Light Rail II: Fueling The E-Buses: TOP 10 LIST

Published 03/15/2024 · Updated 06/10/2024

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One of the great mysteries of the e-bus mess ($1-Billion Light Rail II, The Sequel) is how the generators to power the bus-chargers will be fueled.

A commenter on The Bulldog says it is diesel. But the latest reports from the city don’t mention it. The Bulldog said it was natural gas. That was a presumption because this publication could not imagine running filthy diesel generators on a green project. But we might need a correction there. Not only are diesel generators dirty but they are incredibly noisy if past experience with these monsters plays to form.

The two four-megawatt generators could power a city the size of Brockville. That’s a lot of diesel. The fumes from that would make Beijing the Sun and Fun Capital of Asia.

So The Bulldog, as a public service, probed what forms of fuel might be used for charging Ottawa’s green buses.

We do this by way of a Top 10 list:

Top 10 Ways The Chargers For Green E-Bus Project Will Be Powered:
10. Gerbils;
9. Scrap wood from Home Depot parking lot;
8. Peat;
7. Thermal energy from burning e-bus documents;
6. Steam turbines powered by hot air from city hall;
5, Methane repurposed from manure pile on Laurier Avenue;
4. Tidal bore at Dow’s Lake;
3. Disney characters on treadmill;
2. Rideau Canal white water;
1. Fairy dew.

The upside to all this for city hall is that this e-bus mess might deflect attention away from the crappy light-rail project.

Ken Gray

Gerbil Running on Wheel