Editor:
I'd like to respond to two letters which appeared last week, one asking why we want to export our electricity and the other questioning the feasability of using wind-generated power to fuel a fleet of electric cars.
The first writer, and apparently quite a few Islanders, given that the same question gets raised again and again, just doesn't seem to appreciate the technical difficulties of utilizing wind-generated power. Its main problem is the issue the second writer emphasized, that it is intermittent.
Since the wind doesn't blow all the time, any wind power we rely on has to have expensive (and typically environmentally destructive) backup. Modest amounts, like the 20 per cent or so of our needs that has been the target, can be backed up with imported power from the mainland and existing generating capacity on the Island, but much more is problematic.
New Brunswick or Nova Scotia are not going to keep substantial generating capacity idling in case we need it, at least not without a substantial price tag. So currently, plans are to export anything we can generate beyond that point.
If we could economically store wind-generated power of course, then we wouldn't have that problem. Although I gather some strides are being made with this on an experimental basis, unfortunately current technology is too expensive to do that.
However, this is one of the beautiful aspects of the electric car scheme Matthew McCarville wrote about. A fleet of electric cars would spend a good part of their time plugged into the grid doing just that - storing electricity.
Presuming we could meter and regulate the flow in such a way that they draw more when the wind is blowing, such a stock of batteries could allow us to substantially increase our utilization of clean, locally-produced power. Since the batteries would double as the fuel source for the cars, it would effectively reduce the storage cost problem to more manageable levels.
Like it or not, substantially higher prices for gas are in our not-so-distant future. We may have dodged the carbon tax, but anyone paying attention should realize that a cap and trade system for carbon is on its way which will eventually raise prices even more. A fleet of electric cars might still be a futuristic dream, but it won't hurt to do some planning in advance that might ease the transition when it does come.
Jim Sentance,
Department of economics, UPEI
