Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Future Logistics 4: Electric Road System – The Road of the Future


Electric Road System – The Road of the Future

 

 Hi, I’m Priyanka Sunil- A final year MBA student from Amrita School Of Business majoring in Operations and Marketing. Welcome to my progressive learning space for Logistics and Supply Chain Management.

 


 PIC : insideevs.com

Until some years ago, there was a belief that electric cars, buses and trucks, both in terms of efficiency and driving range, were inferior to fuel-powered vehicles. Development in autonomous technology and related infrastructure has evolved soo much in ways unimaginable in a span of 20 years. In this autonomous-driving revolution, the road of the future is likely to become the central nervous system.

The worldwide Green House Gas emissions must be decreased by 40 percent-70 percent in order to sustain the global temperature increase below 2 percent and prevent extreme climate change. As road transport is a big GHG contributor, we will need to rely on anything other than fossil fuels for our transport needs in several years. One possible alternative is for our vehicles to run on electricity supplied along the road. According to the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 72% of the 23% of the global transport sector's total energy-related CO2 emissions are due to road transport, which is expected to rise by 59% by 2030

 

Electric Road System-Types

The road freight transport can be made more sustainable by the implementation of an electric road system (ERS) which provides electric power to trucks equipped with an electromotor by the use of an external power source. Electric road systems (ERS) provide a way of powering and charging a vehicle as it is driving along a road.

There are three main types of ERS:

·        Overhead lines: Two conductive lines are suspended over the road at a height of approximately 5meters to power heavy commercial vehicles.

·        Conductive track: These are simply conductive metal tracks installed in or on the surface of a road or sometimes along the side of the road.

·        Inductive track: These are buried conductive coils below the surface of the road. An electric current is induced in a coil on the bottom of the car.

Hybrid trucks consisting of an electromotor taking energy from an external source, as well as an on-board power source (fuel or energy-based), are used in these methods to ensure that the trucks have a continuous power source while they are not connected to the external grid. If the hybrid truck is fitted with a battery, the ERS and the regenerative braking system will then charge it.

This does not necessitate electrification of all highways. Rather, on long stretches of highways and in busy areas of urban road networks, charging zones will be included. Since 2016, these systems have been in trial service in Sweden and Germany on public highways.

 

Sweden is leading our way…..!!!

Road transport accounts for one-third of Sweden's carbon emissions, one-fourth of which is due to heavy freight transport. Sweden has committed to making a transport sector independent of fossil-fuel vehicles by 2030 as part of its climate protection strategy.

 

Sweden debuted the world’s first electrified road near Stockholm. South Korea and China also have been investing in solar-powered electromagnetic roads that recharge cars and trucks wirelessly to charge of EV batteries and reduce carbon emissions.

The world's first electrified road that uses a flexible arm to charge the batteries of moving vehicles recently debuted in Sweden. Two kilometers of the rail is embedded in a road near Stockholm. The road recharges vehicles' batteries as they move down it. It operates by using a movable arm that transfers the power from the rails to the vehicle battery by linking the vehicles to two electrified rails. The ERS decreases emissions of carbon dioxide by up to 90 percent. Even though The electrification of a kilometre of road costs around $1 million, it is 50 times less costly than the installation of an urban tram line. The strategy is to expand throughout Sweden to help minimise transport using fossil fuels by 70 percent by 2030 

There are a few other eco-sustainable solutions being used across the globe. South Korea developed a 12-kilometer asphalt roadway with electric cables in 2013, to build an electromagnetic field for wireless charging of moving passenger buses, China is testing a "intelligent highway" to produce electricity using solar panels to minimise transportation sector emissions. 

Over 100 years of electric vehicles

It was over 100 years ago, that the first electric cars were produced in US and they controlled the roads until around 1915. There are two methods for powering vehicles with electricity : stored battery power and direct feeds when in motion. Both of these techniques are more than 100 years old.

The challenges of using battery power

Even the best batteries could only store a fraction of the energy compared with the energy content of diesel, for example. This makes driving longer distances more difficult.

Is ERS a better economic solution?

Current infrastructure can be exploited by the electrification of roads to reduce energy use and carbon emissions. Electrified-road transport eliminates fossil emissions by 80 to 90 percent and is a cost-effective, climate-smart way of combining the benefits of rail with truck versatility. Due to substantial reductions in energy usage resulting from the use of powerful electric engines, operating costs would be minimal. Electricity is also a cleaner, quieter and less expensive source of energy, compared with diesel.

Reference

https://eroadarlanda.com/need-electrified-roads/

https://www.vti.se/en/news/electric-roads-a-solution-for-the-future/

https://www.engineering.com/AdvancedManufacturing/ArticleID/20157/Electric-Road-Systems.aspx

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/capital-projects-and-infrastructure/our-insights/electric-road-systems-the-future-of-freight-transport

https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/electrified-road-can-charge-vehicles-as-they-drive/4406280.html

https://www.sia-partners.com/en/news-and-publications/from-our-experts/electrified-road-freight-transport

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