Families and children gathered to watch an outdoor screening of the Pixar film Hoppers. (Jeannie Lin / CHLY 101.7 FM)

An outdoor movie night traveling throughout B.C., made a stop in Comox on Friday night, to demonstrate how electric vehicles can power community events.

On July 24, BC Hydro brought its clean-powered outdoor movie experience to Comox Marina Park. Families and children gathered to watch an outdoor screening of the Pixar film Hoppers. The entire outdoor screening was powered by an electric vehicle instead of a traditional gas-powered generator. The initiative aims to demonstrate how EVs can serve as portable power sources while creating a quiet and emissions-free community event.

Ted Olynyk is the BC Hydro manager of community relations. He spoke about the goals of the tour.

“The benefits of the event, the way we're putting this on with the Fresh Air Cinema, is you'll see no noisy gas-powered generators. Instead they'll be replaced with a quiet set-up that runs off an EV battery. So eliminating noise, fumes, and emissions. This shows that communities can come together and enjoy the benefits of electric vehicles, how electric vehicles can charge and provide the power to a community event,” said Olynyk.

According to BC Hydro, it is one of the largest energy suppliers in Canada, and generates 98 per cent of its electricity from clean renewable sources. Just two per cent comes from natural gas, which is only used as backup generation during periods of high demand like in the winter months.

“It's part of our broader effort to show what a clean powered future can look like, how electric vehicles can serve as mobile power sources for homes and businesses and community events. You don't need a noisy, diesel gas generator spewing fumes and emissions, when you're trying to watch a nice movie. It's not gonna spoil the event at a critical moment. You're not gonna hear the hum of a generator in the background. You're just gonna hear the movie,” said Olynyk.

The project was in partnership with Fresh Air Cinema, a company that hosts outdoor movie screenings throughout Western Canada. Operations manager Joel Sotomayor spoke to the community feedback he has received throughout the tour stops in B.C.

“The people felt pretty comfortable doing this kind of outdoor movies, but also they were very interested in the EV truck. So a lot of questions about ‘how does it work’, ‘how much was the consumption for this event’, regarding technical questions. So the nice thing was all the time that I was answering, was only consuming 8% of the battery, they were so surprised of how powerful could be these kind of trucks. And I'm talking about ten hours, 12 hours running this truck for the whole event. They were so surprised,” said Sotomayor.

Olynyk said that an EV energy source can provide other benefits other than community events.

“The ability for a vehicle to be a mobile power source is great, to be able to provide electricity. It's not about watching a big movie all the time. This is just an example of what can be done, of course. But, you know, it's something that can be provided back to the user, whether it's at home when you need power out in the yard, when you're camping with the family, whether you're just anywhere and you need a power source and you don't have to use a generator or bring anything else. You've got it right there with your vehicle,” said Olynyk.

Comox was one of three stops throughout B.C. this summer. The first took place in Mission on July 10 and the next will take place in Revelstoke on August 21st.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.

Newsroom Ethics • About our Newsroom • Report an Error • Corrections & Clarifications