Innovation Anthology #7:
When it comes to home heating, your furnace may soon go the way of the dinosaur. For the past five years, Dr. Kaz Szymocha
This scientist with the Alberta Research Council has developed insulating solar panels. These are can be retrofitted to the outside of your house.
The panels are lined with a dark material made of hydrated salts. The salts absorb heat during the day and transfer it to the inside of your home at night. Tests show the insulating solar panels may reduce the consumption of natural gas for heating by up to 48 percent.
KS: In Canada, about 30 percent of the total energy is used by residential housing. so there is a significant potential by everybody to reduce that if each house can reduce its individual consumption. With the solar system, we could cut those emissions by 6 tonnes per house, and this is very promising.
Dr. Szymocha says this will also help conserve natural gas for use as a feedstock to make plastics and other products.
Thanks today to the Alberta Research Council.
FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY, I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
Guest
Rod Ridley, PhD,
Alberta Research Council, Edmonton, A, Canada,
Sponsor
Alberta Research Council
Established as the first provincial research organization in Canada, the Alberta Research Council is 85 years old. The Alberta Research Council (ARC) develops and commercializes technologies to give customers a competitive advantage. A leader in innovation, ARC provides solutions globally to the energy, life sciences, agriculture, environment, forestry and manufacturing sectors.
ARC performs about five per cent of the roughly $1.5 billion in R&D done in Alberta each year, and generates revenues of approximately $84 million per year. ARC operates from five sites across the province in Edmonton, Calgary, Vegreville and Devon and employs more than 600 highly-skilled people.
In January 2010, under the new Alberta Innovation Framework, the Alberta Research Council was restructured and incorporated into the new provincial agency Alberta Innovates Technology Futures.
Program Date: 2007-02-06