Colorado Announces Energy-Transfer Highway Project

[kscarbel2]

Heavy Duty Trucking  /  December 9, 2016

The Colorado State Department of Transportation is working with private partners to explore the development of an energy-transfer highway segment.

The project will allow real-world testing of a stretch of an electric grid embedded in a stretch of highway that transfers electricity to electric-powered trucks through a coil transmission and reception system. Much like a cell phone charging surface commonly used today, the project would use powerful energy coils to transmit electric power upwards and into energy receiving coils mounted on the underside of trucks traveling in the dedicated energy-transfer lane.

Peter Kozinski is director of CDOT’s RoadX program - a forward-looking initiative that seeks out new, energy-efficient transportation technologies. He says the agency has been working with AECOM, a Los Angeles-based infrastructure builder for approximately 8 months to flesh out the beginning stages of the pilot program.

 “It is tremendous to see this leadership by Michigan which will accelerate progress across the nation. We are actively working with Michigan to develop our plan for initial and ongoing platooning operations in the state,” said Steve Boyd, Peloton’s VP of external affairs. “Our plan includes early activities to promote public awareness on the key role of professional drivers in our truck platooning system and the safety, efficiency and mobility benefits that this technology provides to fleets and the public.”

“We feel the vehicle of the future will be electrically powered,” Kozinski said, “and yet the cost of battery packs, combined with range anxiety concerns are real barriers to widespread acceptance of this technology. Our goal with this project is to determine if this power grid and energy transfer system can work in real-world driving conditions.”

Andrew Liu, vice president, AECOM Ventures said his company is a progressive, and forward-thinking road building and infrastructure construction firm that is committed to helping the United States move its road network into the 21st Century. “We’re already seeing the rise of all-electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles,” Liu said. “But what we have today are increasingly smart vehicles driving on dumb roads. And we want to help change that.”

According to Liu, AECOM has been working with the Sustainable Electrified Transportation Research Center, (SELECT) at Utah State University on related projects that have shown the potential for an energy-transfer roadway. “SELECT has been working on static charging pads that can wirelessly transfer energy to city buses,” Liu explained. “We started talking to them about the feasibility of charging an electric vehicle while it is in motion. They responded by developing a ¼-mile closed loop track that can charge buses while they drive. And this is the basis for our pilot program with RoadX and Colorado DOT.”

Currently, Liu says the SELECT closed loop track can charge buses moving between 35 to 40 mph with an efficiency rate between 85 and 95% transmitted by coils ranging from 6 to 8 feet in diameter. He says further work is being done now to determine if that high energy transfer rate can be sustained at higher speeds and in varying weather conditions, including rain and snow.

Kozinski says currently RoadX and AECOM are in the preliminary stages of the project and hope to identify additional OEM, technology, and fleet partners, as well as identify the criteria for a test highway and optimal locations for the roadway. “We hope to have those goals accomplished in the next 6 to 8 months, and begin planning for actual construction to begin something in early 2018,” he said.

Additionally, Kozinski says the project must overcome challenges including maintaining a consistent distance between transmitting and receiving energy coils to ensure efficient transmission of electricity as well as determining the environmental impact of the technology. “We can’t have a bunny hopping onto one of these coils and getting zapped,” he noted.

Similarly, Liu says AECOM is working with its global partners to identify new technologies and procedures that might benefit the energy-transfer lane project as well as seeking 3 to 5 additional partner cities elsewhere in the country to conduct further studies. “Key areas of interest for us include

“Key areas of interest for us include heavily congested urban areas as well as freight corridors,” he said. “We’re also looking to hear from other OEMs and interested parties. We view this as an open invitation for people, companies and organizations to get involved. Our feeling is the more people we have involved, the more successful this project will be.”

Related reading - http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/47935-scania-tests-fast-wireless-charging-in-urban-traffic/

[kscarbel2]

Electric Trucking Charges Up

The Wall Street Journal  /  December 8, 2016

In a pilot project, vehicles equipped with ‘receiving coils’ will draw power from another coil buried in the road in Colorado

Officials in Colorado are planning a public-road test of battery-charging technology capable of powering electric trucks while they drive.

In the pilot project, believed to be the first of its kind in the U.S., vehicles equipped with “receiving coils” will draw power from another coil buried in the road. The Colorado Transportation Department and infrastructure developer Aecom Inc. are scouting potential sites, including busy roads near Denver International Airport, with a goal of launching in 2018.

Heavy-duty electric trucks remain a rare sight on highways, in part because they need to make frequent stops to recharge and must carry heavy, expensive batteries. The pilot’s developers say their goal is to extend the distances electric trucks can drive and reduce the bulkiness of in-vehicle batteries.

“It’s one of those, ‘if you build it, they will come’ things,” said Peter Kozinski, director of Colorado’s RoadX program, a state fund aimed at using new technologies to ease congestion and improve road safety.

Under terms reached earlier this week, RoadX will pay Aecom $200,000 to help identify a location for the pilot, design the in-motion charging grid and find electric-truck partners to participate in the testing phase. They will license the technology from researchers with the Sustainable Electrified Transportation Research Center, or SELECT, at Utah State University, who have been conducting their own tests with a bus on a closed loop track.

The Colorado project is slated to begin construction by the end of 2017 and start testing by the end of 2018. Data collected during the testing phase will provide insight into how well the technology works under real-world conditions, the researchers said. Mr. Kozinski said they are considering several sites in Denver for the project, including an area near the airport with heavy freight traffic.

The Colorado pilot will focus on freight-moving vehicles because they emit the most pollution and supporting their shift to electric power could have a big impact on air quality, the developers said.

The charging equipment can either be built into new trucks or affixed to electric vehicles as a retrofit, but it isn’t cheap, experts say. Nor is the technology and construction needed to outfit miles of roadway.

“The cost of retrofitting roads around the country, even if only one lane, would take a big effort and it probably would be pretty expensive,” said Lewis Fulton, director of the Sustainable Transportation Energy Pathways program at the University of California, Davis. Still, he added, “it can work.”

Mr. Fulton said other groups around the world are testing different ways to make electric vehicles competitive with conventional cars and trucks. Some projects have tested stationary wireless charging for passenger buses.

A group in Southern California is building a trolley-like system developed by Siemens AG that relies on overhead electric wires to power freight trucks while they move.