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View Poll Results: Is India ready for highway electrification?
Yes 3 14.29%
No 18 85.71%
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Old 14th May 2019, 09:36   #16
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Re: Germany: First highway for electric trucks with overhead cables

Longer the truck runs, ROI on the commercial investment made towards them is higher.

Electric trucks with minimal moving parts and higher availability are ideal to simulate such scenario, under current battery tech range and charging times continue to be a concern. Intermittent charging infrastructure or continuous supply of power to keep such vehicles in motion are only viable at the moment.

ABB did something on similar lines for buses where batteries in the bus get charged at bus stops/bays.





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Last edited by Thilak29 : 14th May 2019 at 09:39.
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Old 14th May 2019, 10:55   #17
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Re: Germany: First highway for electric trucks with overhead cables

1. It plies on regular roads, seamlessly switching between wherever there is OHE lines v/s wherever there isn't. This means the "ground" or "earthed" terminal has to be carried in parallel to the "high voltage" terminal - probably thats why the contact pantograph is a 'twin' , unlike a 'single' used by railways where the rail itself is the ground/earthed terminal. This straightaway tells us that the cabling cost is very very high.

2. Transmission losses & cost --- the power line has to be high voltage AC to minimize transmission losses - but it will increase the cost of cabling, insulation, cost and size of tractive/charging infrastructure within the truck, etc. Such costs can be kept down if the entire thing is DC, however, it will result in huge transmission losses.

I seriously wonder whether this is some 'pet project' to justify some mega grant funding, very eager to deploy around cargo terminal of an airport and declare "wow, success" - because the power plant is very likely far away from all this, compounding transmission loss. I sincerely hope actual energy numbers have been the cornerstone for approving the deployment and some actual smart engineering has gone into the feasibility of all this. It would take a lot of convincing with hard numbers to break-even on cost and break-even on energy consumption.
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Old 15th May 2019, 11:49   #18
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Re: Germany: First highway for electric trucks with overhead cables

Quote:
Originally Posted by hemanth.anand View Post
The advantages that I can see are
1. As SmartCat has written, vehicles itself can become lighter. In some years if they cover more roads with this kind of electricity feeding network, .......4. One other aspect I see is when the vehicles have smaller batteries, battery disposal issues (which is hazardous if not done properly) are reduced.
One more important point to add here compared to BEV(Battery Electric Vehicle) that there is no need to discard old batteries, no battery maintenance, no charging cycle limitations, no impact of hazardous waste on environment.

Just to relate this to our day to day life, if you have a barrel full of water, you can use it for 4-5 days & again needs to top up the barrel.
Instead of barrel, if there is an overhead water tank which gives you water 24X7, then you need not worry about anything else.
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Old 15th May 2019, 13:08   #19
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Re: Germany: First highway for electric trucks with overhead cables

Quote:
Originally Posted by venkyhere View Post

I seriously wonder whether this is some 'pet project' to justify some mega grant funding, very eager to deploy around cargo terminal of an airport and declare "wow, success" - because the power plant is very likely far away from all this, compounding transmission loss.
I second that thought. Looking at the real scenario on the autobahns here, conventional commercial vehicles have not yet got a full hybrid engine. Except for some test vehicles the authorities did not see any actual trucks using this set-up.

I assume the overhead charging dock could be an aftermarket attachment if the truck companies want to use this set-up. However, unless the engine is hybrid with batteries that could be charged with external power, the entire set-up would stay as an experimental project for the government.

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Old 15th May 2019, 16:40   #20
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Re: Germany: First highway for electric trucks with overhead cables

Well, This has been introduced in Boston at least 10 years ago for public transport. The normal city roads use to have overhead electric cables and the buses uses connection rods (pretty long ones) to draw electricity and run. Have traveled in that umpteen times.

Attaching few pics of the same.


