A recent report from the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions at the University of Victoria (A school that is nearly as good as SFU) claims that there’s enough under-used capacity in British Columbia’s energy grid to charge 2.5 million electric vehicles, nearly the current amount of vehicles on the road. The grid, which receives the vast majority of its power from hydro dams (90%) and other renewable sources, is being continuously upgraded and modernized by the BC provincial government who aim to have complete energy security with adequate backup and mitigation measures for the province as it continues to develop and grow. This is great news for Nissan, whose new electric model, Leaf, will be touring through the US for the next 2 months, with one stop in Canada. That stop is Vancouver. Another development that will surely help the launch of Nissan Leaf in the Pacific Northwest will be the creation of an electric car corridor between Eugene Oregon and Metro Vancouver. This is also good exposure for Vancouver as it moves forward with an asserting of itself as the greenest city in the world.

The corridor is largely funded by a $100 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (as a part of the recent stimulus funding) while Canadian taxpayer money similarly supports the creation of it here in BC. This has been criticized by some who think that increased transit, bike sharing programs, and urban density are more cost effective ways to reduce carbon emissions in the region and that the corridor may be greenwash. Some others believe that Nissan hedging its bets on friendly legislation, subsidies and infrastructure upgrades like the electric car corridors is risky, placing a lot of faith in taxpayers and governments to assist EVs breaking into the market. It’s true that electric cars, until they are produced and consumed in the millions, are going to remain relatively expensive. Mark McDade, Nissan Canada’s electric vehicle (EV) project manager made a blunt statement recently that subsidies and other forms of government help will be necessary if cars like the Leaf are to roll onto the market in substantial numbers. Without assistance they will remain too expensive and the fancy corridors we’re building will be full of very quiet recharging stations. Because Canada is such an energy rich country, it has largely been up to cities and provinces to help facilitate the changes that EV Cars need in order to attain real market presence. The Federal Government, for numerous pragmatic reasons, has been quiet on this front. (The massive geographic extent and therefore the cost of any automobile infrastructure upgrades on a national level for starters) Compared to past initiatives like Hydrogen fuel cells, electric vehicles have a simple plug and play refueling process, bypassing the largest stumbling block that other alternative automobile designs have suffered from.

The Nissan Leaf goes on sale in Vancouver starting in 2011. We’ll be the first market in the world in which it launches. After that it will be released in the rest of Canada and the world. According to McDade, the BC Government, BC Hydro and City of Vancouver have been “All hands on deck” even putting through legislation to ensure that electric vehicle power plugs are installed in all new homes and purchasing dozens of Nissan Leaf’s (Leaves?) for the provincial car fleet. Yes BC taxpayer dollars are going to make executives at Nissan very happy as we’re playing a major role in opening the door to the North American market for them, saving them a lot of money and effort. In the end though, I think the people of BC are more open to helping our province shift to an EV market as we’d probably rather fuel our vehicles with our own hydro-electricity than from melted tar pumped down from Alberta to Texas, refined and then sold back to us for 10 times as much. That’s just my opinion though, maybe there are some who like that.

Tags: BC Hydro, BC provincial government, British Columbia's energy grid, criticized, electric car corridor, electric cars, energy security, greenest city, Hydrogen fuel cells, Nissan, Nissan hedging its bets, Nissan Leaf, Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions, Pacific Northwest, SFU, subsidies, The Nissan Leaf goes on Sale in Vancouver, University of Victoria

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