Electric road

An electric road or eroad is a road which supplies electric power to vehicles travelling on it, either through trolley wires above the road or through conductor rails embedded in its surface. Two concepts are being tested, which may be likened to trolleybuses and to slot cars respectively.

The Swedish government has allocated a budget of 123 million kronor to part-finance two experimental stretches of electric road, as part of its plan to eliminate fossil fuelled road transport by 2030. These tests will continue through 2018.

  • On 22 June 2016 what is claimed to be the world's first electric road was opened in Sandviken municipality near Gävle in central Sweden.[1] A 2-kilometre stretch of the E16 motorway has been fitted with trolley wires 5.4 metres above its surface, which supply power at 750 volts DC. Lorries equipped with pantographs can raise these as they travel under the wires. The pantographs have a degree of lateral movement, but if the lorry is steered into the outside lane, the pantographs are lowered automatically and the lorry switches to battery or diesel power. This pilot project has an SEK 77 million budget.
  • On 11 April 2018 a 2-kilometre stretch of the 893 road between Arlanda airport cargo terminal and the Rosersberg logistics area was fitted with embedded conductor rails as part of the eRoadArlanda project.[2] This is mainly used by one 18-tonne lorry, operated by PostNord, which is fitted with an arm underneath it, which is lowered automatically when the lorry is above the rails. Short sections of the rails are energised as the vehicle approaches and disconnected once it has passed. The system measures the energy consumed, so that vehicle owners can be billed.

The German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) and the state of Hessen have supported the installation of trolley wires above a 10-kilometre length of the A5 Autobahn, between the Zeppelinheim/Cargo City Süd junction near Frankfurt Airport and the Darmstadt/Weiterstadt junction. It powers lorries fitted with pantographs.

This system is also being trialled on a mile-long stretch of South Alameda Street between East Lomita Boulevard and the Dominguez Channel in Carson, California.

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