Electrifying Everything

I’m carrying the Olympic torch on an electric scooter today. I figure it’s a good opportunity to get people that aren’t normally dialed into the climate crisis thinking about zero emissions vehicles, electrifying transportation and especially to start talking about the massive electrification project that’s going to be needed.

Many thanks to the folks at E-Ride, the Vancouver Electric Vehicles Association and VANOC for making it happen. What a way to spend my Birthday!

I’ve found even talking with people that are supportive of a clean energy transition, it’s clear that we haven’t yet done a good enough job explaining the need for mass electrification for transportation, heating, industry etc, etc.  More than 3/4 of our energy consumption comes from fossil fuels even in a hydro-rich province like B.C.. All that carbon pollution needs to be eliminated. We’re going to need a large increase in conservation and electricity generation from renewables.

Electric vehicles are a great symbol of this electrification project. If we want to get off fossil fuels, we need to use energy much more efficiently and replace fossil fuels with renewables. But the clean sources that people think about (wind, solar etc.) all generate electricity. So until we figure out other zero carbon systems like hydrogen and/or sort out the problems with liquid fuels from biomass, we’re largely talking about shifting things that run on gasoline and natural gas to electricity.

When vehicles switch from gasoline to electric, the energy needed to drive a kilometre falls by 75% because electric motors are so much more efficient.  And if the electricity is generated without carbon emissions then we’re off fossil fuels entirely. And all this doesn’t even touch on the many other benefits such as using vehicles as “batteries” for the power grid – so called vehicle-to-grid or V2G.

So there are huge gains to be made by electrifying public transit and personal vehicles. I imagine commuters jumping on an electric scooter like my Olympic torch model and riding to a transit station instead of burning gasoline in cars every day.

There are positive trends in this direction. Vancouver is one of the first cities in North America to legislate plug-in capacity in new buildings.  Ontario, the U.S. and other jurisdictions have announced large incentives for low emission vehicles. Whole countries like Denmark and Israel are setting up EV infrastructure. Project Get Ready by Rocky Mountain Institute, is a great campaign to move things along. But most governments are still much too locked into the freeway and fossil fuel mindset.

Here are the priorities as I see it:

1. Electrified and better public transit: New transit lines and secure funding for public transit (yes I’m talking road pricing and carbon taxes here). An end to freeway expansion. A rapid increase in dedicated bus and cycle lanes, and more restrictions on vehicle flows and access.

1. Move quickly to electric and other zero emission vehicles:  Aggressive government vehicle standards with timelines for the elimination of fossil fuelled vehicles. Steadily make fossil fuel vehicles less and less viable to drive, insure, park, or fill-up through carbon pricing, parking access policies and the like.

Investments, laws and policies. Always comes back to those. And they require a massive surge in public desire for the transition.  And to spark that, I think we need some ‘killer apps’ that people can get excited about – electric vehicles being a prime example.

You should be able to see it live on CTV at 10:23 Pacific.

More:

CTV News Feb 5

Vancouver Sun: Environmental crusader rides scooter with torch

Geek out on EV’s at Green Car Congress

Get the figures on EV’s at Environmental Assessment of Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles by the Electric Power Research Institute and the Natural Resources Defense Council

Bikes are electrifying: An electric boost for bicyclists, New York Times