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Momentum Dynamics installs second 200 kW wireless charging system for electric buses

Momentum Dynamics Corporation has commissioned a 200-kilowatt wireless charging system to support electric transit buses in Chattanooga, TN. The system—its second in the US (earlier post)—is installed inside the Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority (CARTA) Shuttle Park and automatically charges while loading and unloading passengers.

The Momentum charging system is installed in the roadway, which allows buses to be recharged multiple times per day during their scheduled stops. In this short period of time, the battery of the bus receives enough energy to allow the bus to complete another circulation loop, thereby enabling essentially unlimited driving range.

MDC_data

Momentum’s wireless charger is UL field certified and became operational on 26 June 2018.

MomentumDynamics_CARTA

Momentum Dynamics 200 kW wireless charging system and CARTA Electric Bus.

The Momentum wireless charger installed at CARTA follows the recent installation for Link Transit in Wenatchee, WA. Additional wireless charging systems will be installed in the US this year and multiple installations are planned for Europe in 2019. Momentum's technology is designed and manufactured in the US and can be used in electric cars, autonomous vehicles, and commercial trucks.

Comments

SJC

"...installed in the roadway..."
Finally someone gets the obvious.

Engineer-Poet

Busbaar was already up to 300 kW last year.  Plus, no coil in the road to be accidentally driven over and damaged.

You break that coil in the road, your whole bus line is down until you fix it.

Engineer-Poet

Make that 650 kW.

HarveyD

Charging coils could be installed, in non-intrusive flat/level waterproof containers, buried at each main bus stop. Directing e-buses at the exact/best suited place could be fully automated.

Being non-intrusive, without ugly overhead Busbaar/cables, mass produced charging wireless units could be installed quickly, with non-intrusive underground power cables and last for many years.

Fans of visible overhead cable/busbaar will rightly maintain that they are 5% to 8% more efficient but that difference may be reduced by 2025/2030 or so.

Engineer-Poet

Fans of the Busbaar maintain that it transfers energy more than 3x as fast, so you need much less layover time at the charging station.  You also don't have to dig up your bus stop to fix it if it breaks.  Big holes in pavement are highly obtrusive.

A 10 meter electric bus appears to consume between 0.9 and 1.3 kWh/km.  Figuring 1.5 kWh/km for extreme conditions, a 3-minute charging stop on a Busbaar can transfer 32.5 kWh which is enough to run about 22 km.  I don't know how many city bus routes are 22 km round trip, but I suspect not too many.  You'd need more than 9 minutes on this inductive charger to transfer the same energy.

HarveyD

(A) Electricity has been transported with trouble free underground cables in our area without a single failure during the last 40+ years.

(B) Areas fed with aerial cables have multiple failures during harsh weather, icing rain, high winds and from falling trees and broken poles/lines. The same or similar failures will happen with exposed Busbaar. Contactless systems are inherently safer but are currently limited (to 200 KW) and slightly less efficient. Future technology will address this problem.

SJC

Yes, underground utilities don't go out during a storm, they cost more to install but pay back during their lifetime in areas where weather causes wires and poles to go down. This should be obvious.

Engineer-Poet
Electricity has been transported with trouble free underground cables in our area without a single failure during the last 40+ years.

Electricity in Auckland failed almost completely in 1998 due to inadequacies in underground cables.

Areas fed with aerial cables have multiple failures during harsh weather, icing rain, high winds and from falling trees and broken poles/lines.

Show me where there are underground AC cables running > 100 km, and I might admit you have a point.

The same or similar failures will happen with exposed Busbaar.

You think Busbaar is going to be hit by falling trees, broken poles, or can't be heated against icing (given its small size)?  Harvey, you are laughably foolish (as usual).

Stick with the Busbaar.  It is by far the superior technology and will remain so.

HarveyD

There is nothing foolish with safer underground AC/DC cables for energy distribution. Historically, major and minor failures have always been associated with aerial cables and still are. Areas with good underground distribution systems have at least 10 times less failures.

North America is the champion for cheaper (lower cost) inferior aerial electricity distribution systems. Look at what happen during the last storms in Texas and Porto Rico at it is going to get worst during the next few years.

There is also nothing wrong with contactless inductive system. Who wants Chicago style overhead cables, aerial power lines and Busbaar?

Engineer-Poet
Historically, major and minor failures have always been associated with aerial cables and still are. Areas with good underground distribution systems have at least 10 times less failures.

And they cost a bundle, too:  4 to 14 times as much.  Once you get spread out enough, your choice is between aerial wires that you can afford or no power at all.  Your underground cabling is also subject to deteriorating insulation that air gives you for free.  Every so often that cabling is going to deteriorate to the point where you have to replace all of it.

As for "less failures", I have been in 2 houses in the last 10 years where the underground service lines have failed.  I have never seen this with overhead lines.  I'd still prefer underground for the aesthetics, but that's a pretty big disparity in reliability.

North America is the champion for cheaper (lower cost) inferior aerial electricity distribution systems. Look at what happen during the last storms in Texas and Porto Rico at it is going to get worst during the next few years.

Everyone does their transmission by aerial wires except where that's impossible, like off-shore wind power, or where user density is high enough to pay the freight, like city centers.

There is also nothing wrong with contactless inductive system. Who wants Chicago style overhead cables, aerial power lines and Busbaar?

Dunno about the rest, but wanting Busbaar because it's better is just common sense.

HarveyD

Regardless of extra cost, many charging facilities will offer cordless inductive systems in the near future. The total energy transfer capacity will soon approach the wired systems.

Many electrified vehicle owners/operators will go for 'no-hand' 'no-problem' cleaner systems. It will be a desired option.

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