Calgary joins Edmonton with E-Busses

[tcp71]

It seems my tax dollars will be buying some electric busses.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/electric-transit-buses-financing-1.6686433#:~:text=Under%20the%20city's%20plan%2C%20the,per%20year%2C%20city%20administrators%20said.

Edmonton already does this, but adds gas heaters to heat the interior in the winter:

E-bus Revolution

There’s a revolution happening. It’s very quiet and is being led by Edmonton. In 2020, Edmonton Transit Service (ETS) added electric buses to its fleet, helping to reduce our emissions while lowering operating costs. Find out more about the e-bus revolution.

changeforclimate.ca

Edmonton Transit Service also found that battery performance suffers in the winter simply because passengers need to be kept warm. Robar’s team solved this problem by installing gas heaters in the e-buses for those really cold days, to take some pressure off the batteries.

Although field trials revealed that e-buses are able to negotiate the steepest hills in the ETS service area without suffering an adverse impact on range, they also demonstrated that the use of diesel heaters on an e-bus provides more certainty regarding the range of the vehicle, with minimal environmental impact. The operation of electric heaters requires about 20% of the energy stored in the batteries, further reducing the effective operating range of the bus. Evidence at other Canadian transit agencies that evaluated the buses in summer indicates air conditioning has a similar negative effect on range.

 

[fsdork]

The gas heater makes sense, especially in this climate. It essentially amounts to a fossil fuel powered range extender that only needs to be used when it's especially cold out.

Now if only we used nuclear instead of coal and natural gas for electricity...

 

[Snagglefoot]

Gondek declared a “ climate emergency “ the day she was sworn on as mayor, something she didn’t mention while running for election.

 

[Sedin26]

The gas heater makes sense, especially in this climate. It essentially amounts to a fossil fuel powered range extender that only needs to be used when it's especially cold out.

Now if only we used nuclear instead of coal and natural gas for electricity...

This sort of thing really makes sense in BC where pretty much all of the electricity comes from hydro...also, in a city like Vancouver, the need for heating and AC is much less so the supplemental gas heaters may not be needed.

 

[tcp71]

Gondek declared a “ climate emergency “ the day she was sworn on as mayor, something she didn’t mention while running for election.

Between infighting and her need to overstep municipal boundries, the council is completely ineffective. Calgary doesn't need to involve itself in Quebec provincial goings-on. They're like children slapping at each other.

No Calgary Taxpayer Money For Quebec

Sign the petition against using Calgary taxpayers' money to fund court cases in Quebec:

www.commonsensecalgary.com

'I haven't made a complaint yet': Gondek weighs in on Chu controversy

Mayor Jyoti Gondek said Saturday that she hadn't filed a complaint with the province on the latest controversy involving Coun. Sean Chu.

calgary.ctvnews.ca

Calgary councillor facing criminal charge in alleged road rage incident - Calgary | Globalnews.ca

Edmonton police have confirmed Ward 9 Councillor Gian-Carlo Carra has been charged with mischief under $5000 in connection to the incident on April 2.

globalnews.ca

 

[PimTac]

This sort of thing really makes sense in BC where pretty much all of the electricity comes from hydro...also, in a city like Vancouver, the need for heating and AC is much less so the supplemental gas heaters may not be needed.

It’s all back to the future. Vancouver BC used to have electric buses way back when. They ran off overhead lines. Seattle and Tacoma had the same. The whole region is blessed with an abundance of hydroelectric power.

They still need those heaters. When it’s both freezing and damp it feels really cold.

 

[Sedin26]

It’s all back to the future. Vancouver BC used to have electric buses way back when. They ran off overhead lines. Seattle and Tacoma had the same. The whole region is blessed with an abundance of hydroelectric power.

They still need those heaters. When it’s both freezing and damp it feels really cold.

Vancouver still has a lot of buses running on the overhead lines, mostly downtown. My assumption is that if the battery-powered buses prove themselves they would eventually replace the overhead line buses.

I agree a bit of heating is needed but I wonder if the reduced need would make them viable without gas heaters to supplement. I'm in Victoria, which is basically the same weather but with less rain, and -10C is the coldest I have ever seen it here, with only maybe a week per year below freezing at all.

 

[Snagglefoot]

The key thing about was to get Federal dollars to help pay for the buses. Winnipeg went through the same thing. It will either work well or the busses will get parked on the edge of the maintenance grounds to rust away. Gotta wonder how much the battery packs are worth. It always seems like it takes taxpayer dollars to “lead the way”. Alberta is only now coming off coal, and most of their electrical power is from natural gas yet some of the money is coming from the “ zero emission transit fund”. How do you spell boondoggle?

 

[Jetronic]

This sort of thing really makes sense in BC where pretty much all of the electricity comes from hydro...also, in a city like Vancouver, the need for heating and AC is much less so the supplemental gas heaters may not be needed.

If it gets down to freezing, it's needed. I run E-busses myself, w<ithout the diesel heater, over half the consumption of battery energy goes to hvac

 

[64bawagon]

Ironically enough the U.S. energy secretary Grandtheft just happens to own a big chuck of stock in a company that makes the electric school busses they are humping on the news. Coincidence ? I dont think so.

 

[Snagglefoot]

Calgary is a city that also has compressed natural gas buses and natural gas power plants in the city. They are actually burning natural gas within city limits, to produce electricity to charge electric buses, while probably decommissioning CNG buses so they don’t burn natural gas within city limits. I’m not making this up.