Electric roads will help cut UK road freight emissions, report says

E-truck test route [image credit: transport-online.de]

The bill for such a system would be massive and a lot of fuel duty revenue would be lost. What does it offer to anyone outside the haulage industry?
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Electrification of 7,500 km of the UK’s major road network would enable most lorries to be powered by overhead charging cables, resulting in dramatically reduced carbon emissions, a new report has found.

A team from the Centre for Sustainable Road Freight (SRF) – bringing together heavy vehicle engineering expertise from the Department of Engineering and logistics expertise from Heriot-Watt University and the University of Westminster and a consortium of industry partners—has proposed that building a so-called ‘electric road system’ could be used to decarbonise 65% of UK lorry kilometers traveled by 2040, says TechXplore.

The technology is not only feasible and scalable, but the infrastructure could be built at an estimated cost of £19.3 billion, using private finance. Full details are published in the white paper titled “Decarbonising the UK’s Long-Haul Road Freight at Minimum Economic Cost.”

The report sets out the case for a nationwide rollout of the electric road system by the late 2030s, with the cost of the project (investment in electrification infrastructure such as catenary cables and substations) paid back over a 15-year period by charging hauliers for the electricity.

Powered by the national electricity grid, lorries driving on the inside lane would connect to overhead catenary cables through an automatic pantograph system—similar to those found on the top of electric trains.

The electricity would power both the lorry’s electric motor and recharge its on-board electric battery.

The battery, which would be similar in size to an electric car battery, would enable the lorry to complete its journey away from the catenary system.

Lorries would be free to leave the catenary wires to overtake, with the pantograph rapidly connecting and disconnecting automatically as needed.

Full report says TechXplore.

via Tallbloke’s Talkshop

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August 21, 2020 at 03:30AM