moon phases

Even the self-proclaimed "Energy Capital of Canada" is feeling the recent power crunch. On July 23rd the city council in Calgary, Alberta, approved funding to retrofit all 49,000 cobra-head residential streetlights from 200-watt, drop-dish fixtures to 100-watt, flat-lens fixtures. The current lights send some rays horizontally and even up toward the sky, but the new full-cutoff lights will redirect all light toward the ground, allowing the city to maintain acceptable illumination levels despite the reduced bulb wattage.

"This is just the first step," says Alderman Bev Longstaff, who proposed the retrofit. She plans to pursue an anti-light-pollution law that will cover not only the city-owned lights but residential and commercial fixtures as well.

Alberta, like California, recently deregulated its power industry. "Energy costs have gone up considerably," reports S&T contributing editor (and Calgary resident) Alan Dyer. Ironically, the Calgary economy is booming as a result most of Canada's leading oil and natural gas producers, as well as Canada's largest coal exporter, are headquartered in the city. But the growth has strained the existing power plants, and while there have been no blackouts or brownouts yet, Dyer fears they will soon occur.

Calgary's decision is unique among recent light-pollution initiatives. It calls for the changing of all residential street lighting immediately; most cities replace their fixtures gradually, as the old ones malfunction. But what the city spends now it will recover later government officials project that each year Calgary can expect to save $2.1 million Canadian ($1.4 million US) in electricity. Even if energy prices drop to their previous levels, it will take only 6½ years to recoup the project's $7.8 million ($5.2 million US) cost.