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Solar greenhouse at Shelter' Valley The cost of such a project has always made it prohibitive for the average householder since greenhouses traditionally rely heavily on oil heating during the long Canadian winter night} For some time Canadian researchers have been hunting for ways of overcoming the shortness of our growing season and one of the areas of investigation in which progress has been made is solar heating.The Brace Institute in Ottawa, for instance, has been studying solar energy and they _ Every horticulturalist has probably, at some time or another, dreamt of owning a greenhouse and being able to grow flourishing plants the year around. "iial, conféE with Cramahe council David A. Patriquin, com- munity relations officer for Ontario Hydro, met with Cramahe council last week to inform them of the progress of the Lennox to Oshawa 500KV transmissionline. , The township has made a variety of complaints to Hydro concerning its activities, Rubble has been dumped in culverts Heavy trucks have caused road damage. Brush burning has resulted in false fire alarms and at least one report of property damage to tiled farm land has been registered. The line passes through the northern part 0f the township and has necessitated easements and some land purchases as it passed through private township -iaFiiiuin" infiir"med council that Hydro will accept full West of Castleton, at Shelter Valley Organics, Mark Finnan is presently constructing a solar greenhouse and he is inviting local horticulturalists to visit for an inspection of the project. Mark hopes that some people in the area will become interested in building similar structures for themselves and he is willing to lend them whatever infor- mation they may need. The Shelter Valley Organics greenhouse is approximately 16 by 16 by 12 feet with a southern roof that slopes downward at an ' angle of 45 degrees. The structure is attached to the family house. Mark plans to have developed alternative energy systems for a variety of uses in Canada. responsibility for damges caused by its construction ac- tivities. He also advised council on the status of land transactions that have taken place. Some of these have resulted in severances that otherwise would not have been approved by the municipality. Patriquin explained that as the result of a Ministry of Energy hearing a certain number of landowners are now entitled to request the severances under The Expropriation Act. Although Hydro's intention originally was to negotiate easements through all properties crossed by the line, Patriquin said that the hearing chairman had granted severances to owners who requested at the lime of the hearing to sell their land to Anyone who might be interested in discussing solar greenhouse construction is invited to contact Mark at 344, 7662. The Energy Conservation Centre in Port Hope built a solar greenhouse along these lines during the summer .The cost was in the area of $1-2,000. The walls of the greenhouse are being insulated with styrofoam and fibre bags. _ In order to trap as much heat as possible during the day the greenhouse will have reflective foil on the back ceiling and 50 gallon water drums, painted black, will be used to collect the heat. Mark is also planning to build a wall of loose caged stones at the back which,he says, will retain a large amount of heatEventually, Mark hopes to have a fan at the top of the greenhouse to force the warm air into a rock storage area beneath the greenhouse which at night can be opened to let heat back in.At night he also plans to have a cover that will cover the -Exalite to prevent heat from escaping back through the plastic. cover the southern side of the greenhouse with a material,called Exalite; a plastic sheeting which,he says,has better insulating properties than glass and at the same time i? le.ss fragile. An insulating layer of polystyrene will be placed beneath the Exalite on the inner side of the wood frame. Ju,, I0 ,mq Hydro. Patriquin noted that the land sales thus transacted were of dubious benefit to the property holders since Hydro had agreed to pay them 75 per cent of the land value for the mere right to an easement, While unable to block the requested severaruees,Patr'rquit1 noted that council could reserve the right not to grant building permits in certain cases. The foundations for the towers have been installed and Hydro is presently waiting to award a contract for the manufacture of towers. Lines being strung from the western section of the projective expected to meet up with Cramahe towers later this year. The project, originally scheduled for completion in 1979 is now expected to be completed in 1980.