Charging stations can be found outside Edible Canada on Granville Island

Dealerships across the lower mainland began to sell Canada’s first widely available electric car models this fall.

On Nov. 5, the provincial government followed the path of Ontario and Quebec by announcing a point-of-sale incentive program which could save consumers up to $5,000 on the purchase of electric vehicles and $500 on the purchase and installation of charging stations.

The B.C. Government’s incentive program is set to begin on Dec. 1.

Related:Toronto and Montreal miles ahead on EVs

Charging stations are more powerful than standard 110-volt outlets and can provide a full charge in less than 4 hours, making EVs a viable alternative for drivers commuting to work or running errands.

The City of Vancouver currently requires that all new multi-unit residential buildings have at least 20 per cent of parking stalls equipped with charging infrastructure.

Incumbent Vision candidate Andrea Reimer says this is one of the highest bars set in North America.

“We’ve been doing it since before electric vehicles were commercially available in Vancouver, so it’s challenging. There’s not a demand yet for it,” said Reimer.

“But our argument has been that the only way to have a demand is to also have a supply – people aren’t going to buy cars they can’t charge.”

Green infrastructure

The municipal initiative for Vancouver to become the greenest city in the world calls for 15 per cent of all new vehicles to be electric by 2020.

According to Eric Pateman, founder and president of Edible Canada, the cars will only find mainstream acceptance if owners have access to public charging stations.

“For electric vehicles to become more widely adopted there’s going to have to be the infrastructure there for people to drive and charge,” said Pateman, “because if you can’t, it’s fairly limiting.”

Pateman was one of the first local businesses owners to install dedicated electric vehicle (EV) stations for customers, which can be seen outside of his restaurant on Granville Island.

The City of Vancouver has installed charging stations at Olympic Village, Sunset Community Centre and City Hall. Stations can also be found outside a number of local businesses, including Edible Canada and the downtown Fairmont.

The Vancouver Electric Vehicle Association (VEVA) says that both government and the developers of charging stations need to recognize the unique needs of electric vehicles.

“Charging for EVs is not the same as pumping gasoline, and we have to stop thinking in terms of the last century’s conventional gas stations,” said VEVA spokesperson John Stonier, in a statement released after the provincial government’s funding announcement.

Questioning the charging station strategy

Non-Partisan Association council candidate Ken Charko says the city has a mandate to ensure charging infrastructure is in place. However, he believes that this is best accomplished through easing regulation and providing incentives to private firms interested in installing charging stations.

“What’s really wrong with the green movement, what’s really wrong with environmentalism right now is that people say: ‘if it’s green, let’s do it,’ and they don’t understand the difficulties that have to go with that,” said Charko, who was has been outspoken on the issue of seasonal bike lanes.

While the incumbent Vision council has implemented residential bylaws requiring charging infrastructure, Charko believes the city should primarily provide guidance for entrepreneurs and developers.

“The city shouldn’t do much, but what it should do is should provide the direction for those that know what they’re doing,” he said.

Appeal of green cars

City of Vancouver EV Fleet Vehicle, City Hall

Coalition of Progressive Electors’ (COPE) council candidate RJ Aquino says that he supports electric vehicles but that public transit is the most efficient, environmentally friendly way to travel.

“Many residents of Vancouver realize that we need to do our part for the environment and a big part of that is how we get around. Driving around in a car by yourself isn’t the most sustainable way to get around the city,” said Aquino.

Vision candidate Reimer agrees, saying that electric cars are exciting to some Vancouver residents but that their appeal is still somewhat narrow.

“We know not everyone’s going to get out of their vehicle in the next 10 years,” she said, “but we want to make sure that you have a way to do that that isn’t harmful to the environment or other people.”

According to Sean Allan, project engineer with BC Hydro subsidiary Powertech, the province is ready for electric cars to enter the mainstream.

“Electric vehicles in British Columbia make a lot of sense because we have some of the cheapest electricity on the planet,” said Allan, adding that most of the province’s power comes from hydroelectric generation.

