PEI is getting a 100 MW wind farm for export "south". Also about 60 MW of wind power by local utilities. The two combined would make PEI about self sufficient on a MWh basis,

Best Hopes,

Alan

Canadians are a bit hypocritical on all this.

Worst greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption per capita of any western nation (bar Luxembourg, I think).

Vancouver is OK, but I was disappointed at the public transport system (coming from the East). Lots of waiting around for buses and trollies, Skytrain doesn't seem to go anywhere useful. And very few cyclists in a climate ideal for them: the roads are wide, and the cars hog them, especially the bridges. Vancouver is also screamingly expensive. Calgary and Toronto are (almost) that expensive, but people are generally paid a lot more.

East Vancouver is funky, but the yuppies are moving in, and even for Vancouver, the microclimate means it rains a lot (Simon Fraser University sits on a mountain in a permanent cloud).

Be sure and read Douglas Coupland's photoguide to Vancouver-- endless insights. 'City of Glass' I think it is called.

Victoria is an odd place. The very old, and the very young. It sprawls, too. And the local economy is quite boom-bust unless you work for the government, the hospitals or the university. But I think one could mostly live there cycling and walking. The problem is if you want to go anywhere else (except Vancouver and maybe Seattle) you will wind up flying.

The rest of BC is car, car, car. We got on a bus in Prince Rupert, and we were the only 'white' people-- everyone else was a native Canadian (this didn't feel in any way threatening or uncomfortable, it was just an interesting factoid that white middle class people in Prince Rupert don't take the bus). The best I can suggest is a diesel car, as and when they are available (a good diesel is at least as frugal as a hybrid, and likely to be more durable).

People move to BC, I think, when they have money they have made somewhere else. And they take a downshift in career and life, to enjoy the lifestyle (nothing intrinsically wrong with that).

The politics of BC is also far right-far left (in a Canadian context). Inner Vancouver tends to be very left wing, and the boonies tend to be really, really right wing. There is a 'logger mentality' that the only good forest is one that is being cut down. The lifestyle is about self actualisation: flying the flying boat to your yacht at the weekends, etc.

One thing you can do in BC (depending where) is insulate your home and use passive solar, thus removing the need for much (but not all) home heating. It shouldn't be hot enough most of the time to really need air con.