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Human-derived climate change—and the droughts, floods, fires, and other environmental crises connected to it—have made it abundantly clear that we have to rethink our priorities when it comes to transportation. Simply continuing to burn carbon-based fuels to power our vehicles, churning out unconscionable quantities of tailpipe emissions, is no longer tenable.
Some of these changes will require major shifts in how we engage with our infrastructure, as well as what it looks like, and how it functions. To this end, researchers around the world are creating, developing, and testing new technologies that can support these changes. Recent developments include a trio of compelling concepts.
Magnetic Cement: Charging time—the additional minutes or hours it takes to provide a power re-up for an electric vehicle (E.V.), versus a gasoline vehicle—is one of the core issues that dissuades consumers and industry from shifting to battery-powered vehicles. Wireless charging is an established technology that works to provide electricity to portable devices like your cell phone. So there has been significant work done investigating how E.V.s can be wirelessly charged, especially while on the road.
The Indiana Department of Transport (INDOT) is currently working with the National Science Foundation, Purdue University, and a German company called Magment to create roadways that could provide constant, high-speed, wireless charging, which would be available to E.V. owners and operators on the move, as they drive. The concept involves cement that has magnetized particles embedded in it, allowing it to provide an accessible wireless electrical charge. The roadbed material will first need to be tested in a laboratory setting, then in a sample roadway, to see if Magment’s claims of robust and efficient wireless electricity transmission are valid, and then whether the roads can be constructed at a viable and safe cost.
This technology could be especially useful for providing consistent power to a new generation of electrified, long-distance trucks, as the amount of freight being carried by trucks continues to increase significantly with our reliance on e-commerce, and diesel-powered tractor trailers are a key source of climate change–causing greenhouse gas emissions.
Electrified Truck Lanes: In many urban centers, especially in Europe, streetcars and trains are powered by electricity, often provided by wires running overhead, and connected directly to the vehicle. Now, Germany is attempting to utilize this same simple technology to power trucks and tractor-trailers, which, as mentioned above, are a very significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. German municipalities are teaming up with Siemens, a major electronics manufacturer, to test out this concept. Testing is currently underway in cities like Frankfurt, where short, heavily traveled routes are being electrified first, and scores of trucks are being outfitted with the equipment that would allow them to switch over from regular diesel power on the highways to electric power when entering electrified corridors.
Reducing emissions in urban areas is a top priority because, when clustered in densely populated zones, delivery truck emissions contribute not only to climate change, but also to pollution. This can cause severe respiratory problems and other issues for the vulnerable residents, who, often because of practices derived from classism and institutional racism, live near depots and highways.
Of course, as with building a local—not to mention national—network of wirelessly charging magnetic roadways, the infrastructural challenges of stringing overhead power lines along highly traveled highways and urban roads are immense and extremely costly. Then again, so are the challenges associated with dealing with the repercussions of climate change and poor air quality. Mandating and incentivizing the purchase of battery-powered trucks for short-haul urban delivery might offer a more ready solution. Companies like Rivian, Bollinger, Canoo, and GM subsidiary Bright Drop are all working on providing such vehicles in the timely fashion in which they are needed.
Reusing Electric Car Batteries: With its popular and affordable Leaf, Nissan was once the leader in U.S. E.V. sales. It has since been bested by Tesla, which makes up for in range what it lacks in affordability. The Japanese automaker seems unlikely to win back the electric crown any time soon. But it has another plan: Nissan wants to become the leader in the upcycling of electric car batteries.
Electric car batteries, like all batteries, degrade over time, and lose their ability to take and hold a charge. If enough degradation occurs, the batteries are no longer practically applicable in a car, due to diminished range and capacity to retain energy.
However, once these batteries lose their functionality in a vehicle, they pose a few issues. Unlike car engines, they can’t simply be rebuilt. Like many automotive components or byproducts, the materials that make them up can be quite harmful from an environmental perspective, and disposal is problematic. So, Nissan (and other manufacturers) have found another solution. These batteries still have enough capacity to be repurposed to store energy—particularly energy created from renewable resources like wind, solar, water, and geothermal. Though the applications would be small scale, they would still be enough to power appliances at convenience stores, robots at factories, or even the electrical functions at railroad crossings. This novel reuse could help diminish the issues with battery disposal, albeit not permanently. Fortunately, there may also be ways to recycle some of the rare, difficult-to-mine raw materials from these batteries, and use them in the creation of new batteries.
