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Gov't Researchers Develop Wireless Car Chargers That Are Faster Than Plug-ins (computerworld.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the government-research dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Computerworld: The U.S. Department of Energy has demonstrated a 20,000 watt (20KW) wireless car-charging system that offers three times the efficiency of today's plug-in systems for electric vehicles (EVs). The research is the first step in creating a 50KW wireless charging system that may someday allow roadways to charge vehicles while they are being driven. The DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee demonstrated the new system in partnership with Toyota, Cisco Systems, Evatran and the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research. ORNL said the 20KW charging system for passenger cars is the world's highest power wireless system. It was developed in less than three years using a "unique architecture that included an ORNL-built inverter, isolation transformer, vehicle-side electronics and coupling technologies."

2 of 169 comments (clear)

  1. Re:270% efficiency by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    TFA states 90% efficiency at 3x the rate, bad summary is bad

  2. 10% loss!! by thesupraman · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yes yes, terrible summary.

    The 'fun' part is the 10% coupling waste (versus I would imagine much less than 1% for plugin charging).
    Remember, we are not talking about the battery charge efficiency here, their 10% is just for the transfer of power to the car..

    So, thats 'only' 2kw continuous loss. Thank god everyone is converting their houses to LED lighting, which still wont
    offset the losses here.

    Go Progress!