Lights, camera, action goes green
Metro company leads charge to supply province's film sector with clean energy
As Hollywood North strives to become carbon neutral, a Metro Vancouver company is leading the charge to provide zero-emission generators for the film industry.
For just over a year, Sim International, a major supplier of lighting and grip equipment for the industry, has been leasing out its new Sim Urban Power Source battery generators, the largest purpose-built battery generator for the film and TV industry in North America.
They have four in total, with more being built, and according to Jeff Ramsay, senior vice-president of production services for Sim International, they're always in use.
“The demand has been fabulous. We rarely have one in stock,” said Ramsay, who has been with the company for 25 years.
The film industry faces enormous environmental challenges, everything from movie-set waste to micro plastics from fake snow and other special effects.
But the main problem is its use of diesel generators. On average, film and TV productions produce around 500 tonnes of CO2 per production, or the equivalent of 108 cars on the road for a year, according to Zena Harris, president of the Green Spark Group, a Vancouver-based sustainability consultant.
The benefits of Sim's generator include eliminating risk from fuel spills in sensitive locations, zero emissions, cost savings from equipment and fuel, and they're much quieter on the set than their diesel counterparts, said Ramsay.
Ramsay said a second version of the generator came out in October, with almost double the capacity of the first model. That means that under the same load the new one lasts twice as long as the original, running at 225 kilowatt hours.
“We just made it more efficient,” Ramsay said. “With technology progressing month by month in the battery world these days, we are hopeful we will get even more power to them with the same carbon footprint.”
They're built similar to the diesel generators that production companies are used to using.
“We put a lot of effort into making it user-friendly,” he said. “Our goal is to get one on every show in Vancouver.”
Before the COVID -19 pandemic hit in March, the City of Vancouver was working on a plan to install power drops at all the most popular filming locations such as Gastown and the Vancouver Art Gallery. The plan is to phase out the use of diesel generators, and eventually ban their use.
Each filming day uses an average of two to three diesel generators, with each generator using an average of 296 litres of diesel a day.
Sim International estimates that after 14 days on one unnamed set, the production company saved 9,976.4 kilograms of CO2 using the battery-powered generator.
Production crews can plug in to studio house power, the city's power grid or use EV car chargers, Ramsay said.
“Because it is not making emissions or noise, you can park it right beside an actor or put it in a sensitive location, like a neighbourhood, and run almost no cable, making your production more efficient,” he said. “People come up to us and say that's not running, and we have to say, `No, it's on,' so it is noticeably quieter.”
Geoff Teoli, senior manager for film and special events with the City of Vancouver, said the $1,000 daily film permit fees are cut by 50 per cent if the production can demonstrate they have eliminated at least one diesel generator from their daily activity.
That cut could go as high as 80 per cent if the company has an “ultra-low-impact production,” which means a very small environmental footprint with crew size, parking/street-use requirements and zero use of diesel generators.
The city is continuing with its plan to deliver access to power from the city's grid. When complete, Teoli estimates that there will be a kiosk within a 10-minute drive of almost anywhere in the city, resulting in about a one-third reduction in generator use.
Firms like Sim will then supply their clean energy solutions to help reduce the remaining twothirds of use. “When built, film companies will be able to access these kiosks without additional charge if they hold a valid film permit and have paid all other applicable film-permit fees,” said Teoli.
B.C.'s film industry generated $3.4 billion in revenue in 2018, and $4.2 billion in 2019.