“It doesn’t make any sense if you’re burning coal to make electricity to put into cars.”

EV parking spot in downtown Toronto, Flickr (Neal Jennings)

Sean Allan, an engineer for BC Hydro subsidiary Powertech, said prior to the province’s announcement that he believed that BC might be playing catch up with other provinces.

Related: First electric cars generate charging buzz

“The cars are definitely coming, but is the world ready for them yet?” asked Allan, “I think that British Columbia is possibly less ready than some other provinces.”

Montreal’s ‘Electric Circuit’

Hydro Quebec has been actively lobbying businesses to install charging stations for plug-in electric vehicles, including RONA hardware stores and the Metro grocery chain.

Throughout 2012, over 100 stations will be rolled out in store lots across Montreal and Quebec City. This “Electric Circuit” is being described as the country’s first charging network for EVs.

The program is also unique in that Hydro Quebec has implemented a $2 flat rate for each charge.

Most other public charging stations have either given away the electricity for free (like Edible Canada) or included it with their parking fee (like EasyPark lots).

Toronto links transit and charging stations

The province of Ontario made headlines late this summer when it announced a $430 million partnership with Magna International to develop and research electric vehicle technology.

The province will kick in $48 million to various research projects, helping to create an estimated 728 jobs in an industry hit hard by the recent economic turmoil.

The Greater Toronto Area has also taken steps to link electric car infrastructure with the existing GO Transit system. Between now and 2014, 10 communities with GO Train stations will have charging infrastructure installed in the existing train station parkades.

The historic logging boomtown of Port Renfrew is redefining its relationship with old trees.

Nestled on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island, the town’s livelihood and identity grew out of logging old-growth forests for most of the 20th century. Mechanization of the logging industry in the 1980s led to significant job loss, which forced the town to find new ways to thrive.

The community of less than 300 residents now relies on tourist dollars attracted partly by the allure of its remaining tall trees.

“We’re calling ourselves ‘a tall tree town’ now because I think it works,” said Rose Betsworth, president of the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber forged a new partnership with the Ancient Forest Alliance in 2009 after the Victoria based environmental group discovered an old-growth forest 15 minutes north of Port Renfrew.

Together they are pushing for full legislative protection of the 40 hectares of ancient forest, which the alliance named Avatar Grove in reference to the blockbuster movie with the conservationist tilt.

“We’re edging very close to protection status for Avatar Grove,” said Betsworth. “And if that happens it means all these other old growth have a chance. We want to showcase Port Renfrew and our old growth.”

Betsworth explains that the site of the future tourist information centre is a beautiful spot.

A joint fundraiser between the chamber and the AFA raised more than $6,000 for a new tourist centre in Port Renfrew scheduled to open in May.

“We’re a tourist community. We rely on tourist dollars,” Betsworth said. “We’ve forgotten about the logging part of it now.”

The value of old wood

Old-growth forests, with towering trees typically 250 to a 1,000 years old, provide homes for unique ecosystems.

More than 73 per cent of productive old-growth forests on Vancouver Island have been logged, according to the AFA website.

Worth more than $100,000 per log in the 1990s, old-growth trees fueled profits for British Columbia’s forest industry.

The industry continues to target old, large trees because they tend to be stronger than younger, smaller trees.

The coastal old-growth forests of B.C. absorb large amounts of water. That enables them to resist pests and forest fires and to grow up to 70 metres high. Their slow growth produces tighter growth rings and a higher quality of wood less susceptible to warping.

Dan Kuzman, a longtime resident of Port Renfrew, said that these old durable trees are important in the manufacturing of wood products.

This red cedar, at least 250 years old, was cut down less than one kilometre away from Avatar Grove.

“Normally you wouldn’t see an old-growth tree made into two-by-fours and two-by-sixes,” Kuzman said. “It would be large beams or good plywood…Window sills, door jams, that kind of stuff. It’s all old-growth.”

