CU Scientists Working To Recharge Electric Vehicles While On The Road
BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) - Electric vehicles may one day be able to recharge while driving down the highway, and a group of CU engineers will likely have a role in the technology.
Brandon Regensburger has spent years on a project that would do just that.
"There was already this very low power wireless power happening to consumer electronics, we thought what if we can take that same ideology and apply it to electric vehicles," he said.
Their idea was to put the power in the road.
The first challenge was figuring out how to get high amounts of energy across the air gap into a vehicle in motion.
"We would have the metal plates that transmit the power through the air," Regensburger said while demonstrating on a small scale prototype in the lab.
A highway would need to have one lane dedicated to charging. The charging pads would be embedded into the road about every 10 meters, and as the electric vehicle moves over the pad, it would charge wirelessly.
"The vehicles just charge as they drive and never run out energy. It just it overcomes all of the objections everyone has with electric vehicles," he said.
The technology would eliminate the need for an abundance of charging stations and relieve some of the anxiety for vehicle owners.
"(There'd be no) asking 'What do I do if I run out of energy in the middle of nowhere?" he said.
It is a project the team believes could one day revolutionize our daily commute. One he is proud to be pouring his own energy into day in and day out.
"I am pumped. I am excited to work on this every day, it's very exciting," Regensburger said.
