Charged up

Recently Hydro Quebec announced plans for extending their DCQC network to allow further EV road trips in la belle province. By the end of 2016, an EV will be able to travel from the Ontario border to Rivière-du-Loup (and beyond) completely stress-free. The problem, as identified in my previous post, is that the infrastructure hits the New Brunswick border and stops:

Source: AVEQ/HydroQuebec

Spaced every 45-70km like HydroQuebec's plan, the following stations could extend this network through New Brunswick on the Trans-Canada:

• Edmundston, Grand Falls, Florenceville, Woodstock, Nackawic, Fredericton, Jemseg, Havelock, Moncton, Sackville, Cape Jourimain

Continuing the network along Route 1 with stations in Sussex, Quispamsis, Lepreau, St. Stephen

And one in Welsford to connect Saint John to Fredericton.

Map of proposed DCQC network, showing my southern bias

Connections to current networks can be made by adding stations in:

• Cabano, QC to connect Edmundston to HydroQuebec's netowrk
• Beddington, ME to connect St. Stephen to the enormous US network
• Oxford, NS to connect Sackville (NB) to Truro and Halifax

Sixteen stations (+3 outside NB) would get us quite a network, but at $50-100k  per station it's unlikely that anyone is ready to step-up and cover the bill. A less ambitious network would start with stations every ~100km, which might create redundancy in the future, but gets the basic network setup:

A simple solution to cover the Trans-Canada through the province.

Six stations might be an easier sell to the public, and is still a respectable route for the time being. Three more stations in Hampton, Welsford and Cape Jourimain would round-out southern NB, and get you to PEI and NS.

Currently, Level 2 chargers overlap these locations a bit. The difference is speed: Level 2 is an overnight or all-day affair (4-8 hours), where DCQC is more like filling up with gasoline (admittedly while also grabbing a coffee and a bathroom break) at 30 minutes. This means long distance road trips become logistically easy, compared to the haphazard method of charging in campgrounds and homes. However, chargers at hotels in Fredericton, Moncton, Grand falls, Edmundston, and Woodstock shift the priority to getting stations in Coles Island (Sussex if you want to cover Route 1 at the same time) and Perth-Andover/Florenceville. Welsford seems like a no-brainer between Fredericton and Saint John, it's also the station that would be most useful to me (hint, hint).

Moving - what makes it and what doesn't

Josh usually calls me a gypsy, referring to the fact that I've moved a lot throughout my life. By the time I was 10, we have lived in 3 different places (in 2 different countries). I stopped counting how many apartments I have lived in by the time I finished by Master's degree. Every time I moved, whether as a child or as an adult, I had to make a decision of what gets left behind and what comes with me.

It used to be easy, I'm not too attached to most of my things. But house plants have been my downfall. I have collected a fair number in every place I've lived in Canada. Every time I moved town, a few had to be given away, while the "chosen ones" would stay with me. We hauled 2 boxes of plants from NB with us. They were hardy enough to make it through being locked up in a dark trailer for a week in July. Currently, the count at our place is 33 green pets (holy crap, when did that happen??).

My problem is that I also want to take a bunch of tree cuttings with me. What kind? I have access to different apple, plum, walnut, and cherry trees, and a bunch of other goodies. I've been reading about tree propagation, and most trees can be grown from cuttings (yay, cloning made easy!). Since the trailer is a finite space, I will need to make some hard choices (see? I'm already better at this than most of the world's leading economists). Each house plant I keep means one less fruit tree or shrub I can plant (and another $20-30 per cutting we'd have to pay at a nursery). So over the past few (and next few) weeks, there will be a box of plants by the door, waiting to be dropped off at another nice person's home. Hope they treat 'em well...