Evidence of meeting #45 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was technology.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
Ed Holder Conservative London West, ON
Mr. Tarasco, I'm very compelled by your technology—in fact I'm compelled by what all of you do—and I'm trying to understand. When you talk about flywheels versus batteries, I thought I heard you say in testimony that you haven't put these into any vehicles as yet.
I have two questions. Number one, why do they have to be hybrids only?
Number two, if I might, why haven't they been put into vehicles as yet, if I've understood that correctly?
12:10 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Blueprint Energy Inc.
We haven't. They have, though, been put in vehicles. As a matter of fact, this is not a case of if it's going to happen; it's a matter of when it's going to happen.
Williams Hybrid, one of our competitors from Europe, who we're in a race against, actually has this in endurance racing. Their Audi R-18 e-tron came in first and second place—
12:10 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Blueprint Energy Inc.
No, in Europe. It's Frank Williams from the Williams Renault Racing Team.
The problem with them is that their flywheels are being used and they're beating everything in the field. It's top-notch, but it's made out of carbon fibre. They're new at the science; it's specific for racing technology, and there's no commercial application as of yet. I highly suspect that's going to change within the next five years.
This is a $10 billion addressable market that only a few companies are racing toward. It will be filled pretty soon, so we need a competitive advantage to get there quickly. We have the core technology and some of the best technology and patented technology in the world, based in Canada, that needs to be quickly applied to vehicles.
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
12:10 p.m.
NDP
Mike Sullivan NDP York South—Weston, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks to the witnesses. I've learned a whole bunch today.
I have some specific questions, though, about the flywheel use. The Chevy Volt is a battery-operated vehicle that doesn't require, in normal city use, any fossil fuel combustion. Are flywheels capable of that kind of duration?
12:10 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Blueprint Energy Inc.
No. The full electric vehicle is the only vehicle that doesn't work with flywheels. We work with any other type of internal combustion engine and any fuel. We are engine or fuel agnostic.
To address the point more specifically, great marketing positioning from the industry is that the battery that's plugged in is either coal, nuclear, or hydro-based electricity that does it. We don't wave a magic wand and derive it out of thin air. Typically, it's nuclear or coal-fired electricity that's going into that. So the notion that a full electric vehicle is carbon neutral is ridiculous, quite frankly.
12:15 p.m.
NDP
Mike Sullivan NDP York South—Weston, ON
I'm not suggesting that it's completely carbon neutral, but in Ontario it's 75% carbon neutral because 75% of our electricity generation is in fact non-carbon-based. Alberta is different, because it's hugely carbon-based.
12:15 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Blueprint Energy Inc.
It is regionally based.
12:15 p.m.
NDP
Mike Sullivan NDP York South—Weston, ON
Yes, it's regional.
Rather than think in terms of carbon-based, are we heading towards a technology where a flywheel will be the prime mode of power? We plug it in at night and start the flywheel spinning. How long is it going to continue to spin?
12:15 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Blueprint Energy Inc.
It's predicated on the natural waste energy of the engine. If we go back for a second, the internal combustion engine is the most efficient source of energy when the vehicle is in motion. It's the stop and start motion that is the waste. This is how we capture and reuse the wasted energy naturally produced by the internal combustion engine. We get the same elements, the 40% fuel savings, as normal hybrids. The challenge is not the notion of a hybrid; the challenge is that no one is adopting it, because the science and batteries don't allow it.
If you have a technology that allows it, we want to change the paradigm question from “Why would I buy a hybrid?” to “Why wouldn't I buy a hybrid?”
We want everyone to have hybrids, and this will be technology that will facilitate that. It will be the catalyst to drive it, with 40% fuel savings, no chemicals, and a litany of other things.
12:15 p.m.
NDP
12:15 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Blueprint Energy Inc.
Through the science, we figured that out. That's a 30-page white paper.
12:15 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Blueprint Energy Inc.
We see this being deployed in race cars, which are high torque. It's being used right now in the first and second round at Le Mans. Porsche, GTR3, and Audi R18 are already using it in race mode. But they're $100,000 flywheels.
12:15 p.m.
NDP
Mike Sullivan NDP York South—Weston, ON
That's not going to be commercially available.
Going over to Mr. Hughson, one of the things we talk about a lot is what government intervention is necessary. Of course, if we are going to smart vehicles, we need governments, whether federal or provincial, to install RFID tags in highways and roadways and into road abutments to allow the vehicles to communicate with the road. GPS isn't going to manage it, because cloudy days mean that your car is going to stop.
What size of investment from governments are we looking at in the medium to long term to allow this kind of technology? Are we needing to set aside frequencies other than the one you talked about for car-to-car communication?
12:15 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Invotronics Inc.
I think we've gone beyond the point that we need to put sensors every few feet down highways and things like this. The technology and the wireless technologies seem to be integrating so that this sort of infrastructure is not required.
I'm not an expert on the infrastructure side of this, but I did visit UCLA Berkeley, where they have automated intersections and buses and cars running through them.
Where they are developing that infrastructure, a lot of intersection stuff will be looking for bicycles, looking for pedestrians, and monitoring the vehicles that are coming to know whether somebody is going to run a red light, and then it will delay it.
A lot of it is wireless technology. Definitely one of my recommendations is that we invest in the infrastructure. We need it here. You can see the benefits earlier.
I can't say that I'm an expert on the cost of that, but I think the costs are coming down as technology is getting more mature. It's not going the other way.
12:15 p.m.
NDP
Mike Sullivan NDP York South—Weston, ON
You talked about a platoon. It sounds like a VIA Rail train getting in a platoon. But they are not able to get the advantage of the energy savings of having only one engine drive 600 people between Toronto and Windsor. You would actually have to have 600 engines.
12:15 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Invotronics Inc.
Yes, but you are slipstreaming, to begin with. There's a lot of work in a lot of countries, including Canada, on the platooning concept, where you link between vehicles that are going to similar places. There are significant efficiency gains and safety gains. The efficiency of the use of the highways is greatly enhanced.
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
Lawrence Toet Conservative Elmwood—Transcona, MB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to start with Mr. Tarasco. I have a question on your technology in regard to commercialization and use.
Everything you have talked about so far seems to be car-driven. What size of vehicle could you actually go into with your technology?
12:20 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Blueprint Energy Inc.
It is every type.
