Comment 6429

By on the grid (anonymous) | Posted April 18, 2007 at 02:17:52

unfortunately, building and driving reliable, practical, and economical electric cars is only half the problem. where the electricity itself comes from is still an issue. while i agree that there is surplus generating capacity at night on the grid now, whether that will be the case if everyone is plugging in at night is a different story. also, how much of this surplus generating capacity is "dirty." i worry that people will start driving their "plug in" cars 100 km then plugging in at work during peak hours necessitating more coal fired power and thinking they are saving the planet. i am not saying that more energy efficient vehicles are not a better idea than what we have now, i just think that if as many of us as possible started reducing the actual distance we travel in a day we would probably be way further ahead in the long run. this of course involves changing the way we look at mid density housing, RE-integration of residential, commercial, AND industrial and the necessity of rethinking industry to accomodate such a thought (i.e. zero emission production including sound and smell). there is no real reason other than habit that most people could not go weeks without needing to travel anywhere near 100 kilometers. sure, a whole lot of infrastructure needs to change but it works just fine in many, many places in the world, why not in our city? we just need to convince people that their lives are better if they can walk to the grocery store and their children's school and to work. and that life lived in a car is not living at all.

p.s. if anyone has any information about micro-cogeneration equipment for houses available in ontario please post a link.

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