Specialty items such as guitars and marine lumber are often by-products of the ancient giants, said Kuzman.

Preservation of some of the old forests is important, he said, but he questioned to what extent.

“I don’t see why you can’t keep some of them,” Kuzman said. “But saving them for the sake of saving them is not enough.

“Having the province, or the people of the province, not being able to benefit from [old-growth] from the economic part of it is probably wrong, more wrong than taking it from the people who are looking at it.”

The value of old forests

Mark Haddock, an attorney with the Environmental Law Centre at the University of Victoria, said that B.C. has predominantly valued old-growth forests for their economic value.

“We’ve tended to view it historically just as a resource for lumber extraction, not really seeing the connections between the sorts of ecosystems that are represented by those forests and the animals that depend on them,” he said.

Species such as Roosevelt elk and northern spotted owls rely on the mix of new, old and decaying trees found in old-growth forests for food and shelter. The logging of B.C.’s pristine forests endangers these species as clear cutting continues.

Keeping old forests intact also does more to mitigate climate change than planting new trees. More carbon can be stored in the soil of an undisturbed ancient forest.

“I think the conservation biology is pretty sound,” Haddock said. “I think it makes a pretty persuasive case to me as a British Columbian that there’s real merit in protecting old-growth forests. Now that we are aware of these ecological values, how do we act?”

Current provincial protection for old growth forests is a matter of discretion by the government, Haddock said.

“There are rules that can and do protect old-growth,” Haddock said. “It’s just that the amount of old-growth, that is protected is not stated in any mandatory way. It’s a discretionary decision by the government.”

Watt overlooks clear cuts surrounding Port Renfrew.

The discovery of Avatar Grove by TJ Watt, cofounder of the alliance, and the subsequent barrage of media coverage triggered a public outcry to protect the remaining old-growth forests on the south of Vancouver Island.

Former Vancouver Island MP Keith Martin recently called for the creation of a national park reserve that would encompass the southern portion of the island and include Avatar Grove, which is only 25 per cent protected.

Companies continue to log giant cedars a kilometre away from the grove, Watt said, questioning how long the logging of old-growth forests can last.

“If they don’t have a plan and it’s not considered, what are they gonna do in a couple decades when they finish it?” he said.

“It’s not if, it’s when.”

By Lena Smirnova and Carrie Swiggum

Over the competition, students made pledges on how they would reduce their electricity consumption

Lucy Gregory discovered she doesn’t mind spending time in the dark.

Gregory, a first-year student at the University of British Columbia, was part of a UBC team that placed second in a new North America energy-saving competition that ended Nov. 20. UBC was the only Canadian university to participate in the three-week competition between 39 campuses.

“I don’t think I’ve ever showered in the dark before,” said Gregory. “I try not to take the elevator, but sometimes I get lazy.”

UBC’s Totem Park Residence, home to first and second year students, reduced its energy consumption by 16.3 per cent.

The 1,163 students at Totem ate and showered with the lights off as the competition pitted student residences against each other in an attempt to reduce electricity usage with a real-time online monitoring system.

Engaging students in environmental stewardship through initiatives such as energy-saving competitions is a key part of UBC’s Climate Action Plan, which developed out of government targets to reduce greenhouse gases.

Dorms emit the majority of universities’ CO2. Totem was targeted to reach students in their first year with the hope that they will develop energy-saving habits early.

“I think it made us feel more responsible for our space,” said first-year student Dallas Bennett.

Real-time feedback

The energy-saving competition was the first of its kind that allowed participants to track their energy usage online in real-time from a building dashbaord – a website with software showing graphs that compared energy reductions between the different buildings and schools.

Studies show that real-time feed-back on energy usage promotes motivation to reduce energy consumption.

A candlelit dinner in the cafeteria ended the competition the way it began

“Research shows that data tools are important for engagement. The real-time feedback gives a great visual reminder,” said Liz Ferris, the competition representative from the UBC Campus Sustainability Office.

