A Cliftonville cafe has been turned into a windfarm workshop

Discovery Planet took over Cliffs cafe

Cliffs Cafe, in the Northdown Road,Margate, had a colourful makeover for two days last week, when Discovery Planet staged a takeover to give people the opportunity to learn all about wind power and engineering.

Event organiser Nikki Hildesley said: “We have the world’s largest wind-farm just off the Thanet coastline, which provides the UK with enough electricity to meet the annual electricity needs of around 60,000 households.

“That’s amazing, but it seems that not many people understand what the wind-farm does and what an incredible feat of engineering it is. We wanted to give people the opportunity to find out about this marvel on their doorstep in a fun and accessible way and meet some of the engineers who make it happen.”

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More than 150 members of the public and 300 children from schools, including Cliftonville, Northdown, Palm Bay and Drapers Mills Primary, attended short sessions on electricity generation from the University of Kent.

They then chose from a selection of junk modelling materials to make their own wind turbines with the help of working engineers from Vattenfall, London Array, the University of Lincoln and Kent and Medway STEM Ambassadors. The results were creative and ingenious and many of the youngsters said they’d like to become engineers themselves one day.

Participants also got the opportunity to meet representatives of Vattenfall, who constructed the Kentish Flats wind-farm. They were able to learn how to generate electricity using a hand generator, see samples of the cables which carry electricity to shore from the turbines, and discover what it’s like to climb a turbine using the very latest virtual reality technology.

The event was funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering and coincided with International Women in Engineering Day, which celebrates women’s contribution to engineering. It was made even better for visitors by the food and coffee on offer at Cliffs.

Discovery Planet C.I.C. was set up to bring exciting and enriching events to the heart of the community. To keep in touch with future events keep your eye on their Facebook page www.facebook.com/DiscoveryPlanetRamsgate