CAT spin-offs

 The Centre for Alternative Technology is still regarded in some quarters as the cuckoo in the nest of Eryri. In his absorbing collection of accounts of the 35 years leading up to the second devolution referendum ("Brittle with relics - a history of Wales 1962-1997") Richard King draws attention to the fact that well-to-do English incomers founded the Centre. 

The Centre for Alternative Technology, initially titled the National Centre for Alternative Technology, was founded in 1973 at a disused slate quarry on the outskirts of the market town of Machynlleth, Powys, in mid-Wales by Gerard Morgan-Grenville, the great-grandson of the last Duke of Buckingham and Chandos.

It was initially seen as just another commune, an indulgence of rich English hippies. However, even as staunch a patriot as Cynog Dafis came to recognise the significance of their initiative and was for many years a board member of CAT, while recognising that

The contradiction was that all of this activity in Wales was happening in English and among English people, and among people from quite well-heeled backgrounds. We've been living with that contradiction ever since.

It is true that not all the incomers endeavoured to learn Welsh, and not all those that did persisted. More importantly, Machynlleth's guarded welcome turned to curiosity and involvement. When degree-level courses in sustainable technology started (an achievement in itself because CAT as an entity has never been rich), they attracted Welsh as well as English and continental European attenders. Local boy Owen Morgan was one such and became a successful solar power entrepreneur as a result. As is the way of these things, he had to emigrate to establish Cambridge Solar, but he ensured that another company he started, Exeo Energy, has a Machynlleth office and is keen to grow the Welsh language within the business.

Other spin-offs from CAT which have remained local are Dulas Ltd which has developed the world’s first mass produced solar powered vaccine refrigerators, and The Solar Design Company. I believe that, certainly in terms of return on money invested, CAT has created more lasting employment than the WDA and its ilk and their "screwdriver jobs".