If you want first-hand contact with solar energy, stop by 206 Lowe Street in Whitehorse. Touch the large brown metal panel on the front of the building, and you will directly experience the warmth that is now cutting energy costs for the owners of the building.

The panel looks like a piece of siding, but it is actually the Yukon's first Solarwall. The Energy Solutions Centre, one of the tenants in the building, paid for the wall as a demonstration project.

"We want to show that these walls can collect heat and we want to prove the efficiency of the wall in our climate," says Don Flinn, the managing director of the centre.

Even on overcast days, the metal panel, recently mounted on the sunny south side of the building, absorbs solar energy and warms the surrounding air. This warm air penetrates thousands of tiny holes in the cladding and collects in a narrow space between the wall and the building.

The heated air rises into the overhanging canopy at the top of the wall, where fans and dampers draw it into the building and the ductwork for the existing forced air system.

In the North, the energy needed to preheat the fresh air ducted into a building can make up a big chunk of the total heating costs. The Solarwall can warm this ventilation air by as much as 40 degrees Celsius, reducing the work load of the heating system already in the building.

The idea is so straightforward that one wonders why the Solarwall is a relatively new technology. "Great ideas tend to be simple," says Flinn, pointing out that it was invented by Canadian engineers.

The low-tech nature of the Solarwall directly contrasts with some of the very factors that have given solar technology a bad reputation in the past. Instead of expensive photovoltaics or fragile solar collectors, this product is as durable and basic as plain old metal siding.

It has been used as siding on everything from a Ford assembly plant in Ontario to a large Bombardier complex in Quebec. Solarwalls have also been installed on several buildings in the Northwest Territories.

Monitoring equipment has been attached to the panel on the Lowe Street building so that the centre can determine exactly how well it is performing and how much energy is being saved.

The walls also save energy by recapturing heat lost through the existing walls and circulating it back into the building, effectively doubling the insulation value of the wall.

Flinn says that Solarwalls are an obvious choice for many types of buildings, particularly ones like garages and grader stations that need lots of ventilation. "The walls allow you to increase ventilation without increasing costs," he says. "Often people are reluctant to bring in more air because they do not want to heat it."

While the payback on retrofit installations like this one might take awhile, the cost on new buildings can be recovered in two to five years. Flinn hopes that renewable energy products like this one will help convince Yukoners that the alternative energy field has advanced a great deal over the last two decades.

"Over the years a steady stream of people has come through the territory selling the latest gizmo, and some strange things have been suggested in the past," he says. "In the early 1980s there was a strong move for solar installations and many of them did not work well so they left a bad taste in people's mouths."

"We have lots of people coming in the door looking for new ideas and new technology, so now they can walk up and touch the wall and suddenly it all makes sense."

And he has no worries that the Solarwall might not live up to its advance billing. "It can't fail. There's no maintenance. It does not have any mechanical parts."

For more information on the Yukon's first Solarwall or other renewable energy options, contact the Energy Solutions Centre at (867) 393-7062.