BC Hydro recently held an open house on the Site C dam proposal in Prince George.

Port Alberni News
July 4, 2008

BC Hydro recently held an open house on the Site C dam proposal in Prince George.

Hydroelectric power is still the cheapest and most efficient way to generate electricity.

The only downside is that you have to flood vast tracts of land to do so.

If you’re looking to generate the amount of power that Site C will — approximately 4,600 gigawatt hours (GW/h) of power per year, enough to power approximately 46,000 homes — you’ll probably need dozens of run-of-the-river plants.

Site C, a spate of wind- and solar-powered plants and run-of-the-river plants may not be enough.

Why? The greening of the world is why. Some think it is a fad, but the world is becoming more and more environmentally conscious.

You see it everywhere you go.The move to curb our carbon emissions is on.

That’s a good thing, whether it will have an impact on climate change or not.

While governments are sometimes slow on the uptake, the free market system isn’t.

The marketplace is adjusting to the demands of the public. Next year GM will put a limited number of new cars on the market, called the Volt, that will be, essentially, an electric car.

It’s different from a hybrid in that it uses an electric engine to power the car and a gas-powered motor to help charge the batteries.

It’s the same technology that has powered diesel-electric locomotives for years.

Will electric cars make a comeback?

Yes.So what does all this have to do with Site C?

Lots. If you think our lust for electric power is phenomenal now, just wait until we’re plugging in our cars every night.

Electricity will become the new oil.