Plug-in fever catching on in Canada
I was delighted to see that the Plug-In Highway Network, led by the Centre for Sustainable Transportation at the University of Winnipeg, is holding a conference this November in Winnipeg, Manitoba, dedicated to plug-in hybrid vehicle technologies and policy issues. The PHEV2007 Conference, cleverly titled “Where The Grid Meets The Road,” will be held on Nov. 1 and 2 and aims to encourage collaboration amongst industry, academia, utilities and governments “to understand how PHEV technologies integrate into current and future transportation systems and the electrical power grid.” The goal is to establish a Canadian network of researchers focused on plug-in hybrid electic vehicles and who can review the on-going demonstration projects going on across North America. They also want to figure out ways of getting the Canadian government involved in pushing this concept.
Manitoba, by the way, has been way ahead on this issue in Canada. I was surprised to learn that the first plug-in hybrid conference was held at the University of Manitoba two years ago. Given that the province has ample hydroelectric resources, it’s a perfect candidate for a plug-in or all-electric vehicle infrastructure. In Ontario, the off-peak use of nuclear is another option that needs to be researched more thoroughly — an area that local utility Veridian and St. Lawrence College is tackling. The bottom line is that we’re starting to see some serious activity around the plug-in model. Stay tuned for some high-profile Canadian demonstration projects to be announced shortly.
BTW: If you’re interested in presenting at this conference, send in your abstract no later that June 1.
Oh, and here’s an article from CNET’s News.com earlier last month about plug-in hybrids and how they could turn motorists into energy traders. Cool.
Tyler Hamilton is a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
Kawanabe’s statement is annoying though....
May 4th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
The major barrier to the use of a plug in hybrid is that they are not mass produced, nor are they engineered for low cost. The major cost issue is the battery. The power companies should lease the battery for a monthly fee similar to the way the total electrical grid system is leased to the customer. When you move into a house you do not pay immediately for your share of the power transformers and generators. Henry Gibson
May 5th, 2007 at 2:17 am
Excellent idea Henry. I’ve just approached Vattenfall (utilities in Sweden) on this.
Also to assist us aquiring 5000 soft orders for phev’s with PML technology. This keeps the car-OEM’s car intact, only replacing the drive train. This is quite easy, since car-OEM’s already get the drive train from third parties. Imo phev-OEM’s or modifiers shouldn’t stretch the public’s potential for greening too far by offering a product with too many quite fundamental innovations. (ultralight, 3 wheels, 640hp , or no wheels)
This has a good chance to not attract the larger audience. And quick access to large numbers of vehicles (or any RES related phenomenon) is what’s needed to serve our Planet effectively. Khosla’s point.
Ideally we should sketch a road map to a Cradle to Cradle future. Since al these technical ponderings are merely tools to love all children. As long as we don’t know how to achieve that, we should try all paths that have a promise to get us there (Diane’s point).
What helps is keeping it simple
Cheers, Emil