Il Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT), the Purdue University and the German startup Magment GmbH announce plans for absolute innovation. This is the first segment of a highway paved in “conductive” concrete in the world. The project will use innovative magnetizable concrete, allowing the highway to wirelessly charge electric vehicles during the driving.
Wireless Charging Highway: Three Steps to Implementation
The first two stages will include testing, analysis and optimization research of the pavement conducted by Joint Transportation Research Program (JTRP) at the West Lafayette campus in Purdue. In the third phaseInstead, INDOT will build a test bed. A segment of highway approximately 200 meters (a quarter of a mile) long in a location yet to be determined. There, engineers will test the ability of the innovative concrete to load the operation of, for example, high-power heavy trucks (200 kilowatts and more).
When testing of all three phases has been successfully completed, INDOT will use the new technology to electrify a yet-to-be-determined segment of the interstate highway within the U.S. state of Indiana.
A window for great changes
“The transportation sector is in the midst of a transformation. A transformation that hasn't occurred since the invention of the automobile,” he says Nadia Gkritza, professor of civil engineering and agricultural and biological engineering at Purdue University. “ Through this research, we foresee opportunities to reduce emissions and exposure to pollutants near a highway. Not only that: we will also be able to activate other transport innovations in shared mobility and automation. Things that will shape data-driven policies that will encourage further progress.”
It starts by September 2021
This project is a real step towards the future of dynamic wireless charging. Such a highway will undoubtedly set the standard for affordable, sustainable and efficient transportation electrification.
Mauricio Esguerra, CEO of Magment, in a recent statement
The project is expected to begin later this summer. It's not yet clear what kind of techniques engineers plan to use on the test stretch of highway to generate enough power for electric vehicles. At the moment, not much information has been provided about the project.
