Every revolution needs money. Environmentalists say that's what it will take to turn solar energy into the foundation of Ontario's power supply. They believe history is on their side - recent history. The first computer technology was financed by the U.S. military.

Keith Stewart
(Courtesy World Wildlife Fund)

Audio:
Mary Wiens talks to Keith Stewart (runs 7:15)
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Keith Stewart is a solar activist who wants the Ontario government to play the same role with solar technology. He's convinced it could produce another revolution. He's just had a couple of solar thermal panels installed on his own roof at a cost $5,700. They're hooked up to the water tank in his basement. Keith figures it'll take eight years to pay for itself. His next reno - solar electric. That could cost anywhere from eleven to twenty thousand dollars.

But Keith's not your average homeowner. He's a committed environmentalists. For most homeowners, the cost of installing solar is more than they're willing to pay.

Keith works for the World Wildlife Fund, one of 11 environmental groups that are banding together to try to force the government's hand. They want an environmental assessment of the government's 20-year energy supply plan, details of which were recently announced. The plan includes spending up to $83-billion on nuclear plants and fixing the province's aging electricity system.

Solar pioneers like Keith Stewart are convinced the government's plan underestimates the potential of solar energy. They want the government to take a much bigger role in turning solar energy into a mainstream option.

Stewart thinks a decentralized approach to power generation is better - the same way we have distributed computing power.
(Photography © Toronto and Region Conservation)

"We need government policy to make a transition," says Keith. "Some of this will happen in any event but if we want to hit a tipping point, to get a genuinely different system, we're not going to get that if the government takes several billion dollars and pours it into reinforcing the old system."

To Keith, it's simple. The government is trying to fix an old system, when he believes it should spend that money building a new system, from the ground up - a system in which home-owners, co-ops and individual companies generate much of their own power.

"It's almost as if our energy planners are looking at building mainframe computers when the world has moved onto laptops and Ipods," says Keith. "People were telling you that mainframes will always be needed. Not a lot of those people are still working in that industry if they haven't made the shift. Laptops do more than mainframes ever could. I think we're on the brink of the same paradigm shift in the energy field."

The U.S. military was the first to invest heavily in computer technology. Keith says the same thing is needed now for solar energy - money and rules that allow everyone to become a power broker.

"The same way the internet required some rules," he says. "Very simple so everyone could communicate with each other. We need clear rules to access the energy grid. Also providing supports which enable people to participate. Because we're either spending money on green alternatives or spending vast amounts on nuclear or fossil plants."

"They're still relatively rare," says Keith, "although the day we were having the panels installed, one neighbour walked by, and she said, 'Oh everyone in Portugal has those, no one has them here.' It's very common in Europe because energy costs are higher. The great thing about solars, it's very simple. Simple technology - the equivalent of a black hose out in the sunshine."

But solar panels are a lot more expensive than a black hose left to bake in the sunshine and for now, people like Keith are on their own when they open their wallets to buy solar panels. Proud as Keith is of his brand new solar panels, he looks forward to the day when they look as outdated as the computers that you sometimes see set out by the curb for the garbage truck.

"I'm hoping in ten years my panels will look like my old Commodore 64 - the kind that makes a wonderful doorstop right now, compared to the laptop I have upstairs. But someone had to buy the first Commodore 64."

Keith wants a revolution but he's not waiting for it to happen on its own. Keith's group, the World Wildlife Fund, along with ten other groups, wants the government to get behind those changes. Meanwhile, Keith's doing his bit to spread the revolution on his street. He's holding a solar panel party and inviting the neighbours to come marvel at the technology on his rooftop.