Solar Powered Roadways
Engineering company Ingenieurgesellschaft Auto und Verkehr (IAV) is getting renewable with roadways in the United States, embarking on a plan to embed solar panels and piezoelectric generators to refuel electric cars while they are driving or parked.
Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) are designing a similar technology for the Online Electric Vehicle (OLEV). Already evident in auto production plants, floor conveyor vehicles using a similar method for movement. As with this technology, inductive loops will be within the roadway, creating a magnetic field to supply cars with energy for movement.
This innovative transfer of energy is without cables or connectors, taking advantage of electric flowing currents.
IAV’s goal, then, it towards a futuristic roadway, allowing for vehicles to both move or charge, regardless of weather conditions and free of mechanical wear.
The team at IAV is confident this technology will launch in the next two years; they are currently in planning stages, on the way to a full-scale test track.
Nicola
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