One of the impediments to driving EVs out of town is the recharging question.
Some EVs have a very short driving range before their battery runs out. Cars can be recharged overnight, if owners take only short local trips, but for longer journeys, charge we must.
Around the world experiments are taking place turning roads into smart charging solutions for cars. Charging moving cars is technically possible. If you can imagine a future where a significant proportion of busy roads have this technology, it may become possible to drastically reduce charging times and reduce the size of batteries needed.
In Germany a company is working on developing a solar- powered road surface that can inductively charge cars as they pass by and in the USA ‘solar highways’ are being developed. They consist of individual solar panels with three layers: a top layer of high-strength textured glass that provides traction for vehicles, an array of solar cells beneath that for gathering energy, and a base plate that distributes the collected power. They also contain LED lights, powered by the sun, that can act as road and warning signs built into the road itself. They can also use gathered heat to melt snow and ice on the roads.
A project in Atlanta, Georgia, is confident its solar roads will be successful with more durable solar panels.
So far, the French solar road, one of the first, has had teething troubles, and is far from reliable. Flat panels proved less efficient than sloping ones usually placed on roofs and wear and tear from traffic was much greater than expected.
Nowhere have I read that charging tracks have been developed alongside motorways, where vehicles can just drive off the road onto charging pads set into maybe a kilometre of roadway. Drivers could go round and round that track, like a raceway loop, half a kilometre long and just maybe twenty metres wide-just enough to safely turn and do the second half of the track.
To prevent dozens of cars hiving off the motorway all at once and roaring around the track as if they were at Monza, marshals might be needed to shepherd the cars carefully around and to prevent accidents. How many times you would have to go around the off road circuit would depend on how good the charging system was, and how much electricity your vehicle needed.
So is this a realistic possibility, and are local innovations and technology progressing?
Auckland University academics are flat out working on new developments for road charging. Professor Grant Covic is lead principal investigator of the MBIE-funded Inductive Power Transfer (IPT) Roadway Project. Covic heads a multidisciplinary research team which aims to develop new ways to charge New Zealand’s EV fleet.
For many consumers, the greatest barrier, other than cost, is “range anxiety”, creating fears of running out of power, or having to break journeys to recharge, which is why IPT is a potential game changer.
The major task is to develop charging pads connected to a reliable source of power-that can survive being imbedded in the highway.
Grant said the goal is "to break the technology barriers to get it into the road, with development starting within the next decade".
Dr Doug Wilson, who leads the university’s transportation engineering materials and modelling team, believes a demonstration system could be up and running within three years, especially with the support of industry players like Downer. The ultimate goal is for power to be able to transfer between charging pods in the road and the pads in the vehicles, regardless of whether it’s a Ferrari or a bus, or how high the vehicle is above the ground.
Technology alone won’t save our planet and humans have plenty to do, but each smart bit of tech. will add to the equation. I can see this working on our major motorways - and soon - much of it with locally designed and built technology. (JOHN ELLIOTT)
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Published 3 December 2021