Germany: First highway for electric trucks with overhead cables-mbta4118ttloading.jpg

Germany: First highway for electric trucks with overhead cables-mbta-silver-line-way-two-buses.jpg

Germany: First highway for electric trucks with overhead cables-mbta_71_trolleybus_leaves_harvard.jpg

Last edited by aah78 : 15th May 2019 at 17:45. Reason: Pictures inserted in-line.
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Old 21st August 2020, 14:26   #21
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Germany - Electrified highway

Germany has introduced the first electric highway on its motorway system to recharge hybrid trucks as they drive. The ehighway is 6 miles long and is on the A5 motorway south of Frankfurt in the state of Hesse.

The ehighway was built by German engineering company Siemens, with assistance by groups from the Technical University of Darmstadt and ENTEGA. Similar to overhead power lines used for trains and trams, hybrid trucks will connect to overhead cables and charge trucks whilst they travel at speeds of up to 56mph.

The scheme was funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, who provided €14.6m for the construction of the motorway, with a further €15.3m available for trials in Hesse until 2022. So far only one truck will use the highway but another four are expected to be added by 2020.

Siemens estimate*that if 30% of Germany's motorways were electrified, the country would reduce its CO2*emissions by seven million tonnes and fuel savings could be as much as €16,000 per 100,000km.

Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety Rita Schwarzelühr-Sutter said: "Electrified overhead line trucks are a particularly efficient solution on the way to climate-neutral freight transport. We've tested the system for many years on private test routes.

"We're now inaugurating practical tests on the A5 autobahn between Frankfurt and Darmstadt, and two 2 further test stretches will follow in the states of Schleswig-Holstein and Baden-Württemberg."

Hesse state secretary at the ministry of transport Jens Deutschendorf added: "With this project, Hesse is underscoring its leading role in the transition to sustainable, climate-friendly mobility and signaling its willingness to try out new technologies for transportation."

Siemens is also installing ehighways in the US and Sweden.

Source: https://www.power-technology.com/new...ctric-highway/
Attached Thumbnails
Germany: First highway for electric trucks with overhead cables-1598000156013.jpg  

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Old 21st August 2020, 14:58   #22
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Re: Germany - Electrified highway

Would love to see this in our country one day. We are the world's third largest importer of crude oil - 228 million tonnes, US$ 120 billion in FY 2018-19. Powering road transport is the single largest use. While there are those who doubt electric road transports utility I firmly believe solutions will be found for endurance, rapid charging, disposal or recycling of batteries etc. For the first two attributes things are changing every few months! Every new motive power that comes in transportation initially starts a little behind the incumbent Lord and then in a decade technology improvements move it ahead and the incumbent disappears. I have postponed by car purchases to 2022 or 2023 till the next round of mature electric vehicles are in the Indian market. The future is electric.
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Old 21st August 2020, 15:15   #23
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Re: Germany - Electrified highway

Quote:
Originally Posted by V.Narayan View Post
Would love to see this in our country one day.
Mere technology won't help. Road discipline is also a must.
Most of the truckers I have experienced on highways are good drivers and overall helpful people. Usually they will stick to their lane, except for two reasons.
  1. Road repairs
  2. Two wheelers and similar errant/unpredictable traffic, typically found on city bypasses

With this tech (as in appears in the pic), it is impossible to leave the lane. Imagine a scenario where some slow moving two wheeler is hogging the truck lane, forcing the truck to crawl. Since all trucks use the same lane, before you know it you got a serpentine queue trailing for kilometers.
And knowing the type of people we have, some might hog the lane just for "fun"
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Old 21st August 2020, 16:09   #24
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Re: Germany - Electrified highway

India dont need this, because our country is huge and already have excellent train connectivity. If we can improve this wrt:
1) Electrifying all routes.
2) Faster trains.
3) Better last mile connectivity
4) Intra-state smaller cargo trains with higher frequency (for ex: For transporting vegetables)

then we are good enough for few decades, above 4 points will give better ROI.
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