Taking electric vehicle range limitations out of the equation
-One of the concerns about electric vehicles is the range. That is certainly true of the most popular commercial vehicle to date – the Newton, from Smith Electric Vehicles, which has an effective range of 100 mi. on a single charge.
-Federal Express and UPS have been deploying the vehicles in city environments with great success. Many other companies are as well. But the market for electric vehicles could mushroom if only there was a way to charge a vehicle en route.
-Now, maybe there is. Massachusetts-based OLEV Technologies has been awarded a contract by the city of McAllen, TX, to test just such a process. The On-line Electric Vehicle Bus Project is being funded through the Federal Transportation Administration TIGGER (Transit Investment in Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction) grant program.
-At a cost of $2.1 million ($211,000 from the city and the rest coming from the TIGGER grant), the project is set to launch this year and be completed by 2013. OLEV will install its system to allow three municipal buses that McAllen will retrofit with electric-drive systems to operate using electric power transmitted wirelessly from the roadbed. According to OLEV, this will allow the buses to continuously charge while they are traveling as well as while they load and unload passengers.
-The technology will result in an annual greenhouse gas reduction of 289 tons of CO2, with a total reduction of 3,455 tons over the lifetime of the project. Projected annual energy savings will amount to 2,596 million Btus, with a total 31,149 million saved over the lifetime of the project.
Originally invented at the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), the technology allows vehicles to charge wirelessly through road-embedded power tracks. The system uses "shaped magnetic field in resonance (SMFIR) technology to overcome hurdles related to current, voltage, and frequency, the company said.
-According to OLEV, the technology has major benefits over typical electric vehicle systems, chiefly the ability to provide unlimited driving range and the utilization of a smaller battery, thereby reducing weight. Also, no direct contact is needed, allowing vehicles to simply drive over the equipped roadbed to be charged.
-And because the vehicle is continuously charged, there is no need to install expensive recharging stations or wait 8 or 10 hours while a vehicle is charged, the company said.