Wireless charging of electric vehicles while running on road.

 University of Colorado Boulder engineers are working to bring it closer to reality

Over the last two years, Afridi and his colleagues have developed a proof of concept for wireless power transfer that transfers electrical energy through electric fields at very high frequencies.

Currently, depending on the make and model, most electric vehicles can travel between 100 and 250 miles on a single charge. But Charging stations are still not available everywhere. So that problem could be solved with this technology ,Afridi said. "We'd like to enable electric vehicles to charge on the go"

 "On a highway, you could have one lane dedicated to charging ,So vehicle could simply travel in that lane when it needed an energy boost and could carry a smaller onboard battery as a result, reducing the overall cost of the vehicle. Today, some small consumer devices feature wireless power transfer, which allows the object to draw energy while lying on a specially-designed pad that is plugged into an outlet" ,  Afridi said.

In his laboratory, Afridi and his students set up metal plates parallel to one another, separated by 12 centimeters. The two bottom plates represent the transmitting plates within the roadway while the two top plates represent the receiving plates inside the vehicle. When Afridi flips a switch, energy is transmitted from the bottom plates. Instantly, the lightbulb above the top plates lights up--power transmission with no wires needed.

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Credit : University Of Colorado Boulder

Most wireless power technology research has focused on transferring energy through magnetic fields - called inductive approach. But magnetic fields travel in a looping pattern, requiring the use of fragile and lossy ferrites to keep the fields and the energy directed - resulting in an expensive system. Electrical fields  naturally travel in relatively straight lines. Afridi took advantage of this property , so he could reduce the cost of the system