Banff Pork Seminar-Farmscape for January 18, 2006  (Episode 2029)

The Saskatchewan Research Council suggests the use of solar can potentially cut a swine barn's energy costs by anywhere from 30 to 50 percent and by as much as 90 percent in cases where that energy is stored.

Terry White, the Manager of Municipal Program Development with the office of energy conservation, on hand for the Banff Pork Seminar, estimates simple solar collectors can be 80 percent effective at transmitting usable energy from the sun to where it's needed.

Clip-Terry White-Saskatchewan Research Council

There's more solar energy falling on buildings in Canada than those buildings use in a year.

We just have to figure out how to design our buildings to better capture and use that energy.

If we design our buildings with orientation toward the sun with large thermal mass to absorb the solar energy during the heating season when it's available then we can be more comfortable in our buildings if it's for humans, or more cost effective in our buildings if it's for pigs.

To insulate properly, for example, if it's a concrete building insulate on the outside not the inside so that you're storing the energy.

Low temperature heat distribution systems make better use of low grade energy, alternative energy such as solar.

There are projects where they're using solar collectors in the summer to dump energy into the earth and then using heat pumps to bring it back from the earth during the heating season when it's desired.

That is the more expensive approach but it can be very effective, depending if you need that much storage.

The simpler method is just to design and build a structure so that it makes maximum use of the passive solar energy available and also effective use of low grade energy including solar.

White suggests, if you go with an elaborate system including earth storage, you could meet more than 90 percent of a building's needs through energy such as solar where as, with much simpler systems, it would still be easy to get in excess of 30 percent and probably 50 percent.

He believes we need to look to Europe.

He says, for the past ten years the Europeans have been using combination systems where they're using the solar energy for heating domestic hot water and also for space heating.

At the Banff Pork Seminar, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council