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Wireless Charging (Freakin') Roadways!!! Argh!!!
edy:
Wireless Charging Roadways! :palm:
Is this another version of the "SOLAR Roadways" debacle all over again? See the following video from CNet's Road Show that came out this past week. They feature some "pilot project" (sound familiar) for dynamic inductive charging which is basically placing inductive chargers in your road while you drive over it to charge up your car battery, helping people with "range anxiety" from electric cars be more comfortable to adopt the technology. :palm:
OK, I don't know how to even BEGIN to call B.S. on this thing but I will leave it up to the forum because it just makes me so >:( to see government tax dollars being spent on Solar Roadways, now this idiotic idea, and so on. Dave, perhaps you can make a video showing calculations and discussing all of the problems with installing this into roads and highways.
|O I can't believe it!
edy:
Found some links:
Bottom of page 6 (or actually page 9 of the PDF file):
https://www.codot.gov/programs/roadx/roadx-champion-team/aecom-roadx.pdf
Other links:
https://www.codot.gov/programs/roadx
http://www.aecom.com/
Sounds like the "Dynamic Wireless Charging" pilot is some component of a much larger RoadX engineering project by AECOM. I'm not sure what the other parts are but this is who I believe is doing this, in Colorado for the CODOT.
The PDF file linked above gives some numbers:
$1.25 Million/mile for inductive roadway, and they mention a rolling contact system for $125k/mile. They give an project consisting of 1 mile of inductive and 6 mile of contact roadway for $2M total. There are likely other numbers that can be pulled from this, but we still don't know a lot of things like the efficiency, how speed affects charging, weather, whether you have to be exactly over the center of it, height of car, how cars will be "retrofit" to even allow this to work (they will need an inductive receiver underneath their chassis)... Just so much to assume but still should be possible to do a rough calculation. But something tells me it's Bull$#!T that aside from paying for the AECOM engineers to work on something that may pay them for some research and development, the results will amount to nothing practical.
Here, why don't they just do this for cars....
Or this...
iainwhite:
I doubt the Govt will want to fund schemes like your 2 pictures as they use a totally "un-cool" wired system.
Maybe if people could buy a U-beam dish that they stuck on to their car roof via a rubber sucker mounting? That would be really great for safety as you would have to stay below 20mph to avoid having the dish blow off the roof.
Cyberdragon:
Putting electromagnets in the road is stupid, it could fry small electronics like watches or even pacemakers at the power required to charge a car. :palm:
edy:
The cost alone is staggering, but even if they did manage to install the wireless charging pads in the road, you have the same issue again with maintenance and construction paving and tearing up roads. It is just too large a maintenance issue to be practical and sustainable. Burying this stuff in asphalt or concrete is just ridiculous!!!
For a fraction of the cost, they can outfit "fast charging ports" in gas stations across the country. They already have a broad distribution, they have electrical supplies going to them, they are designed to be easily accessible from major routes and suburbs. Gas stations could sell the electricity like they do gas. They could eventually recoup their costs but also provide "value-added" services to the EV market while people stay there for the needed time needed to charge up.
Linking these charge port stations to some app would also allow EV owners to map their route through areas with the chargers and estimate the time needed (based on charging, number of stops needed, distance, etc).
Why does the government give money and lucrative contracts to these companies to do these absurd pilot studies? They do not care about taxpayer money! They have budgets that need to be completely used (or else diminished in future years if they keep any surplus rather than be rewarded for being efficient and smart). They have no understanding of basic engineering concepts and more importantly, do not consult 3rd party engineers (who should be paid independently for unbiased assessments) for consultations on whether something is feasible or not. Hence government agencies which are given "x" amount of money per year squander it on stupid things that look good for publicity and make catchy "new tech innovation" sound-bytes for local papers and TV news..... to make the lay public think they are progressive and looking at cool and high-tech solutions for them to use in the future.
I'll come up with my own design....
Photoinductive Charging Roads!
Yes, you heard it here first folks! Install an array of photodiodes on the underbellies of your EV and install HIGH INTENSITY FREAKIN' LED LIGHTS in the road pointing up at your car! Now you can charge your car while you drive over the lights in the road by having your photodiodes induced by the lights! Even better, rather than waste energy lighting up ALL the LED's in the roadway at once, have them "sense" when your car is above and only turn on the LED'S immediately in front of the car and turn them off as your car passes over the LED's. Then it will only illuminate the underbelly of your car at the time you are above them. The longer you stay over one spot, the longer it will charge up your car. Brilliant! (no pun intended).
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