Inductive Charging For EVs To Be Tested In Berlin 123
cylonlover writes "The increasing availability of more practical electric vehicles has seen inductive charging technology attract the attention of those looking for for a cable-free way to charge EV batteries. German automakers are taking the opportunity to put inductive charging of EVs to a real-world test as part of the 'Effizienzhaus-Plus mit Elektromobilität' project. The project is a German government-backed initiative to build an energy-efficient house that generates more electricity than it consumes, with the surplus being fed back into the grid or used to charge the occupants' electric vehicles."
Low efficiency? (Score:5, Insightful)
I suppose when you only need a few watts of energy for a cellphone or something, I can understand the use of inductive charging. But if you lower your efficiency by a significant amount in a single step while charging a car (a few dozen kWh), and this is multiplied across a population of EV owning people, this is potentially adding a lot of unnecessary strain to the electric grid.
Is it so hard just to plug the dang thing in? We don't have tubeless fuel transfer do we?
In an efficiency experiment? (Score:5, Insightful)
Who's the idiot who decided to put 'inductive charging' and 'energy-efficient' in the same paragraph? If you're trying to be efficient, inductive charging is the LAST thing you want to do. If you really are that opposed to having to plug in, come up with some innovative solution using contacts embedded in the garage like cordless phone cradles. Or do something like bumper cars. Though I bet people wouldn't like the thought of having exposed high voltage contacts...but I'm sure they could figure out a way to make it safe. Hell, even a plug on the front of the car that drives into a receptacle. Inductive is just stupid.
Re:Inefficient (Score:4, Insightful)
You would be incorrect on your assumption. Inductive energy transmission efficiency involves many factors, but as voltage and current raise, recapture losses begin to drop off. Again MANY factors are involved here, but the base assumption that scaling inductive energy transmission up decreases efficiency is false.
Re:Inefficient (Score:4, Insightful)
Wikipedia cites an 86% efficiency for inductive charging.
Gasoline engine [wikipedia.org] efficiency is typically between 25-30%; Diesel engines [wikipedia.org] do a little better, at between 40-50% efficiency. That said, the 86% efficiency rate of EV's is still over 30% greater than that of the most efficient internal combustion vehicles... and that's not good enough?
This is only for the charging. The actual production of the electrical power has additional losses.
Re:Low efficiency? (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, spilt gasoline is a big deal. Aside from it's detrimental effects on the environment, it's also has mildly toxic fumes and it is highly flammable. Every year many people are burned while pumping gas, we just don't hear about it much because, like car accidents, it is one of those risks that we just accept.
As for 'grandma' using a 300 amp plug. I think a clever engineer could come up with a relatively safe plug that doesn't sacrifice as much efficiency as inductive charging does.
Re:Low efficiency? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Low efficiency? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Inefficient (Score:5, Insightful)
I took EE in school. Many years ago. Haven't done a thing with it since. However, the part you seem to be missing (and the AC you responded to) is simple logic, not EE-specific. We're not comparing inductive charging to gas vehicles. We're comparing inductive charging to non-inductive charging. That is, driving your EV to a specific area of your garage vs driving your EV to somewhere that it can reach the proper outlet and be plugged in.
86% efficiency for inductive charging means that when you buy 1KWh from the power company, you're only getting .86KWh to your vehicle. Additional losses come into play after that (and before that as well), but they should be the same losses whether we're using inductive charging or not, so they're entirely irrelevant. Copper wire's losses are negligible over this short of a distance, so when you buy 1KWh from the power company, you're putting 1KWh of energy into your vehicle, for all intents and purposes. That 14% loss is increasing the cost of "refueling" your EV by about 16%.
When comparing against gas vehicles, the mode of charging is relevant in that it affects the overall efficiency of the system. And you have a valid point that the overall efficiency of an EV likely far surpasses gas and diesel vehicles. However, we then open whole new cans of worms - depending on your energy source, the EV may not be a significant overall improvement when considering things like pollution. If your electricity is from a coal-fired plant vs natural gas vs nuclear/wind/solar/hydro, for example. If from coal, the EV advantage may not be nearly as significant.
Having said all that, induction charging can make the convenience of an EV very attractive. You don't have to think about it, you have a fully-charged vehicle every morning. No worrying about making a run to the gas station for regular commutes. If someone else can solve the distance problem, we could get a long way toward a serious contender to take gas vehicles off the road. While this doesn't make the EV a must-have, it is another parallel attempt to get there.
Re:Low efficiency? (Score:2, Insightful)
For super extra credit, provide a standard mechanism to allow a car to identify itself though the plug via a cryptographically secure mechanism (similar to smart card). This would facilitate employers, for example, allowing employees to recharge their registered cars for free with a minimum of hassle without opening the recharging up to everyone in the parking lot. It would also allow cardless recharging at commercial recharging stations -- just plug into a charging station that is on the ShellCharge network and your car is instantly recognized and you're billed as appropriate. It would also allow a multifamily dwelling complex to provide chargers in a very transparent fashion to their residents.
Holy shit a good idea on Slashdot.
Apartment complexes (and the shitty housing market making them necessary for more and more people) are one of the big things holding back plug-in cars.
If people can't plug their car in they're not gonna buy a plug-in car.
Re:Problem? (Score:5, Insightful)
Problem, bad info??
My pissy little 2.2kW solar system, consuming maybe 1/10 of my roof space, has generated over 1400kWh since August. I've cut my daily import consumption by more than half - from 20kWh to 9kWh - and that's still using airconditioning, two fridges, multiple PC's running all day and an electric tumble drier.
A bigger solar system or better engineered house with specific attention to energy efficiency would blow my efforts out of the water and easily have a nett export back to the grid.
Re:Problem? (Score:2, Insightful)
Problem, oh non-worker in the field?
I don't know what outdated fridge you have, but mine consumes on average 300kWh per annum thanks to extremely efficient heat exchangers (the same kind being used in cars, which have typical efficiency of 400% - 1w energy consumed, 4w heat removed from the system.) I also have plenty of low-power and high-power gadgetry in this *HUGE* condo, and I'm still feeding surplus energy into CA's grid from solar and wind. I have a NEGATIVE bill.
Just because *YOU* use a ton of inefficient equipment doesn't mean everybody does.
"There's a reason this is a major government backed initiative: It's almost hopelessly optimistic given today's technology. "
No, it's because people like you aren't smart enough to know how to effectively build and operate such a system on your own, and have it actually work.