Green dreams, unplugged

In the dank basement of McGill University's Macdonald Engineering Building, a century-old stone edifice erected when buggies ruled Montreal's then-muddy roads, Jeff Turner is designing a car befitting the 21st century.

As co-captain of McGill's Formula Hybrid Racing Team, the 24-year-old graduate student in mechanical engineering tweaks his computer models to determine how hot his electric car's lithium-ion battery can get - and, hence, how fast the vehicle can go - before bursting into flames.

The university is counting on Mr. Turner's car to lead McGill to its third consecutive victory in the annual Formula Hybrid International engineering competition among major U.S. and Canadian schools.

Mr. Turner, meanwhile, hopes that the experience eventually will help him land a job in the suddenly high-revving electric-car industry. "I'm interested in applying engineering to reduce the impact of people on the planet," he explains.
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Dreams are dreams. Energy is energy. Until the government establishes an economic direction companies have no way to plan.