Implementation and trials of EV wireless Charging.

Coming along with our previous posts, complementing David’s post on USU wireless electrical bus and finishing with the automotive industry, here are some other real implementations, trials and products of EV wireless charging we found already on the market!

·         Qualcomm acquired HaloIPT and did a trial of wireless charging pads in London. If you read our previous posts you can understand that this trial was implemented with cars that had a receiver coil that will get the energy from a transmitter coil installed in some parking spots through the city.

·         Another company called Plug-less Power in collaboration with Bosch, is commercializing already wireless charging pads for certain EV vehicles in the market such as Nissan Leaf or Chevrolet Volt. The company is planning to expand its services. Check their video!

   

·         HEVO Power will provide opportunistic charging, known as Green​ Park​ing Zones​,​ for New York City dwellers and commuters gearing up to purchase a plug-in hybrid or electric vehicle starting next year. Incredibly convenient, once you park, your car will start powering up​right away.  These static and quasi-dynamic wireless charging locations provide cost savings and emission reduction benefits for both vehicle owners and municipalities. HEVO's wireless solution also eliminates the hassle and potential liability risk of an EV power cord in an urban setting. EV drivers will be able to use an app that provides key features like Map It! to find vacant spots; Park it! to guide you into the right location over power stations; Pay It! which provides users with wireless bill pay; Want It! for discounts and coupons offered by local vendors in the area; a Power meter, so you can visually check on your vehicle powering up; and data utilization which shows our users their battery percentage, balances and emission savings.

·         Toyota Central R&D Labs and Toyohashi University of technology develop a prototype of dynamic charging. Currently, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has developed a version of the idea, what they call the on-line electric vehicle (OLEV) system. The Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) decided to license the technology which it’s been tested and implemented at Boston’s Logan Airport. OLEVs are charged by wireless power supply strips embedded in roadbeds as they travel above. The university hopes the deal will lead to further exports to cities or airports in the U.S. and environmentally sensitive regions such as Europe. It is already in talks to supply the system to Park City in Utah.  

    These OLEVs buses are also currently being operated at Seoul Zoo. The tram is equipped with a battery that is one-fifth the size of a typical EV battery and doesn't need overhead power wires to keep it charged. The prototype was the world's first electromagnetically-charged tram. THE OLEV is used too at Seoul Grand Park amusement park and shuttle buses on the school campus and few lines. We can see how once the technology emerge and is implemented successfully.

Because of the fixed routes buses run and frequent stops they make, induction charging is ideal and engineers can ensure that buses get a proper charge every trip without a need to stop and recharge. Instead of charging up a massive battery overnight or before a route, a smaller battery setup will recharge through time. The smaller batteries also free up interior space, reduce downtime and lower battery costs — although induction plates must be added to bus stops. Ideally, this technology would be used in city centers to replace noisy, smoky diesel buses.

Induction charging is already powering buses in some countries here in Europe:

You might think charging a bus through induction may be a new idea but buses in Torino, Italy have used this system since 2003, routes in Utrecht, the Netherlands, since 2010, there some routes in other cities like Augsburg in Germany…

Example in Germany. 

Thanks to the Primove trial of two electric buses in the city of Mannheim, passengers on the bus 63 route in Mannheim are riding the bus in a more peaceful, quieter and environmental friendly way. Charging pads were installed at stops along the route and the bus is able to run without interruption and charge while it’s picking up passengers. Researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology take data gleaned from the tested bus to determine whether the batteries installed in the trial buses were the right size for the vehicle, and also monitor how much stress the electric buses put on the local power grid.

Example in Netherlands.

E-Moss is testing a 39-foot all-electric bus and induction charging panels in Den Bosch.

This bus is a converted Volvo that has had its diesel heart ripped out and replaced with batteries and an inductive power transfer wireless charging system. The bus uses both overnight wired charging and on-the-route wireless opportunity charges at bus stops.