Totem Park saved 9,111 kilowatt-hours and $546 and averted 519 tonnes of CO2 over the three weeks.

Students created a Facebook page that provided energy-saving tips and connected students to the website, which got its data from energy measuring systems installed in each of Totem’s six buildings. The systems will continue to measure electricity usage at Totem after the competition.

Quinn Runkle, from Common Energy UBC, said the amount of energy saved is exciting but not the main point of the competition.

“It’s more important how many students we engaged who otherwise may not have thought about sustainability,” Runkle said. “Studies show that energy-use increases after these kinds of competitions, but it rarely increases to what it was before the competition.”

Student-led environmental groups Common Energy and goBEYOND organized events like a camp-out and candlelit dinners to raise awareness about the competition they named “Do It in the Dark.” They encouraged students to use the stairs, share fridges, unplug their electronics and turn off the lights.

Black and white posters throughout the dorms tried to grab students’ attention:

“Hanging your friends out to dry is bad, but for your laundry it’s all good. Save money and power: wash in cold water, air dry your clothes.”

Unplugging the power

While the visuals provided tips and reminders, real action came from a sustained effort by students who took the lead in encouraging their peers. It was probably no coincidence that Haida house, the Totem building that won first place, was home to a particularly enthusiastic floor representative, Shelley Jiali.

“I’ve been going around hassling people, telling them to turn their lights off,” Jiali said. “I’m basically just being a big pest.”

Other students showed their enthusiasm, Jiali said, by unplugging the vending machine.

Dark hallways and bathrooms soon replaced the glare of fluorescent lights as students adjusted to – or at least tolerated – doing things in the dark.

“We just turn the lights back on when someone screams in the bathroom,” said Bennet, a first-year student at Totem.

Several students said they already turned off all their lights and used the stairs regularly before the competition. But one student, Spencer Murch, said the competition made a difference in how he now thinks about energy consumption.

“I started to make a more conscious decision about saving energy,” he said.

Green habits

Competition mascot, Phantom Power, reminded students that energy is wasted when appliances and electronics are left plugged in.

But some students wondered how much of a difference the competition made in changing behaviour patterns.

Jiali, for instance, said that when she brought out a drying rack it inspired the other girls on her floor to do the same, but she wasn’t sure if they would keep using it after the competition.

“Will I continue using it? I don’t know. I haven’t decided,” Jiali said.

One student, Jordan Dubchak, said that some people just don’t care, and probably won’t make an effort after the competition.

Her friend Madeleine Armour, however, disagreed and said that the habit of conserving energy has now been established over the past three weeks.

“If we keep doing it maybe others will,” Armour said, “and then it becomes a habit.”

Ferris said that the real success of the competition should be defined by the extent that students were engaged in thinking about broader sustainability initiatives. And awareness is the first step in changing behaviour.

UBC’s green initiative:

The blue whale washed up on the shores of P.E.I. in 1987 and was buried for twenty years to preserve the skeleton

A 25-metre-long skeleton of a blue whale stunned hundreds of visitors at UBC’s new museum last month. Large skulls, piles of bones, stuffed birds or meticulously assembled rodents intrigued people wandering through the maze of black cabinets.

Dimly lit windows offered peaks at jars filled with pickled snakes, lizards or fish that glowed yellow or red under the light. Some specimens are over 200 years old and extremely sensitive to light, so architects had to scrap original designs to make the cabinets entirely glass. Preservation was the first priority.

“It’s a fabulous collection,” said Rachel Pauley, a conservation student at UBC. “I’m excited for them to display more.”

The UN declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity, and last month delegates from 193 countries met in Japan at the Convention on Biological Diversity to negotiate a treaty protecting biodiversity around the world.

Just as important as government efforts to protect biodiversity are local efforts to make people care about biodiversity. UBC’s new Beaty Biodiversity Museum and Research Centre hopes to do just that by bringing out a fascination for the diversity of life on this planet.

