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Oslo Will Build Wireless Chargers For Electric Taxis in Zero-Emissions Push (cnet.com)
Norway is helping lead the charge toward complete electrification, and it will soon have a whole network of wireless chargers for its capital city's fleet of taxis. From a report: The city of Oslo, in conjunction with Finnish utility company Fortum and American manufacturer Momentum Dynamics, announced last week that the three will work together to create a wireless-charging infrastructure for Oslo's growing zero-emission taxi fleet. The charging plates will be installed at places where taxis park and wait for fares.
The city will use Momentum Dynamics' wireless charging technology, which is claimed to work at speeds up to 75 kilowatts, which is in the neighborhood of most current DC Fast Charge stations. Taxis will have the requisite hardware installed, so all they need to do is park over a charging station and accumulate electrons before shuffling off somewhere else. "We believe this project will provide the world with the model it needs for keeping electric taxis in continuous 24/7 operation," said Andrew Daga, CEO of Momentum Dynamics, in a statement. "It will build on the success we have demonstrated with electric buses, which also need to be automatically charged throughout the day in order to stay in operation. Momentum is very excited to be working with the people of Oslo and with our partner Fortum."
The city will use Momentum Dynamics' wireless charging technology, which is claimed to work at speeds up to 75 kilowatts, which is in the neighborhood of most current DC Fast Charge stations. Taxis will have the requisite hardware installed, so all they need to do is park over a charging station and accumulate electrons before shuffling off somewhere else. "We believe this project will provide the world with the model it needs for keeping electric taxis in continuous 24/7 operation," said Andrew Daga, CEO of Momentum Dynamics, in a statement. "It will build on the success we have demonstrated with electric buses, which also need to be automatically charged throughout the day in order to stay in operation. Momentum is very excited to be working with the people of Oslo and with our partner Fortum."
This is a super smart way of starting to build out infrastructure. Geez, can we get some of this smart, forward thinking government that benefits people over here in the US, please?
I don't respond to AC's.
Wouldn't it be cheaper/easier to have the buses tow a trailer with their battery pack? That way they can swap out the drained one in a couple of minutes.
Probably not, because then you'd have to train all the drivers on how to move with a trailer behind them.
On the other hand, if you're buying hundreds of electric buses, have the battery pack be modular, between the wheels on the bottom where it enhances stability, then swap using a dedicated swap station, or even a forklift. Some electronics in the bus and you could even have the bus itself unhook the battery and rehook the new one.
https://www.tesla.com/videos/b... - showing that an in-chassis battery swap is indeed possible.
I don't read AC A human right
To me it makes more sense long term, to try and figure out how to do on-road charging of vehicles in motion - some kind of heavy support van with massive electrical storage, that drives alongside or behind an electric vehicle and charges it as it goes about the day delivering people. Then you don't have the problem of vehicles having dead time to charge, which would seem to get worse using a wireless charging solution which is bound to be a lot slower than a cabled charge.
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98% from Hydro, geothermal, and wind, 2% from fossil fuels.
I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
First up, you're operating under a misconception. A properly designed wireless charging solution can be every bit as fast as a cabled charge. In many cases, faster, if you're, for example, comparing a 110V@15A cable compared to a induction system designed for 10kW.
It's actually very interesting. At the sizes and power levels we're looking at for induction charging EVs, the 6" or so between the wires doesn't give you much loss. Indeed, if designed properly, the system can act as a voltage changing transformer, eliminating the need to have one elsewhere. So they're actually efficient as well.
As for your van solution -
Problem 1 I see with a "heavy support van" is that you've just doubled the number of vehicles you need to drive around, you can fit fewer buses and battery vans into an area than just buses, etc...
Problem 2 Is that you're doubling the number of vehicles you drive around, which doubles the number of drivers you need(for now) or if self-driving, you're still doubling the number of vehicles and drivetrains you need to maintain.
Problem 3 is that it is currently entirely possible to fit an entire day's worth of energy into batteries that fit within a standard bus frame, at least for buses that spend most of their day stopped or at low speeds. IE downtown loops more than greyhound between town. This eliminates the need for the battery van completely.
Problem 4 is that the van will probably end up costing as much as a bus, so just buying twice as many buses actually gives you more flexibility. Have a problem? Swap the bus.
Most cities/towns run fewer buses at night, so you can charge most of them then. Even at the most severe use scenarios, you need to haul a bus in occasionally just for cleaning and other maintenance, so if the need is great enough you can simply swap out with a fresh bus, giving them 8 hours while on a charging station while they also clean/disinfect the bus, perform any repairs needed, etc... Or they can build a battery swap station, swap the batteries out, and be good for another 12 hours without charging at all.
Then, depending on route and all that, you can put charging pads under the bus stop spots, and depending upon the ratios, never really need to come in due to running out of energy, if the use tends to be 5 minutes of charging for every 10 minutes of driving.