We have seen there are plenty of examples around us. Next time while I am waiting to take the bus, for sure I am going to pay attention to the stop and the bus itself, how cool could be to stand in a bus that is better for our enviroment and moves smoothly using our beloved wireless power technology?

Research projects & prototypes on vehicles wireless charguing.

If you remember from our previous post, we have two kind of wireless charging methods.

The static one that works when vehicles are not moving; and the dynamic one that works when the vehicle is on the go.

As promised before, here are some of the recent researches that have been conducted, some prototypes and some trials. Fasten your seat belts, we are going to start!

·       Flanders Drive Research Project: a partnership between vehicle OEMs (Volvo, Vanhool), inductive charger providers (Inverto, Bombardier), universities (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) and many more, conducted a research and evaluate different applications of wireless charging.

   In the static charging, the power transfer and efficiency of the vehicle will depends on its                    positioning.   They studied the implications on cars.

                

In the dynamic method, a full road is equipped with an inductive stretch. Power transfer will occur for any vehicle equipped. The research they did on dynamics focused only on buses.

For the system to work, speed was a key element as well as vehicle positioning.  Dynamic charging could be complemented by charging buses at bus stops. Main problems were grid interfacing, metering and billing.  Actually they did a trial with a prototype. Check the video!

·         Stanford University research team has also designed a high-efficiency charging system that uses magnetic fields to wirelessly transmit large electric currents between metal coils placed several feet apart. 

Their long-term goal is to develop an all-electric highway that wirelessly charges vehicles as they cruise down the road. The problem here will be how to install the system and what materials to use such as install it on the middle of the road or in the side, use asphalt or concrete and so forth.

·        The National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management has done basic research using several models, in partnership with Tokyo University.  They have verified wireless capability in an experiment using a model, enabling a stable electricity supply on the move by using a transmission coil and a receiver coil that are very different in size.

·       At the University of Karlsruhe some students have created a prototype vehicle that gets its energy from electric conducting paths on the ground tracks through electric induction.

These are just a few projects.
Want to discover more cool wireless vehicles?
Wait for my team's next post!

See you soon!

Is it possible to apply wireless technology on the automobile sector?

YES it is!

Electric vehicles (EV) available nowadays in the market are highly efficient at energy utilization. They are considered as a really important and feasible option in relationship with environmental issues due to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (lowering carbon footprint). 

The most common way to charge their battery is using a cable, however, many studies have been carried out on developing wireless charging technology. Ford, Chrysler, BMW, Volvo, Toyota, Delphi, WiTricity, Siemens and many other companies are already partnering and working on inductive charging. 

Some enthusiastic experts imagine a future where cars can be charged wirelessly in automated highways by using renewable energy sources.

There is two way in which EV wireless charging technology can be divided:

1. The first one is the dynamic charging, meaning you are charging the EV while driving.

                      

2. The second one is the static charging, meaning you are charging the EV while is standing still, while they are parked.

  

As you already know if you follow us weekly, the wireless power transfer is based on a technology called magnetic resonance coupling. Two copper coils are tuned to resonate at the same natural frequency. One coil is connected to an electric current, which generates a magnetic field that causes the second coil to resonate. Applied to vehicles, this magnetic resonance results in the invisible transfer of electric energy through the air from the first coil to the receiving as the vehicle speeds along or while is parked.

The static method face some complex issues as a physical wire is required to be plugged in to an electric outlet. Another major drawback of plug-in electric cars is their limited driving range, many drives are worried about running out of power before trip’s end or have to spend hours until the battery is fully charged.
Plus also there are other issues related to charging time frame and safety concern

Up to the present time, static charging is the most popular between recent studies and normally many of the existing systems use transmitters and receivers of same size and shape, which make them inappropriate for supplying power to running vehicles. Nevertheless, there are many organizations that have started research on the field of dynamic charging.