Kudus, seen here in the Cowan Vertebrate section, are a species of antelope from South Africa

From fascination to appreciation

Eve Rickert, the museum’s acting director of exhibits and public programs, said that they want people feeling excited – not depressed – about biodiversity. She said that bringing out a fascination with species can lead to a deeper appreciation of the natural world.

Biodiversity, a term coined in 1986 by biologist E. O. Wilson, refers to the variety of life, whether through genes, species or ecosystems. The more diverse a gene pool or an ecosystem, the more chance of survival in the face of threats like disease or climate change.

Pollution, over-fishing, deforestation and climate change threaten biodiversity all over the world. The blue whale, like the one displayed in the museum, is just one of thousands of endangered species. A threat to biodiversity is a threat to human wellbeing, according to the World Health Organization.

Derek Tan, the museum’s digital media specialist, said the museum has a responsibility to address these issues.

“We don’t hammer people over the head with it,” he said. “Whether or not we should is another question … We focus on bringing you a sense of fascination and discovery.”

From the microscopic to the bigger picture

An interactive lab at the back of the museum allows children to get closer to the specimens through microscopes.

The different collections, some dating back to 1910, came together to aid the inter-disciplinary study of biodiversity by 50 scientists at UBC. The idea to share the collection of 2 million specimens with the public came later. The museum is unique, in that is it primarily a research facility.

The purple butterfly symbol represents The Spencer Entomological Collection which holds over 600,000 insects and invertebrates

“We are absolutely a public museum, but we do walk that fine line between public museum and research facility,” said Lindsay Burlton, lead interpreter and volunteer coordinator of the museum.

The museum’s goal, beyond showcasing its collection, is connecting the public to the research on biodiversity carried out in the adjacent research centre.

Cristina Petersen, a visitor to the museum, said that there could have been more information on the bigger picture of biodiversity, since many displays offered little more than latin names of specimens.

“I would have liked more explanation,” Petersen said, “like big posters showing life cycles and how we are interconnected.

“Everyone knows humans are at the top of the food chain, but it would be nice to see the way we are connected to these other species,” she said.

“With the new shift to environmentalism I would expect there to be more talk about the bigger picture.”

Shared heritage

The museum plans to incorporate themes on conservation, ecology and evolution. A tree of life display will allow visitors to find a common ancestor between themselves and a specimen.

For now, visitors can go to the theatre and watch a video showcasing researchers like Dr. Diane Srivastava. She researches the consequences of losing biodiversity. In it, she said that humanity’s connection to other species is more than dependence; it’s shared heritage.

“Each time you lose a species, you lose a page from a book,” Srivastava said. “So the story of life every time you lose a species is incomplete …

“In some ways that’s part of our inherited biological culture. It’s just as valuable as a painting in a museum or ancient architectural wonders. Every time you lose one of these its a travesty.”

Tankers can only use the narrows at high tide

Everyday in Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet, giant cranes move thousands of containers on and off cargo ships.

The rotten-egg stench from yellow sulfur piles fills the air. And tankers full of Alberta crude wind through the narrows.

There are also harbour seals bobbing up and down checking-out boats and hunting for fish.

Hundreds of commuters fill the seabus hoping to survive another day at the office or make it home for dinner. And dog parks and bird sanctuaries sit under-used and under-appreciated.

It’s a delicate balance between industrial progress and quality of life in one of the world’s most livable cities. That balance is being threatened by a recent decision to allow oil tanker traffic in the Inlet to expand virtually unchecked.

The Greater Vancouver port cities committee decided back in July not to question the rise in tanker traffic, despite a request from the Vancouver city council to seek public input on the issue.

North Vancouver Mayor Darrel Mussatto, chair of the port cities committee, defended their decision.

“The committee has no expertise to determine the role of the port municipalities in this matter,” he said. “Many issues regarding increased tanker traffic are beyond the scope and resources of the committee.”

City Councillor Geoff Meggs, a vocal advocate for further discussion on the tanker issue, questioned whether it was in Vancouver’s interests to ship tar sands oil to markets in Asia.