If you want to get really, really, fancy, it's also possible to put a series of induction loops into the road surface and use electronics to charge the vehicle from the road even as it moves down the road at speeds in excess of 60 mph. You could have a system where, over the course of a mile, every EV running over the road gains a mile of charge. Though I'll admit that spots where the average speed is less or stops are expected can give you more charge ability with fewer loops, and are therefore cheaper. So, first you put it where the buses are stopping to load/unload. Then you put them in at redlights and such. Then you start building what I'd call 'runways' where the bus can accelerate using power from induction loops rather than its battery packs, preserving them. This is more useful than trying to give the bus power when it's stopping due to regenerative braking.
All this stuff is possible, of course, but the question is whether it's cheaper than just adding more batteries, cutting some weight from the bus, swapping out buses more frequently, or putting in a more efficient electric motor?
I don't read AC A human right
I'd be careful with presuming that there's extra inefficiency with inductive charging.
For example, Cleantechnia
says,
Wireless EV charging is just as efficient — or more efficient — than plugging in. Most people think they have to plug in an electric car to get the most efficient charging possible, but that’s not true. No charging method is 100% efficient. Conventional chargers are typically 88% to 95% efficient. Wireless charging is right in the middle of that range at 90% to 93% efficiency. That means it does as good a job of transferring electricity from the charger to a car’s battery as most conventional charging equipment that uses a cord.
This is largely because a wired charging system still needs to use a transformer to match voltage to the battery, while with a wireless charger, the inductive loop IS the transformer.
Even wikipedia notes that inefficiency is primarily a problem for systems under 100W, and becomes inapplicable over 5 kW. Which is interesting that it is more efficient to plug our small devices - IE smartphones and such, in, but better to charge our huge devices (electric vehicles) wirelessly.
I don't read AC A human right
It's not that it's too hard, it's that it's too creepy for most people.
Tesla built one.
That said, consider the matching prices, and maintenance. With a robot arm, you have to maintain the robot arm. An inductive charger is at least solid state. You need some sensors for both the robot and the inductive charger, but the sensors for the robot arm are going to be more complicated, sensitive, and subject to breakage. With the inductive charger, you can build it INTO the road, build it so that it can be run over. What happens if somebody runs into the robot arm cable? I've seen enough stuff hit in parking lots. Take a look some time. Odds are that if it is in a parking lot and sticks up, it WILL be hit eventually. In a lot of them many times a year. One greenhouse owner has a state-mandated "watch out for pedestrians!" sign in his parking lot in the pedestrian zone, on a concrete block between the lanes. He runs a video camera livestream of it, and has a collection of video from people hitting it. He has to go out regularly to drag it back to its proper spot.
In addition, if we're looking at quick charge boosts to give an electric taxi or bus that extra hour of driving to make it through the day at regular pick-up points, fast connection and disconnection is essential. It took the tesla robot about 30 seconds to hook in and start charging. An inductive pad can be doing the same in under a second.
I don't read AC A human right
Actually, I was just checking up on this, it seems that inductive charging tends to be most wasteful at under 100W, and more efficient above around 5kW. EV charging being closer to 5kW than 100W....
That said, you have the problem that universal standards themselves tend to be cludges and thus slightly less efficient, but a wired charger might not encourage people to use them as much as wireless as they'd require the driver to not only get out to hook them up, but they'd have to remember to get out and unhook before driving away. While with a wireless they just pull up to the proper spot and everything else is automatic.
Would also be more compatible with driverless systems down the road, as it is easier to make an AI car pull into a wireless charging station and line everything up correctly than it is to add a robot to plug the wire in.
I don't read AC A human right
Basically you're switching from a 100% efficient cable to 80% efficient wireless.
Problem:
1. As LynnwoodRooster identified, cables aren't 100% efficient themselves.
2. The 80% efficiency is for the entire charging circuit, and is a false number. I'm seeing numerous examples around 90%.
Of course, the ideal isn't to just look at the "wireless link" and assume all other parts are still present and the same loss. It's better to look at the loss from the input on the charging 'station' to what the vehicle receives. Most charging stations have extensive electronics, after all. Inductive chargers allow some of the loss to be "shifted" to the inductive link, as the link itself remains ~90% efficient.
I don't read AC A human right
as soon as you're willing to pay a 75% income tax.
...which surely beats setting aside 75% of your revenues to pay off various debts (mortgages, other credits, etc.) that you got your self into to pay things that we tax-paying "evil euro-communists" get for free (e.g.: student loans vs. nearly free education).
Oh, yeah, I get it. You don't like that taxes are imposed on you, you'd prefere chosing yourself, where you're going to lose 75% of your income.
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If passersby have their laptop HDD wiped by the strong nearby EM field,
Hello, what is this weird object that you call "HDD"?
And how can I connect it to my laptop's M.2 NVMe connector?
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