Having said that, we can group in general terms the uses of wireless power as The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (US Department of energy) did in a research  on  same topic (according to who is the user and how is the technology used) :

• After market stationary wireless vehicle charging system (plug in electric vehicle owners).
  
  
  
  
  
• Closed route electric vehicles with bus stop charging pads (airports, municipalities,universities).

• Parking lot pay per charge systems (government).

• Street/highway in motion charging systems (government). 

This technology will be all around before we even realize, actually static charging is been on the market for a while! In the following posts we are going over some research examples and videos to get to know this application of wireless power a little bit better as well as some trials and products already out there. You dont want to miss it!

     

Innovative applications.

Hey Unpluggers, what´s up?

We have already covered topics such as what is this technology about, who came up with the idea, what are some benefits and challenges, who offers it… So lets move on! 

It is time to go dig a little bit deeper in wireless power technology and so... we are going to write about its applications! Are you excited? Because I am!

To give you a sneak peak, some possible applications we might write about are:

• Automatic charging or direct wireless powering of consumer electronics (mobile or stationary devices): phones, laptops, game controllers, flat screen TV’s, digital picture frames, speakers,  mouse, keyboards, printers...
• Automatic wireless charging for transportation: for hybrid and future all-electric passengers, industrial and commercial vehicles.
• Direct wireless power interconnections and automatic wireless charging for implantable medical devices and portal tools and machines.
•  Automatic wireless charging for high tech military systems (battery powered mobile devices, covert sensors, unmanned mobile robots and aircraft).
• Direct wireless power and communication interconnectionsand wireless charging in an industrial context: across rotating and moving “joints”  such as robots, packaging machinery, assembly machinery, machine tools...; at points of use in harsh environments like while drilling, mining, underwater…

Source: Witricity.
Highly Resonant Wireless Power Transfer. 
Applications from milliwatts to Kilowatts.

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Have a great day,

Davinia Rodriguez.

Who is offering Wireless power technology? Value proposition and challenges for managers.

Business value proposition of wireless power charging:

Convenient, safe, efficient and green - The ability of wireless power technology to transfer power safely, efficiently, and over distance can improve products by making them more convenient, reliable, and environmentally friendly.

If companies are able to transmit this added value provided to customers they will boost sales. Also, they will promote their brand image and awareness as many people care about our planet today and you give the impression that you do care too. They will accomplish cost savings and will stimulate additional creative ways in which to apply the technology in the market through competition. If they reach interoperability, even better!

Companies developing different wireless power technologies are currently fighting to become the industry standard for wireless power applications.

To move beyond the technology itself, one of the requirements for wider adoption of wireless charging is interoperability. The reason this is important is that, in two or three years, when there will be more wireless-charging devices, vehicles... around, it will be important for customers to have compatibility and for example be able to use a new phone with the old charging pad. 

If standards are reached, they will allow manufacturer's and companies to keep working and succeed.

It is envisioned that a single specification will be developed and will address simultaneous charging of multiple devices ranging from very low power products to today’s most power hungry ones. That’s why there are some groups of companies fighting to be the chosen one and are in the race to achieve this. Main collaborations are:

• The Wireless Power Consortium: an international cooperation of companies working together to promote the global wireless power standard for interoperability. It was established in December 2008 and their mission was to create a wireless global charging standard called Qi. Any Qi receiver will work with any Qi transmitter. With lost of partners and as many certified products, the WPC is in good position to achieve its original goal. They have more than 180 members including industry leaders in mobile phones, consumer electronics, batteries, semiconductors, components, wireless power technology and infrastructure such as wireless operators, furniture and automotive parts companies. Qi products are available in the United States, Asia Pacific, and Europe.

• Another wireless charging standard collaboration is the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) that appeared in 2012. It is composed of some global wireless power and technology industry leaders and is focusing too on a new wireless power transfer technology for consumer electronic devices that provides spatial freedom for charging of electrical devices in cars, on table tops and for multiple devices simultaneously.

