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May/June 2001 issue	In this issue Table of Contents Editor’s Notebook Inside Story Feature: Solar power À la carte Reverberations

Power Switch | À la carte: Mapping the Wind | Home Costs | Windiest City | Facts and Figures

When tom touzel looks up on clear nights, he can sometimes spot a seemingly new star in the firmament — the International Space Station. And he feels a small tug, for the orbiting lab and his log house in rural Ontario are both powered by the brightest of heavenly bodies: the sun.

Last December, Canadian astronaut Marc Garneau helped install 74-metre-long solar panels to boost the station’s energy supply. In 1993, Touzel was among the first in Ontario to connect his solar panels to the hydro grid.

People far from utility lines have for decades used renewable energy — solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric — to power their homes. But Touzel’s was a rare arrangement, for it meant that on long, bright summer days, when the panels produced more electricity than he could use, "green" power was fed back into the grid.

Eight years later, traditional energy sources have never been more costly or uncertain. Going green, which has always made environmental sense, may soon make economic sense as well. Renewable energy has long promised a rosy future just around the corner. The rub has been cost and reliability; we Canadians like our power cheap and easy, and we balk at paying more for clean energy. Still, there are some encouraging signs that we are slowly moving in the right direction.

For the rest of this story, visit your local newsstand or go to our store to buy this issue.

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