F SOFT

ﬂy, before other kg 'of money, time,

{project in Prince s'ti'tute, a nonprofit and education in ellatter course of WV-

ch in keeping with ch had originally 55,, by a ,Canadian a brochure on the i fisheries and rlosophy in these mile and improve, laced by efficient, powered by the d, and biological

. be energy self- swere designed to rthe living quarters estic hot water. A

7/

rwere installed to ur wrndmills were 1l for the Ark but to '3' grid.

ever, not merely as ‘- more ambitious 9 to New Alchemy IIfe-support system getables and edible ‘5 ~a new kind of rdrnary people can Ilike into their own _3 resource-scarce ‘C'ally opened in l Pierre Trudeau qutant moment in find” that the Ark

5possible to make a ccess of the Ark

“35 on ‘ nhg eaccording

rr"her-rt tastes, and cOntinued federal

rolect now comes '

Fulﬁof Man and “.Strtute blavind a

e DFOject has been '

ave been a little .

diminished but still active'role'

Generation of electricity'b'y'vvind power has proved troublesome. Only one of the four planned windmills has been built (costing more than half cf the 'Ark's total construction), and that has been, plagued by technical problems. Despite reportssto the" Contrary, no electricity has been fed into the provincial grid (in fact, no hookup yet exists), and the Ark has had to rely to an embarrasing extent on outside power. The prqteinfrich tilapia, the "tasty warm-water fish" that the Ark planned to raise and feed to its residents, died without a single one reaching the table.

Although John Todd. hasdescribed communal life

“on the Ark in seductive terms ("livingand working in a

place where the sun, ,.wind, architecture, and ecosystems operate in beautiful conCert has affected most of us”), government officials concede that the social experiment has not worked. When a writer visited the Ark a few months ago,a group of New Alchemists had lunched not on tilapia but on local lobSter, and the ‘pr0ject's last full—time resident had just moved out with unconcealed relief. Like other full-time ’residents she had found the unremitting stream of visitors that the Ark has attracted to be an” unscheduled and trying experience.

Yet it would be wrong to brand the Ark a failure. It has had its successes. The solar-heating systems have worked well, and the organic greenhouse has been conSpicuously Successful, providing vegetables for both residents and local markets throughout the year. Despite the untimely demise of the tilapia. the aquaculture experiment is now successfully raising trout, and promises to provide valuable data on new methods of fish-farming in the province.

l’n‘brief, the leSSOns of the Ark to date are simple ones: one cannot ‘expect to pioneer techniques without encountering, problems, and even "low-technology"

systems geared to generating renewable energy on a" smal:;scale, basis require careful experimentatiOn and/

deve opmerif"'

~7— About 80 km-from the Ark, in a historic red brick was? on 'Ch‘a rTOtte‘to‘vvn's waterf-ronti‘ And rewJWelR wrestles with bigger and more urgent problems in renewable energy. As executive director of the province's Institute of Man “and Resources, Wells has the responsibility for developing and promoting_.ways of increasing P.E.l.’s self-reliance through the careful use of its renewable resources.

Although the institutejs; mandate allows it to examine energy, food, shelter;~ and transportation, the primary focus is on energy, and it is easy to understand why. With the exception of a‘ small amount of'lmported electricity, Prince Edward Island is entirely dependent fer its energy on crude oil -— and imported crude at that Its vulnerability to any interruption in world oil supply is great.

Adding to the provinces’5 energy problems is the

fact that its major industfy, agriculture, is energy

demanding to a degree unknown in most other regions. P.E.l.'s famous red soil, thei‘pride of many a tourist brochure, is, in truth, in;-desperately poor heart.

Depleted by decades of uninterupted potato growing, its 1

mineral content is so low that the nutrients have to be added. Under the best of circumstances, it takes a lot of energy to produce food, In P.E.l.’s._-case. it has been calculated that it takes anything from five 'to 20 calories of energy from petroleum-derived sources for island farms to produce a single calorie of food.

Thus, no other province in Canada has more

incentive than P.E.l. to develop its renewable-energy resources. "I spmetimes think", former Premier Alex

' Campbell has commented wryly, "we are so farbehind

in this province that we are ahead." As far as renewable energy is concerned, at least, he could be right.

- Including its supervision of the Ark project, The Institute of Man and Resources is lookingat seven areas under a federal-provincial program of reneWable energy development. Priority is bei ' given to establishing woods as an energy source, ,4.E.I. has about 600,000 acres of woodland — more thdh half the land area of the province. In normal commeﬁial terms. most of it is useless. More than a centbiy of "high-grading" (the practice of felling only the m9 valuable trees in an area and leaving the remainder) " léﬁ mmme's forest

with genetically degradedtimber that badly needs to be cleared, ,but no one wants to cut it. ~

_WTHE UPEI SUN Thursda ov.3o,l978,-age 15

Magma Is 9.12 Que/"p.11! 01/19 Jig/1110': 1.126., germ; '

Aprogram of foreSt clearance could provide'an interim sdurce of Wood-chip fuel that would, at the same time, allow the planting of fresh strains of genetically superior trees. These in turn could form the basis ofta renewable source of island energy. Such a program—couldalso work wonders for the island's economy interms of job creation and reduced imported e‘r‘rérﬁ‘ibillscflittle wonder thatff’E :lt-h'as beendescribe‘d' as being "at the leading edge of renewable energy development in Canada.”

Despite his enthusiasm for wood fuel and other renewable energy sources, however, Wells says that the chances of P_.E.l. becoming self-sufficient in energy in the future are "quite remote”. The need for crude oil will remain, he says, until some fluid fuel such as wood-derived methanol can be developed'to replace those petroleum-based fuels that account for about 35 to 40 percent of the island’s energy.

And, notwithstanding his support of the Ark, Wells has reservations about some of the aspirations of the more radical advocates of the conserver society. "I believe in the prudent use of our resources and try to conduct my own life accordingly. I worry about where some aspectsof our technology are leading us.

"But, at the same time, I am concerned with another aspect of these new Thoreauvians. Most of them are middle-class, comfortably raised people who have, for one reason or another, been able to opt out of traditional jobs and who believe that other people should do the same thing. Most of the rhetoric we have heard about the conserver society has come from that kind of person, one who is able to take the time to tinker with solar collectors and wood stoves. They don’t realize that most Canadians have to work long hours to feed themselves and don’t have the time to devote 'to this kind of activity."

Wells’ pragmatism finds a ready echo among federal energy planners in Ottawa. The understandable enthusiasm that members of the government's renewable energy resources branch display toward the potential of solar, wind, and biomass energy does not blind them to the fact that it will be a long time before Canada can look to renewables for a major contribution to its energy budget. -

No one is more enthusiastic or more pragmatic thar Dr. ‘ Harry Swain, the federal government's Senior advrsor in renewable resources. A most untypical civil

servant, he spends a good deal of time bombarding

private industry with money-making ideasain the

CONTINUED ON PAGE ,‘I6