“We had hoped that [the committee] would consider the bigger question,” he said. “It is too bad they made that decision, but I respect that they may not have the resources at their disposal.”

Increasing Risk

The number of crude-oil tankers traveling through Burrard Inlet each year has tripled from 34 to 104 since 2007.

The number of tankers using the Burrard Inlet is set to increase

Kinder Morgan, operator of the pipeline carrying oil from the tar sands to the Westridge Terminal in Burnaby, plans to more than double its capacity from 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 700,000 bpd.

The result is the number of oil tankers traveling through the vulnerable ecosystem of Burrard Inlet will increase to 365 by the time the expansion is complete.

All the oil tankers navigating Burrard Inlet travel through the winding second narrows. The supports for the CN railway bridge crossing the channel reduce the navigable passage to only 120 metres.

Tankers can only use the narrows at high tide and even then there is only a two-metre clearance keel to ocean floor.

President BC Chamber of Shipping, Captain Stephen Brown, said that there is almost no risk of a major spill.But others dispute that assertion.

“When you look at increased traffic like the type were talking about in second narrows and the potential dangers I have to question it,” said oceanographer Peter Baker.

“Even in ideal conditions the risks are high,” he said.

Special Council Meeting

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson convened a special council meeting last summer to hear from shipping experts and environmentalists about the risks associated with the increase in oil tanker traffic in Burrard Inlet. The meeting followed increased public attention on the issue.

Tugs pull tanker away from Stanovan petroleum terminal on the south shore of Burrard Inlet

The council recommended the port cities committee further investigate the issue of oil tankers in two areas: opportunities for municipal and public input regarding increasing tanker traffic, and risk assessment.

Mussatto made it clear the port cities committee will not consider the bigger policy questions regarding the shipping of increasing amounts of tar sands crude out of the port of Vancouver.

“The committee will focus its efforts and attention on spill response efforts,” he said.

The port cities committee will conduct a simulation exercise in mid-December in collaboration with Port Metro Vancouver. The emergency simulation will assess response weaknesses and evaluate who should be responsible for what when there is a major spill in Burrard Inlet.

The simulation and risk mitigation are important. But the narrow focus will disappoint outspoken Vancouverites who believe that the city council and the port cities committee should be doing more to assess whether or not oil tankers in Burrard Inlet are worth the risk.

Hughes owns , a company that makes high quality, reusable bags in Vancouver. Her organic cotton totes hit the market at the right time: In 2004, plastic shopping bags had just become a environmental issue. She said that Me & You could barely keep up with the demand for its bags as consumers turned away from plastic.

High demand is still Hughes’ problem; unfortunately, the demand isn’t for her bags.

These bags may look like they are cloth, but they are actually made from plastic.

The reusable bag market has been taken over by bags that are flown in from China and sold for $0.99 at grocery stores. Most of these low-cost bags appear to be made from cloth, but are actually made from polypropylene, a synthetic plastic.

“I don’t think a lot of people get it when it says ‘polypropylene.’ I don’t think people actually understand it’s made from petroleum,” Hughes said.

bags are similar to conventional plastic bags, according to materials scientist Derek Gates. “The fact of the matter is that all of these synthetic polymers take a long time to degrade. Maybe 50 years, maybe 200 years, maybe much longer, ” he said.

Unlike plastic bags, polypropylene bags cannot be recycled anywhere in B.C., said Mairi Welman of the Recycling Council of British Columbia.

“When they bust a hole, it’s put some electrician’s tape on it or put it in the garbage,” she said.

Craig Foster, consultant for the Canadian Plastics Industry Association, explained the challenges of recycling polypropylene bags.

“You can’t grind them up in the same way you take a rigid container,” he said. “You’ve got all these strands and threads – they typically just bind up any machines they use.”

Foster questioned why Vancouver adopted synthetic reusable bags so quickly. “Nobody asked, ‘What do we do with them when they wear out?’”

