Kynance Cove We are Green

The National Trust along with help from Objective One funding, Cornwall County Council and South of England Regional Development Agency have installed solar roof tiles on both the café and the cottage, which generates electricity to run the new toilet block and produces hot water for the café. The new toilet block is as environmentally friendly as possible and designed to be sensitive to this environment and to blend into the landscape. The walls are hidden behind traditional Cornish stone hedges of local serpentine rock. The hidden roof is alive with wild flowers such as tormentil, heather, housewort and yellow rattle.

The sophisticated Bio-Bubble sewage treatment deals with all the waste from the toilets and the café.

1. Waste is collected and aerated in a balanced tank.
2. A full load is then pumped into a biological reactor tank where it is digested by bacteria.
3. The treatment liquid is disinfected by ultra violet lamps.
4. The clean clear water is discharged.

On busy days this process takes just 24 hours. Over a year the treatment system uses less electricity than is generated by the solar tiles on the roof.

Finally, to conserve water the toilets are supplied by a nearby spring and uses low flush cisterns.

The café roof tiles are not just normal slates. They are PV (photo-voltaic) solar tiles, each one a miniature solar panel, feeding energy into the national grid.

The Kynance café is the first National Trust building to be roofed with PV solar tiles. The solar tiles generate more than five thousand kilowatt hours of electricity a year - enough to make 45,455 cups of tea, and supply energy even on cloudy days in winter.

The café and cottage roofs are tiled with 564 solar tiles supplying more than 5,000 kwh of electricity a year and saving 2,150 kg of carbon dioxide.

In addition the cafe building is kept cool in summer and warm in winter using using sheeps wool insulation, a completely natural product.




Please Click on an Image to view full size and more photos of the kynance site before and after the work. All these photos are used with the permission of The National Trust. © National Trust 2002. Reproduction of these images in any format is strictly forbidden without prior permission.

That's enough energy to light a three bedroomed house for 8 years, power a TV for 6 years, make 187,500 slices of toast or 16,000 microwaved meals. It is more than enough to power the Kynance bio-bubble sewage system, light the toilets and run the hand-driers. As well as having eco friendly toilets and solar tiles Kynance café recycles all its paper, glass, plastic bottles and aluminium cans and we compost all our fruit and vegetable waste.

Cornwall has a problem with rubbish, our landfill sites are rapidly filling up and during the summer there is 40% more rubbish than during the rest of the year. One tonne of recycled paper saves 19 trees, 32,000 litres of water and 4,200 kwh of electricity. One tonne of recycled glass saves 1.2 tonnes of raw materials and 150 litres of oil. The energy used to make one new aluminium can could make 20 recycled cans. Recycling one plastic bottle saves enough energy to power a computer for 25 minutes. One million tonnes of nappies are thrown away every year.