Roads on which you can charge electric cars or buses while driving are not news. In fact, two public buses were seen in South Korea to be using the technology, and at that time the country had plans to add 10 more buses by 2015. But back in 2010, the technology was relatively expensive and inefficient, which posed a major challenge.
However, the Indiana Department of Transportation has announced its plans to develop the world’s first contactless wireless-charging concrete pavement highway segment. The organisation says, “The project will use innovative magnetizable concrete – developed by German startup Magment GmbH – enabling wireless charging of electric vehicles as they drive.”
With funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), INDOT has collaborated with Purdue University and the German company Magment on this project.
The project will happen in three stages, starting this summer. First they will test if the magnetised cement (called “magment,” naturally) will work in the lab, then try it out on a quarter-mile section of road.
German’s Magment claims its product delivers “record-breaking wireless transmission efficiency [at] up to 95 percent”. This information is contained in a document which the company published a few years ago. It added that Magment can be built at “standard road-building installation costs” and that it’s “robust and vandalism-proof.” The company also notes that slabs with the embedded ferrite particles could be built locally, presumably under license.
INDOT says it would “test the innovative concrete’s capacity to charge heavy trucks operation at high power (200 kilowatts and above).” This looks like something big is coming. If at the final stage, INDOT’s quarter mile test track is successful, then it will use the technology to electrify the undermined segment of public interstate in Indiana.
Powering trucks with electricity gotten from the road, and without any sign of pollution, would be an environmental breakthrough. Especially if the cost of production is affordable. However, there’s much work to be done to prove this.
This last efforts sounds a lot easier, as long as it lives up to Magment’s claims.