“We’ve taken a product which people label as being bad, even though we had a recycling system in place that could manage it,” said Foster. “We took it out and replaced it with something we can’t reprocess which now has to go to landfill. How do we win?”

The plastic bag and pouch manufacturing industry in Canada is worth approximately $2 billion annually, according to Industry Canada. The most , collected in 2007, shows a steep decline in net revenues and cut of more than 900 production jobs.

“If somebody loses a job in the plastic bag production industry, there’s no replacement job in the reusable bag industry because they all come from overseas,” said Foster.

Henry Wong, president of Solaar Portswear, has also been stung by the production of reusable bags in China.

Wong’s company manufactures a variety of textiles at a small operation in Mt Pleasant, including bags for Hughes’ company. Wong said business with Me & You has slowed since China started making reusable bags.

The tags on Hughes' bags highlight the fact that they're made locally

“You can’t compete with them. They’re bringing in those bags for under a dollar,” said Wong. “It’s all about dollars and cents now.”

It is rare for reusable bags to be produced in Canada. “We still stand apart, being made locally,” said Hughes. “When I go to Google and I type in ‘,’ it’s shocking how many you can get for 20 cents from China,” she said.

Hughes said that the people who buy from her understand they are paying for a more sustainable product.

“I’ve heard from people who bought them six years ago who say they’re still in perfect condition,” said Hughes.

Me & You bags range from $19.99 to $29.99.

Reusable bag alternatives

Follow these links for more information on , , and .

Plastic shopping bags by the numbers

• – Number of plastic shopping bags Canadians use each year
• – Petroleum energy from this many plastic shopping bags can drive a car 1km
• – It can take a single plastic shopping bag this long to break down
• – Proportion of Canadians who reuse their plastic shopping bags two or more times, according to the Canadian Plastics Industry Association.
• 32% – The number of plastic shopping bags in B.C. that get returned to a retailer after use, according to the
• 50% – The amount by which the Retailer Council of Canada and the Grocer’s Association of Canada have promised to reduce the number of plastic shopping bags they hand out in the next five years, according to the Recycling Council of British Columbia.

Vancouver arborists remove a diseased street tree

The high winds of the Easter weekend brought trees crashing down in Vancouver’s parks and across roadways.

In addition to appreciating the wrath of Mother Nature, you may have become more aware of our city’s trees.

This week Rod MacNeill takes a look a Vancouver’s urban forest. Listen to his report below.

The Statkraft power plant used to be a paper mill. Photo courtesy of Statkraft.com

In 1974 a researcher at the University of Connecticut submitted a paper to the journal Science. He claimed that large amounts of energy could be extracted from the natural mixing of fresh water and salty sea water that occurs at river mouths around the world.

The author, Richard Norman, was surprised when the manuscript was positively reviewed. He had submitted it partly tongue-in-cheek in response to the journal’s apparent affinity for publishing what he described as “outlandish claims”.

However, on looking closely at the numbers, he realized that this really could be a viable source of sustainable energy.

As a biologist with an interest in biophysics, he was aware of the “enormous amount of energy” involved in the mixing of salt water with fresh water, but also of a way in which this energy could be extracted via the process of osmosis.  During osmosis, water is transported through a wall while salt and other molecules are not.

Things have come a long way since then.  On Nov. 24 2009, the world’s first power plant aimed at harnessing this energy came online.

Statkraft, Norway’s national energy producer, is behind the project. After 10 years of research and $20 million USD invested, they will be looking to this experimental plant to show that this technology is commercially viable.

Free energy?

In the 10 minutes it takes you to read this story, 82 million mega joules of energy will have been dissipated by the natural mixing of fresh water and salty water at river mouths and estuaries all over the world. That’s enough energy to power more than 2,000 BC homes for a year.

To see where the energy comes from, imagine a tank with a partition down the middle: sea water on one side, salt water on the other. Remove this partition and the two liquids will spontaneously mix. At this point a physicist might tell you that there has been a dissipation of free energy as the liquids mixed.

