It is generally accepted that with the limited supply and high cost of petroleum-based fuel (gasoline), alternative non-petroleum-based fuels are needed to propel personal transportation vehicles in the years ahead. While much research and development has and continues to be focussed on improving gasoline efficiency, building lighter-weight vehicles, bio-fuel engines, solar energy capture, improved batteries, hybrid gasoline/battery engines, and hydrogen fuel cells, this paper proposes a radically different yet complementary solution to mobile non-rail based vehicle propulsion. Note that the electric propulsion energy-source approach proposed in this article can inter-operate with current and forthcoming techniques for maximizing fuel efficiency in motor vehicle propulsion systems. In summary, this paper proposes:
1. Public (and private) roadways should be retrofitted with a conductive power-transfer mesh that SAFELY supplies electric power to vehicles travelling on the roadway. As an analogy, one may think of this as a ’slot-car’ type mechanism, similar to the ones we played with as children.
2. New automotive vehicles would be designed (or existing vehicles retrofitted) to draw electric power from the roadway as they freely travel, possibly through the tires as they contact the road surface while the vehicle travels.
A key assumption is that there will be readily available and affordable non-petroleum based fuels to effectively and sufficiently energize the United States fixed power grid for the foreseeable future. This seems to be a sensible assumption, with the possible use of more atomic energy, clean coal, natural gas, solar, and other emerging alternative energy sources.
From a historic perspective, internal combustion engine petroleum-based cars were introduced in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Prior to that time, existing roadways had been built for horse-drawn wagons, carts, equestrian riders, and foot-traffic. As motorized vehicles were initially introduced and began to proliferate, roadways were re-engineered and improved to accommodate the new internal combustion vehicles which utilized motor driven rubber-encapsulated wheels to propel the vehicles along the roadway. Consider the roadways in modern industrialized countries that exist today compared to those that existed in 1900.
It is likely that if one had approached a typical European or American businessman or investor of the late 1800’s and suggested building the modern roadway system we now have in order to support the emergence of the then relatively new motorized car(t), they would have been viewed as a wild-eyed dreamer, if not entirely crazy. While the suggestions proposed herein will likely meet similar skepticism, it is hoped the one will consider these changes in a historic context.
Now to the primary topic of this article. Roadway surfaces would be re-engineered to contain a mesh of fixed-grid electrical conductors that can supply power (electrical current) to a vehicle as it freely travels along the roadway. New vehicles (cars and trucks) would need to be designed to utilize this road-way power transfer facility. Certain older vehicles might be retrofited to allow utilization of this new power transfer facility. It would also be wise during the transition period when the existing roadways are being retrofitted with the new power transfer grid facility to incorporate a new commercial infrastructure service system, whereby existing fuel service stations and new cars would be mechanically adapted to support a new arrangement of easily transferable battery packs. This would permit an electric car that has drained its batteries below a specified threshold to stop and pay a fee at a fuel station in order to quickly exchange its batteries with fully charged ones. The drained batteries would be left at the station for recharging, and would be passed on to the next customer.
The design of the new cars and trucks would obviously need to be very thoughtfully planned in order to minimize ‘disruption’ to users and other stakeholders, specifically to maximize backward compatibility with existing infrastructure.
The electric power supplied to the vehicle would be used not only to propel the vehicle along that road-way, but would also charge the vehicle’s batteries so that it could travel on non-grid powered roadways as needed.
The mechanism for supplying the electrical current to vehicles must be designed to satisfy at least the following criteria,
(1) The fixed grid power transfer mechanism must not significantly impede a vehicle’s ability to travel freely in any direction or speed, and must not impact the ability of roadways to accommodate legacy vehicles (existing vehicles that do not use the fixed-grid power transfer feature).
(2) The means of tranferring the power from the roadway embedded power grid to the vehicle must be safe (for vehicle occupants, pedestrians, and vehicle and roadway equipment), efficient and effective, and not significantly impeded by either the velocity (over all normal speeds) or route that the vehicle travels over the roadway.
(3) The power transfer mechanism must include a means to permit the power utility to identify the specific vehicle that is receiving the power, thus allowing the power utility company to periodically invoice that customer. Simply put, each vehicle must have something like a unique Ethernet ID that identifies this vehicle distinctly from all other vehicles in existance. This ID would be readable by controllers in the road-embedded power transfer mechanism, as the power was being supplied.
(4) All new vehicles that utilize the power transfer facility must be designed to automatically and normally operate in a hybrid manner so the vehicle may operate seamlessly when travelling upon a roadway that doesn’t support the fixed-grid power transfer mesh (such as private roadways, parking lots, driveways, older less-used roadways, etc. Travelling between power-grid enabled roadways and conventional non-powered roadway segments must be entirely seamless - although an instrument on the vehicle’s dash will provide the vehicle operator a status indication of the instantaneous and recent power-grid transfer parameters, as well as any other useful power-transfer and battery related status information.
The purpose of this article is not to describe solutions to the above engineering issues, although a few ideas are offered in order to spur discussion. Regarding (1), it might be feasible to conduct electrical current from the roadway to the vehicle propulsion system by means of vehicle tires that contain conductive material (embedded conductive material in the road surface tire treads for instance). To accommodate criteria (2), a mechanism must be designed that permits flowing current from the conductor in the roadway via one or more tires on the vehicle in a manner that makes it virtually impossible for someone standing on the roadway or around the vehicle to be (seriously) electrocuted. This is probably one of the most difficult technical problems, but can likely be solved. It might be prudent to reduce the power transfer between a vehicle and the roadway while the vehicle is not moving, thus limiting risks to pedestrians. Note that pedestrians are normally not in close proximity ( < 3″) to and certainly not in direct contact with the tires of a vehicle that is moving on a roadway. Again, these technical details must be resolved appropriately. New roadway operating policies might be considered as well, including restricting pedestrian access to powered roadways. While this constraint would require additional infrastructure changes, including the construction of pedestrian under and over-passes, this approach is common with respect to electric powered train railways, subways, intra-city electric-powered metro systems, etc.
Ultimately decisions must be made regarding long-term costs. Cost models associated with continuing to rely upon gasoline powered vehicles must factor in both the monetary cost of the fuel, the effect to the environment of emissions, as well as the costs related to military engagements (factoring in the resulting loss of life and serious injury to American soldiers) for current as well as future conflicts that result from the need to maintain the reliable transfer of oil out of the Persian Gulf and other volatile regions. This analysis cannot ignore the reality that eventually our adversaries in these volatile regions may gain access to nuclear weapons, further escalating the potential ‘cost’ related to the need to be engaged in these regions due to petroleum imports.
February 24th, 2009 at 1:11 am Thank you!
March 1st, 2009 at 7:44 pm Thank you!
June 4th, 2009 at 8:25 pm Hi, good post. I have been woondering about this issue,so thanks for posting. I’ll definitely be coming back to your site.
June 16th, 2009 at 1:37 pm How soon will you update your blog? I’m interested in reading some more information on this issue.