Fossil Fuel Free Tools and Transport
This one-day event hosted by National Trust Chirk Castle and the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley AONB team brought professionals and students together to explore the fossil fuel free (FFF) options for grass, scrub, leaf, tree and timber management, as well as a variety of transport options for personal, professional and off-road duties.
With equipment and expertise on hand from Clwyd Agri, Stihl UK, Avant Techno, Drosi Bikes and Sustrans, attendees spent the morning rotating around between workshops spending time understanding the current FFF options for tackling everyday countryside and conservation tasks. These included looking at the use of traditional techniques such as scything, alongside modern battery powered mowers, strimmers, brush cutters, hedge trimmers, leaf blowers and chainsaws. In the transport field attendees were able to try out e-bikes and e-cargo bikes as a FFF option for commuting and travelling between offices and meetings and talk to professionals using electric vans, UTV’s and loaders about their experience of this equipment in the field. The Avant e6 proved a popular piece of equipment with attendees trialling its mower, bucket and forklift attachments giving them first-hand experience of how capable the machine is, while in the timber management workshops attendees were able to see and try petrol and electric chainsaws side by side giving them the confidence to know which petrol machines can now be swapped out for a FFF alternative with no change in operational capability. Over lunch Stihl UK gave an insight into battery technology, charging and ran a Q&A session where attendees were able to get answers to many common battery questions such as battery life, capacity / range, recharge cycles and speeds and got to hear about some of the new technology coming to market and what the future might hold for battery technology.
The event was attended by professionals and students from Denbighshire, Flintshire, Conwy and Carmarthenshire county councils, Natural Resources Wales, Parc Cenedlaethol Eryri, Coleg Cambria, Brighter Green Engineering, North Wales Wildlife Trust and the National Trust with over 60 professionals and students booking onto the day.
