Electric road opens 22June2016 Sweden

[Holly]

Basically trolleybus technology but for lorries, not buses.

https://www.scania.com/group/en/worlds-first-electric-road-opens-in-sweden/

The world´s first electric road is being inaugurated near the city of Gävle in central Sweden, the result of a unique partnership demonstrating the path towards fossil-free transportation. Scania is supplying with the electrically-powered trucks, which will operate under real traffic conditions.

Opening today, 22 June, the two-kilometre strip on the E16 motorway sees electrified trucks from Scania driven in open traffic, using conductive technology developed by Siemens.

The beauty of the new technology, which is the result of several years of cooperation between the Swedish Government and the private sector, is that it permits the trucks to operate as electric vehicles when on the electrified road and as regular hybrid vehicles at other times. All the Scania trucks on the road are hybrid and Euro 6-certified, running on biofuel.

Photo - warning, large file
http://mb.cision.com/Public/209/2034229/94a8f6ada049d4e5_org.jpg

 

[GrimsbyPacer]

Great idea.

 

[455driver]

Great idea.

Until the lorry needs to change lanes or a pan fault brings the lot down!
It is much easier t put above a railway because the trains all remain within a small envelope on the tracks, this isnt the case with a lorry which is free to wander all over the place will the pans automatically lower if the lorry wanders to the side too much?

 

[Stompehh]

Until the lorry needs to change lanes or a pan fault brings the lot down!
It is much easier t put above a railway because the trains all remain within a small envelope on the tracks, this isnt the case with a lorry which is free to wander all over the place will the pans automatically lower if the lorry wanders to the side too much?

If you read the linked article you will see that the answer is yes.

 

[edwin_m]

Until the lorry needs to change lanes or a pan fault brings the lot down!
It is much easier t put above a railway because the trains all remain within a small envelope on the tracks, this isnt the case with a lorry which is free to wander all over the place will the pans automatically lower if the lorry wanders to the side too much?

I wondered that too. It does say the pan is "automatically disconnected" which might mean "lowered".

I notice the voltage is 700V, similar to the 750V maximum for trams on the street but likely to have quite a lot of resistance loss if used over a long distance. Along with the energy losses from rolling resistance of rubber tyres, this is still a lot less "green" than a train, but no doubt better than straight diesel power.

 

[Gordon]

Here we go again...claims by manufacturers which are open to challenge...

This is not the world's first electric overhead rubber tyred freight operation.

Google 'trolley truck' for various previous applications of a similar ilk.






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[90019]

This is not the world's first electric overhead rubber tyred freight operation.

Uhh, they're not claiming it is...

The only claim of that sort is that it's the first electrified highway, which is true.



Shame they're only using G360s though - it'd be awesome to see a hybrid with the V8, especially using an R730.

 

[Gordon]

Uhh, they're not claiming it is...

The only claim of that sort is that it's the first electrified highway, which is true.
.

I disagree. The new arrangement is a piece of tarmac road with overhead wires, which is exactly the same as the previous operations.




.

 

[AngusH]

One of the Siemens documents[1] (which I think relates) suggests it can connect automatically and specifically mentions overtaking as an action that might require this.

My impression is that there is an onboard system tracking the vehicle movement and moving the pantograph position in response, which allows much more flexibility.





(1) http://www.siemens.com/press/pool/d...t-electric-powered-heavy-good-vehicles-en.pdf

(edit)
I thought this hadn't been done before, but I searched on trolley truck and found a whole lot of stuff. So cheers