Part Two: Okotoks, Alberta

Although Alberta is rarely praised for its environmental friendliness (think Fort McMurray's dirty oil sands), Okotoks has been called the solar centre of Canada. The city - okay it's technically a town - is located only 18 kilometers south of Calgary in the foothills of the Rockies and has a population of about 17,000.

Okotoks is home to the Drake Landing Solar Community, the first subdivision in North America using the sun to warm 90 percent of its homes and water. The community collects thermal energy during the summer and stores it underground and returns it to the homes as heat during the winter months. Each of the community's 52 homes is installed with a solar panel on its roof to store the sun's energy.

Although the community is small, Okotoks is a model for how an environmentally friendly community can be accomplished. The communities reliance on fossil fuels is greatly reduced, as is there green house has emissions.

Canada has been slow to embrace solar energy because of our obvious handicap - six months of winter with its clouds and snow cover - but Okotoks has proved that seasonal solar thermal energy storage is an effective and green way for Canadian's to power our homes.

By Allison Smith

Allison Smith
		About the author:
		Allison is a graduate student at Ryerson University in Toronto and the Green Editor for WOMAN.ca. She is a sometimes journalist who digs music and adventures. Her weaknesses include vegetarian food, men with beards and Ontario wines. She can be seen cruising the city on her bicycle, sipping organic coffee and dining at restaurants she can't afford. To Allison, the green movement has everything to do with moving towards a more natural way of life.
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