Free energy is a lot like the proverbial free lunch in the sense that it’s not really free. Rather, it is the energy that can be extracted from the system during a reversible process.

The mixing as described above is not reversible, but if a reversible method of allowing salt water and fresh water to mix could be found, the ‘free energy’ could be extracted.

In theory, 2.2 kilo-joules of energy could be extracted for every liter of fresh water dispersed into the sea, equivalent to what you would get from burning one gram of coal.

Extracting the energy

The first ideas on how to go about extracting this energy came soon after the publication of Norman’s paper, from a researcher who was working on desalination – the process of making fresh, potable water from sea water.

Sidney Loeb was developing semi-permeable membranes that could act as salt filters. By pressurizing sea water, which requires energy, water would pass through the membrane, leaving the salt behind. They realized that this process should run equally well in reverse, with fresh water passing through the membrane producing pressurized salt water, which produces energy. This is the process at the heart of the new Statkraft power plant.

To get a better idea of just how this power plant will work, imagine again that same tank of water, now split into two by a semipermeable membrane.

Fresh water from the river fills one side, while sea water fills the other. Fresh river water passes through the membrane on its own, thanks to osmosis, which is driven by the difference in salinity.

The fresh water dilutes the salt water, but it also increases the pressure in the salt water chamber. The pressurized water can then be released through a turbine, producing energy in the same way as a hydropower station.

The pressure buildup is the manifestation of the free energy in the system. By introducing a semipermeable membrane, this energy can be extracted from the mixing process.

The technology at the center of osmotic power is the membrane. The speed with which it can pass water through will determine how much energy is produced, and whether the process is commercially viable.

Membrane technology

Karen Gerstandt is one of the researchers who worked in collaboration with Statkraft to develop new membranes. She explains that the membranes used for desalination that had been in development since the 70s were poorly suited to the application of power generation.

New membrane technology needed to be developed from scratch, and it was not until the late 90s that this research began in earnest.

The membranes produced and tested in the lab by Gerstandt and the group at the Institute for Polymer Research in Hamburg, Germany, are right on the borderline of what is required to run a commercially viable power plant. The the energy produced by the membranes depends on how quickly they allow water to pass through, and is measured in terms of the power produced by a square meter of membrane.

Stein Erik Skilhagen, head of osmotic power at Statkraft said that five watts per square meter is the magic power density that is needed. This has been proven possible in lab trials, and one of the objectives of the Statkraft plant is to see if it’s also possible in a full commercial power station.

Both Statkraft and the scientists working on the membranes admit that the large scale, real world efficiency of the membranes could well be less than what was observed in the lab. This does not worry Skilhagen, however.

He believes better membranes are not far off, saying “it’s just a matter of finding the right material. I just hope we can do it faster than has been the case with other renewables.”

Researchers too are optimistic about improvements in membrane technology.

Gerstandt is currently looking to nature for inspiration.

“Osmosis is a natural process, and there are membranes in nature 50,000 times better than what we can make in the lab,” said Gerstandt. She points to the kidneys and cell walls as examples where hugely efficient membranes play an important role.

This optimism suggests that even if the Statkraft plant fails to meet the five watt per square meter efficiency in this first installation, the problem could be easily resolved with the next generation of membrane technology.

Potential of osmotic power

The energy produced by mixing of salt and fresh water is huge. It is the ability of power producers to harness it that leaves some uncertainty as to how significant this resource really is.

According to Statkraft, in Norway alone they could generate 12 terra-watt hours annually, equivalent to 10% of national power consumption. Europe could harness 200 tWhs, while globally there is potential to produce 1200 tWhs, enough to satisfy the entire energy consumption of China.

Government and industry will need to get involved, Skilhagen says, for this renewable energy source to really take off.

“Although there has been a lot of interest from other power generators, the interest needs to be visible. Governments need to send clear signals to power producers that they support sustainable energy,” said Skilhagen.