The project will test a technology that wirelessly charges vehicles driving or parked on the roadway.
The Indiana Department of Transportation broke ground on a segment of highway equipped with a system that can charge electric vehicles and heavy-duty trucks as they drive, idle, or park on the roadway. According to a press release from INDOT, “The project will use innovative magnetizable concrete – developed by German startup Magment GmbH – enabling wireless charging of electric vehicles as they drive.”
The technology could have a major impact on transportation emissions. As Susan Elizabeth Turek explains in The Cool Down, “Electrifying heavy-duty trucks would go a long way toward improving air quality by reducing pollution linked to health issues like asthma and rising global temperatures. The Environmental Protection Agency notes that medium- and heavy-duty vehicles account for 23% of heat-trapping gases generated by transportation in the United States.”
The project, designed by engineers at Purdue University, will begin with a testing phase during which “ charging benefits will only be available to vehicles with special transmitters, which draw power from the coils via magnetic fields.” The technology operates similarly to wireless cell phone chargers.
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