Editor:
As Canada enters its 150th year, it faces no challenge more urgent or far-reaching than the reconfiguration of its energy supply. Increases in extreme weather worldwide, the size and number of fires in northern forests and myriad other signs confirm what climate scientists were convinced of in 1990: we must stop burning carbon-based fuels.
Fortunately, alternatives are available. Solar photovoltaic cells and wind turbines are now being installed faster than fossil-fuel plants.
The biggest remaining problem is storing the electric energy that is produced when the sun shines and the wind blows so that it can be used whenever needed. So far the only grid-scale energy storage technique is “pumped storage.” This employs a dam separating two water reservoirs, one higher than the other. When power is needed, water flows downhill through the generators; when there is excess power, the generators are used as motors to pump the water back up to the upper reservoir.
To implement pumped storage successfully, one needs two things: mountains and rain. As these are the two things that B.C. has in excess, we should begin to think of B.C. as the natural “battery” for the northwest quadrant of our continent: all that is needed is the extension cord. As modern, high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission lines can carry energy 1,000 km with only three per cent loss, there is no reason why, on windless cloudy days, BC Hydro could not provide power efficiently to Winnipeg or Minneapolis. Indeed, B.C. has another advantage: valleys. These give us enough storage capacity to skip the “pump” part of the cycle. We just turn off our hydro when solar or wind power is available from the Prairies. We can then use hydro turbines optimized just for generation, working at 90 per cent efficiency.
This idea and others about limiting climate change will be discussed at a public forum being organized by Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, MP, at the Sechelt Indian Band Hall, 6 p.m., July 25.
James and Christine Pawley, Sechelt
