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The Central Florida Highway Authority envisions a future where a truck can travel back and forth from the Gulf to the Atlantic or from the Panhandle to the Keys, without stopping to connect or fill up of gasoline That’s why CFX is launching a $13.6 million pilot project, as part of a new road, to advance dynamic wireless vehicle charging technology and test its scalability.
In the pilot, the authority has partnered with ASPIRE, a Utah-based electrified transportation research center, and has chosen green technology company ENRX as its mobile wireless provider.
“Our DNA is innovation, it’s who we are,” says Michelle Maikisch, chief executive of CFX, which is funding the effort, which she describes as “the beginning” of a conversation about what this technology could do on a national level.
Through the pilot, CFX hopes to identify ways to scale the technology and move toward cost-effective solutions. The authority also intends to refine equipment standards and design to extend the range of electric vehicles, reduce the cost of vehicles thanks to smaller batteries made feasible by on-road charging, increase charging capacity for the transport of goods using smaller batteries and improve the opportunities in the autonomous transport of goods. , car sharing and deliveries.
Maikisch and Sean Parks, a Lake County commissioner and CFX board member, say feedback has been positive and there has been a lot of interest locally and beyond, including from state lawmakers in Tallahassee, for the project. The inauguration is scheduled for April 4.
Of the 2.4 million fully electric vehicles registered in the United States by the end of 2022, Florida had just under 168,000, trailing only California, according to the US Department of Energy.
Utah State University’s ASPIRE Engineering Research Center (the acronym stands for Advancing Sustainability through Powered Infrastructure for Roadway Electrification) will install approximately one mile of wireless induction dynamic charging on the new Lake/Orange Expressway, using ENRX’s inductive technology. Another will be placed on the ASPIRE test track in Utah.
ENRX will install a 200 kW dynamic charging system that will allow electric vehicles to charge their batteries while driving, the company explains. Once installed, the system is maintenance free.
ENRX says it is the only company with dynamic load experience at powers above 100 kW. Typical fast charging is less than 150kW, and anything above that mark qualifies as fast charging.
Under the system, electric vehicles receive a charge as they drive through electric coils embedded in the roadway. The coils flow power to a receiving pad mounted under the vehicle.
Toll-funded CFX, which oversees freeways in Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties, includes the pilot project on the first segment of the $650 million three-segment State Highway 516 Lake/Orange Expressway to connect US 27 and SR 429 in Orange and Lake counties.
The new 4.4-mile road will be CFX’s most sustainable, including a wildlife tunnel and multi-use trail alongside the electrified road, according to CFX. Construction is scheduled to begin later this year, with completion dates pending for two of the three parts. The 0.9-mile segment three is scheduled to be completed in early 2027.
The electrified roadway will be constructed of precast concrete panels approximately 3 feet wide x 11 feet long, which house the charging technology and will be placed lengthwise along the outer lane, with traditional dark concrete on top , says Glenn Pressimone, head of infrastructure at CFX.
“So the road surface will look like concrete pavement,” he says.
The panels will be placed along approximately three-quarters of a mile of the new roadway, between two bridges in the first stretch, still in final design. The pavement design has been fatigue-tested with a 13-ton single-axle wheel driven over it more than 1.25 million times, according to CFX, which through the pilot project will conduct real-world field testing to further improve the design.
Florida, with its triple-digit temperatures that can drop quickly in a storm and stressed concrete, also offers a unique environment for the pilot, Pressimone says. Combine that with a greenfield project that allows for early integration and a limited-access high-speed highway, and the SR 516 project becomes a particular fit for the experiment.
“The technology is proven,” he explains. This pilot is more about refining the setup and seeing how the system holds up in the Florida heat.
And the idea isn’t to drive on that road to fully charge a vehicle, Pressimone says, but to essentially cover the energy spent driving.
“It brings enough charge that … wherever you go in the facility, you’re going to have the same charge when you leave the facility,” he adds.
Outlets like the one planned for SR 516 could be placed every few miles along a portion of the freeway to charge EVs as they travel, eliminating the need for stops. Combine this with future advances in autonomous vehicles and the image of driverless, non-stop trucks criss-crossing the country.
“I think that’s the vision,” says Pressimone. “This won’t happen tomorrow,” but autonomous vehicles and on-road cargo will work together to move goods smarter and more efficiently, he adds.
Cost remains an obstacle for the technology to reach this scale.
“If we can find the means and the methods to get a formwork liner that works, all you have to do is buy it and that makes it just like any other piece of precast concrete out there,” says Pressimone.
The form liner used in the pilot will be sent to Utah, where ASPIRE’s test track is located, and the researchers will contact local concrete companies to see what they can do with it.
“Part of the whole test is that it has to be scalable in the real world, and everything can’t be custom,” he says. “The pilot can be customized, but then it has to be something you can only order. That’s what we want.”
Once that’s accomplished, essentially anyone doing concrete work should be able to make the panels, keeping the cost down, he says, which is part of the goal of the pilot.
