gasometer” biogas design—built in cooperation with T.H.—has been in successful operation for over three years. It complements the Scheffler Mirror in our energy­autonomous Solar Village kitchen, especially on days without sun. Participants will be able to live and work with this system. Depending on participant interest, we will also have hands­ on experience setting up a “sausage bag” biogas system, learn how to make a Solar CITIES IBC Biogas system and go through a “dry build” training with a set of Puxin molds for a 10 m3 poured­concrete, in ­ground biogas system.

The "dry-build" of the Solar CITIES variant of the Puxin system (which enables 4, 6 and 10m3 concrete biogas systems to be made from the same molds, either above or below ground) is equivalent to the training you would get if you went to Shenzhen China for the Puxin biogas workshop -- except that Portugal is much closer to most of you than China! So join us for the most comprehensive biogas training workshop you can get on these three different types of systems outside of the "far east" and get trained to participate in the deployment of small scale biogas in Europe and around the world.

A full set of tje Solar CITIES Puxin steel construction molds will soon begin a tour of Europe, moving from ecovillage to ecovillage—accompanied by experts who will lead workshops on the construction and use of micro­biogas systems. Some of them COULD BE YOU!

This undertaking was initiated by T.H., during a recent Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) conference: He donated these steel molds to the network, to be shared among interested ecovillages. Ecovillages and other projects that want to take part need to pay only for their own construction materials, the transport of the molds, and for the expenses of the instructors.

Similar digesters have already been built in the Philippines, Iraq, Pennsylvania, Kenya, Brazil, and Palestine. These small­scale systems offer an alternative to the use of firewood in the Global South – in countries with limited sun, it's a key alternative to gas and electricity. T.H. is counting on the ecovillages of Europe to promote this technology in different regions.

This workshop will take place in Tamera, and will be lead by T.H. Culhane, with the team of Irma Fäthke and Frederick Weihe from the Tamera Testfield.

Dates: The 22th to the 26th of April (arrival on the 21st, departure on the 27th)

Room and board: 180.00 euros.

Workshop fee: 250.00 euros. Those able should please make a contribution of 250.00 to 500.00 euros, in solidarity with those on a more limited budget: This money will go to a fund to allow participants from crisis areas to join us.

For more information visit: [[{"fid":"900","view_mode":"content_medium","fields":{"format":"content_medium","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Another view from our animated tutorial on how to build a Puxin biogas system","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Another view from our animated tutorial on how to build a Puxin biogas system","field_folder[und]":"123"},"type":"media","link_text":null,"attributes":{"alt":"Another view from our animated tutorial on how to build a Puxin biogas system","title":"Another view from our animated tutorial on how to build a Puxin biogas system","height":225,"width":400,"class":"media-element file-content-medium"}}]]

For registration and further details, contact: Frederick Weihe, Martin Funk or Barbara Kovats at Tamera Solar Village or Tamera Healing Biotope 1 in Tamera Ecovillage, or by email at Frederick Weihe <frederick_a_weihe [at] yahoo.com (frederick_a_weihe[at]yahoo[dot]com)>