Battery firm leads charge to power film productions
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 metric 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 UPS generator include eliminating risk from fuel spills in sensitive locations, zero emissions, cost savings from equipment and fuel, and being much quieter on set than their diesel counterparts, said Ramsay.
He said a second version of the UPS came out in October, with almost double the capacity of the first. 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.