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economist suntribune environment saturday april 14 2001 soaring energy costs drive interest in alternative sources bymikeadler staff writer the solar panels on the shed roof put out the same amount of power as they did in 1982 installed at the kortright centre for conservation in vaughan they formed the first roofmounted gridconnected solar energy sys tem in canada and those panels should work for another 20 years perhaps long enough to see solar and wind power in ontario move beyond the fringe of energy production in the meantime energy bills are going up and alex waters class es on alternative energy at kortright are selling out for years cheap electricity held wind and solar back but these cleaner alternatives are getting new life thanks to the bite of higher fos- sil fuel prices evidence of global warming and tales of the costs and chaos electricity deregulation brought to california suddenly such technology is within reach for many cottagers or those dogged individualists who want to live off the grid they usually choose a combi nation of wind power best in win ter months and solar best in sum mer its becoming more and more practical every day- waters a renewable energy specialist with the toronto and region conservation authority told a study group viewing kortrights working wind turbines arid solar energy collectors last saturday wind is the fastestgrowing way of generating electricity in the world waters said denmark gets a 10th of its electric power from wind turbines and hopes to get half by 2030 v windmills such as the ones that once drew water on many ontario farms have a set- of fan blades modern turbines built to generate poweri have slender propeller blades usually as few as two or three to choose your alternative ener- gy system waters said you have to understand the technology know how much wind arid sungets to your property and most impor- tandy you have to know how much energy you need the other thing you need is guts waters added when you have wind generators there are times you have to go to the top of the turbine tower to check it out turbines also have tails that take the blades out of the wind when they reach extreme speeds the centres 10yearold bergey turbine 60 feet tall and generating 10 kilowatts an hour has been brought down for maintenance checks every five years kortright which offers 14 sets of seminars each year on alternative energy was also the site of canadas first demonstration of solar shin gles two years ago the more we research it the more sensible it seems to become toronto residents judy and cameron gardner attended waters class because they want to build a house on georgian bay their site isnt serviced by the local hydro company so they weighed solar and wind against the consid erable cost of installing utility poles the more we research it the more sensible it seems to become cameron gardner said prometheus energy a york region business that is canadas oldest supplier of independent electrical generation systems installs them at 200 cottages and 20 homes a year mostly in remote areas off the hydro grid people are making the decision to go remote now becausethey know they can have a power sup- ply company president rob mcmonaglesaid suchsystems arent yet compel x itive with utility powei but eventu- ally they will catch up he argued ontario is heading for electricity deregulation and prometheus is not above using headlines about a deregulated californias electrical shortages and price increases to make a point the concordbased company which started in a forrher richmond hill gas station in 1979 has also sold its technology in at least 40 countries york waits to get wind of clean power by mike adler staff writer this summer toronto is getting its first wind turbine it will stand 20 storeys tall near the ashbridges bay sewage plant producing clean electricity from breezes blowing off lake ontario meanwhile pickering politicians heard last month their city might get its own waterfront turbine this year a prototype built by ontario power generation opg part of the former ontario hydro also has a wind farm several turbines standing at one of its nuclear stations set to start harvesting next year so when might york region cur rently merging its townbased hydro utilities into one company start producing some electricity from the wind not anytime soon suggests paul ferguson president of amalco the future regional utility its just pre mature to start actively getting involved in things like that he said this week waiting for approval one reason ferguson said is the timeconsuming task of setting the new utility up for business amalco a temporary name is waiting for official approval to combine the old hydro utilities of aurora markham newmarket and vaughan and to buy richmond hill hydro another problem is the wires- only nature of york region hydro companies opg and toronto hydro can build wind turbines and sell green energy to customers because they are licensed generators of power the york hydros except for one spe cial arrangement made for a new ibm lab in markham are not ontarios electricity deregula tion which should allow con sumers to choose green power makes it tough for amalco to start harnessing wind to run wind turbines the new utility needs to start a separate company for generating systems and that company must meet the requirements of the ontario energy board its more restrictive now than it once was argued colin parmenter president of richmond hill hydro ferguson said amalcos future business plans could examine alter native energy options and how much more people are willing to pay for them thats always the issue he noted introducing our registered dietitian sports nutritionist a srt sandra edwards rdproides nutrition counseling specializing in weighf management sports nutrition and facilitates group 0 hugs for betterhealthprograms at our unionville office excellence in rehabilitation since 1985 stop dietingstart living break the diet cycle rebuild your selfesteem enjoy healthiereating for more energy eat only when youre hungry v r t