General Motors, one-upping BMW’s announcement around its planned hydrogen-powered cars, plans to build more than 100 Chevrolet Equinox SUVs containing a fuel-cell propulsion system. The fuel-cell fleet will be manufactured in Oshawa, Ontario, with funding assistance from the provincial and federal governments. “A comprehensive deployment plan, dubbed ‘Project Driveway,’ is designed to gain comprehensive learnings on all aspects of the customer experience and constitutes the first meaningful market test of fuel cell vehicles anywhere,” according to a statement from GM Canada. “A variety of drivers, in differing driving environments, will operate these vehicles in three geographic areas where hydrogen refueling is feasible: California, the New York metropolitan area, and Washington, D.C.”

Would be nice to test them in Toronto, given that we supposely have a “Hydrogen Village” composed of a hydrogen filling station at Exhibition Place.

General Motors, one-upping BMW’s announcement around its planned hydrogen-powered cars, plans to build more than 100 Chevrolet Equinox SUVs containing a fuel-cell propulsion system. The fuel-cell fleet will be manufactured in Oshawa, Ontario, with funding assistance from the provincial and federal governments. “A comprehensive deployment plan, dubbed ‘Project Driveway,’ is designed to gain comprehensive learnings on all aspects of the customer experience and constitutes the first meaningful market test of fuel cell vehicles anywhere,” according to a statement from GM Canada. “A variety of drivers, in differing driving environments, will operate these vehicles in three geographic areas where hydrogen refueling is feasible: California, the New York metropolitan area, and Washington, D.C.”

Would be nice to test them in Toronto, given that we supposely have a “Hydrogen Village” composed of a hydrogen filling station at Exhibition Place.

I forgot to post this yesterday, but my Clean Break column in Monday’s Toronto Star takes a look at the Ontario Power Authority’s recently released Ontario “load forecast” discussion paper and its assumption that new lighting technologies — i.e. compact flourescent lights — will only offer a slight increase in lighting efficiency in the residential sector over the next two decades. I found this difficult to believe, and used the column to point out the many innovations around compact fluorescents, LEDs, silicon-based lights, and lighting systems based on fibre-optic cabling.

Are oil finds in the Gulf of Mexico making you optimistic about the world’s oil supply? Wake up — you’re dreaming. The Globe and Mail’s Barrie McKenna takes issue with those who dismiss peak oil theorists on the basis that new headline-capturing oil discoveries are an indication that we’re not running out of this black gold. “All these things are really just trees, obscuring the view of the horizon,” he writes. “Don’t let them trick you into thinking the landscape has fundamentally changed since mid-August.”

Are oil finds in the Gulf of Mexico making you optimistic about the world’s oil supply? Wake up — you’re dreaming. The Globe and Mail’s Barrie McKenna takes issue with those who dismiss peak oil theorists on the basis that new headline-capturing oil discoveries are an indication that we’re not running out of this black gold. “All these things are really just trees, obscuring the view of the horizon,” he writes. “Don’t let them trick you into thinking the landscape has fundamentally changed since mid-August.”