Utility Week

32 | SEPTEMBER 2021 | UTILITY WEEK Analysis No strings attached The ability to wirelessly charge electric vehicles could change the economics and viability of a mass EV rollout. Elaine Knutt looks at some international trials of this embryonic technology. W ould the ability to charge a vehicle wirelessly as it drives, without hav- ing to factor in "range anxiety", stops at charging stations or installing charg- ing infrastructure in congested cities, boost the uptake of electric vehicles? That's the premise behind a series of international trials of wireless or dynamic electric vehicle charging, which uses the electromagnetic field generated by a charg- ing coil underneath the road surface to charge a battery in a car, bus, public vehicle or delivery vehicle. While the trials are still very much at the research stage, Western Power Distribution is looking ahead to the day its network might need to offer dynamic charging functionality. In a £475k project funded through the Net- work Innovation Allowance, WPD, Coventry City Council, Coventry University, low car- bon transport consultancy Cenex and other partners are conducting a 14-month research project to assess the feasibility of adopting dynamic charging in the West Midlands and the wider UK. The starting point will be capturing the learning generated from projects that explored wireless charging overseas. For instance, Israeli company ElectReon has built a 600m stretch of "smart road" in Tel Aviv for a trial run in conjunction with the city bus company. Meanwhile, US company WiTricity has acquired the intellectual property of a wire- less charging system developed by Qual- comm. An earlier version, trialled in London in 2013, and in an EU-funded €9 million pro- ject in 2017 in Versailles, France, resulted in energy transfers at 90 per cent efficiency. WiTricity is now advancing the technology from its research centre in Auckland, New Zealand. Potentially, dynamic charging would allow manufacturers to install smaller bat- teries in vehicles because the batteries could be charged more regularly in small, frequent bursts. That could lead to cheaper EVs and, consequently, increased adoption. As the tri- als suggest, the technology is also of interest to bus companies and public service vehi- cle operators, which need to be on the road rather than charging. Dynamic charging would allow manufacturers to install smaller batteries in vehicles. Analysis ElectReon's bus trial in Tel Aviv

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