Dear editor:

In reading some of the readers’ letters regarding the future use of EVs in Ontario in response to NOTL Hydro CEO Tim Curtis’s guest column, (“The future is electric vehicles and NOTL Hydro is getting ready,” Jan. 19), I would just like to add my two cents’ worth.

We seem to be vastly underestimating the future power requirements to supply all EVs, whether they be cars or trucks or even electric bikes.

Here is a quick calculation based on Ontario’s current 6 million vehicles that would be charged overnight mainly at a rate of 4 kW (120volts at 30 amps) nominal (many would charge at 9 kW (240 volts at 40 amps). Let’s average at 6 kW.

The power required will be 24 gigawatts – pretty hefty.

Ontario’s current power generation is about 12 gigawatts, barely half of the future requirement.

Now if we add future growth in the population by 2030 and beyond, we could get to a requirement of, say, 35 gigawatts.

The quest at this point is where will all this power come from? A nuclear power station will generate 3 gigawatts, so do we need seven more nuclear power stations over the next 10 to 15 years?

It takes 10 years to build a power station, so we had better start thinking about it now.

A wind turbine will generate 3 megawatts when operating. We would need 7,000 of them to provide enough power.

Perhaps that’s a solution: allow everyone to have their own wind turbine in their backyard.