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Pers walked us through the Kortright Centre. A solar powered Living Machinefacility, which processes all waste water requirements for the center, was recentlyadded. This very impressive building, funded by the steel industry, is a giant solarpowered greenhouse. Within the facility, a Living Machine quietly processes theCentres sewage into clean water. This system is powered by a solar photo voltaicand solar hot water heating system integrated with the building structure. Theelectric system is inter-tied with the power grid system so that the electrical meterruns backwards during the day when the solar panels are generating more powerthan the Centre needs.Next on the tour was the self -sufficient demonstration cottage. This small buildingprovides working examples of both grid connected and off -the-grid solar powersystems. Inside the cottage are examples of a small composting toilet system, anefficient wood stove, wind -up radio, and natural passive solar heating throughorientation and windows on the south side of the structure.Just past the demonstration cottage are four structures for teaching students how tosetup and install photo voltaic power systems. Further on down the path arefacilities that demonstrate the full integration of solar panels into the buildingstructure. The first structure integrates conventional aluminum framed cells as theroofing material, simply laid together and sealed. This integration was done aroundeight year ago and still functions well as shown by the demonstration inside thestructure. Beside this structure is a new three-year-old demonstration of a roofshingle system with embedded photo voltaic cells. This system, although providingless energy per square foot, provides for easy integration wherever roofing materialexists.We sat with Pers in the demonstration cottage to discuss our power requirements.Pers showed us some of the other projects he had done. Most were in quite remotelocations where off-the-grid systems were required. Recent projects, like the strawbale Meadowood house in the large city of Mississauga near Toronto , were gridconnectedsolar power systems. It is comforting to know that a large number ofpeople are starting to do this without any support from government or society ingeneral.We had already decided to implement a grid -connected system to which Persresponses became quite simple. How much do you want to spend? The basicprinciple is that since the grid can supply as much energy as you need, you are onlygetting the photovoltaic and w ind power generators to make a statement. In my235