Wirelessly Powered Electric Busses Launched in South Korea

KAIST, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology has established an Online Electric Vehicle (OLEV) system. 

 

It is an electric vehicle which is provided energy by the road while stationary or moving. The power is supplied to such electric vehicles by the cables fixed in the road. A permanent direct connection is not needed by these cables in order to charge the vehicle. As an alternative, a magnetic field is created which is converted into electrical energy by the devices carried on the bus.  Lots of components that are present in almost every electric vehicle currently, for instance, heavy batteries, overhead trolley lines are left out due to this particular feature. In addition to this, these busses are not required to stop for recharging. The limited range is a drawback of these vehicles as they cannot ride on the side of the road that supports them.

All images are courtesy of Technocrazed Media





The bus will be given 20 kHz and 100 kW (136 horsepower) electricity at an 85% maximum power transmission efficiency while keeping a distance of 17cm (6.7 inch) between the bus floor and the asphalt. 5% to 15% of the entire road surface needs to be rebuilt with the embedded cables.


Formerly, this technology was successfully tested in a tramcar at an amusement park in Seoul.  Now, two OLEV buses are being tested which run between the train station and In-dong district in the city of Gumi, South Korea. This network entails 24km (15 miles) of road.
The cables in the road only turn on when they sense an OLEV approaching and the intensity of electromagnetic field is well within limits enforced by international EMF standards. These features have been anticipated to lessen the exposure of pedestrians and other vehicles to the magnetic fields and will also look after the wastage of energy.



If the busses running at the moment do not cause any problem, 10 more busses are expected to be put into operation.