There are more groups but WPC is probably the leader between them. Last smartphones, such as Google Nexus 4 have already wireless charging integrated as a built-in feature and they use the Qi technology standards.

Apart from this agreements there are also other companies that provide other systems and are growing in importance. Let’s say that today´s main players might fight for make their standards the one in the industry butr there is also companies developing specific applications of wireless power using different technologies and targeting a focus segment to position themselves in the market.

• Probably the most important one is Witricity. The company was founded in 2007 after a MIT project. The technology can be applied in a wide variety of applications and environments. It is based on strong magnetic coupling between electromagnetic resonant objects to transfer energy wirelessly between them.

• Another company is Fulton Innovation (a division of Alticor). Their technology, called eCoupled, provides wireless power transfer via inductive coupling between a primary transmission coil and a secondary receiving coil. A single primary coil can provide power to multiple secondary coils at the same time. Elements of eCoupled technology help to power the Qi global standard by WPC.

I could list more technologies such as WiPower support by Qualcomm, Powermat… I am sure a "war" is about to happened. Nowadays you can envision, more or less, who has more chances to win, but let’s see how market reacts and how it evolves because with the global innovative environment that the world is into, you never know! There are many CHALLENGES ahead related with establishing a standards, the way they will offer the products, the infrastructures needed and so forth.

Let’s see where it ends up!

Pros and Cons (challenges) of Wireless power.

Hi there! 

How is everyone feeling, prepared for another awesome post?

If we do a recap, so far, we have posted about what is wireless technology, how it works, who invented it ...

Today we are talking about some of the pros and cons of wireless power. It is going to be a pretty straight forward post so... let’s get started!

Plugs, cords & sockets vs. Wireless Power

   (Old vs. New)

Pros:

·         The very first benefit from wireless energy would be the simplification of energy transfer. No more messy cables all around! With wireless power it is so much easier to charge multiple devices at once without relying on wires and sockets, finally you can get rid of cords. Plus, no adaptors!

·         We could also mention safety issues, for example, if you have children at home there will be no worries about them playing around putting fingers where they shouldn’t, no plugs or direct or physical connection needed! It reduce risk of electric shock.

·         A (+) point in favor of this technology that comes along the previous mentioned, is the possibility of saving space at home, in offices and manufacturing plants etc. Moreover, as time goes by, power lines throughout rooms and buildings could disappear. How convenient could this be and how nicer places could seem? People could easily power any device from anywhere or add any gadget in the building without having any trouble like maintenance, hiring electricians etc.

·         Another pro which I really like it’s the fact that wireless power is better for the environment than many other energy sources.  For example, batteries will not be needed anymore in tons of devices like the remote control of your TV. Isn’t it great?

·         Reduce cost by leveraing the ability to power multiple devices from a single source resonator.

·         Elimitate complex docking mechanisms, and labor intensive manual recharging andbattery replacement.  

Cons (challenges) :

·         The most important drawback would be to adapt current devices in order to be compatible with wireless energy transfer. Standardization and adaptation is needed in order to overcome obsolescence, to do so can be really costly.

·         Another inconvenient would be face on payments and ownership. As it happens nowadays with the internet wifi, new features will have to be added because wireless power will make thievery much simpler on the energy market. How will they ensure you are getting what you pay and nobody is stealing electricity from your source, how will they even compute this? Big question!

·         We can include here the concerns regarding health hazards even though there are reports that says there will be no health risk.

·         Worth to mention that the technology makes things easier but if you experience a failure or breakdown, the system or things you have to fix are much more complicated that a cord.

Well... That were some of the advantages and disadvantages we have come up with today. 

Can you think of any other? We would love to hear from you guys!

And coming up soon....  new blog post about wireless power technology application in different industries! 

If I were you I wouldn't miss it, stay tuned!

Cheers & love.

Davinia Rodriguez.