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posted by cmn32480 on Wednesday August 16 2017, @09:53PM   Printer-friendly
from the danger:-high-voltage dept.

Long distance trucking is a grossly inefficient way to move goods from one place to another. But the state of Hesse in Germany is about to embark on a trial which could help improve that inefficiency considerably. As business Green reports, 10 km of highway in Hesse will soon be equipped with overhead charging cables to be used by hybrid trucks to run on electricity when juice is available, and to switch back to diesel when it's not. It's all part of Siemens' eHighway initiative which the company claims would double energy efficiency compared running on gas, and slash emissions even more if those cables are charged from renewables.


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  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday August 16 2017, @10:33PM (4 children)

    by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday August 16 2017, @10:33PM (#555006)

    But only for those 10km, and only for those trucks which are equipped for it, and, since it's a highway, when the trucks are cruising (unless there's a known 405-like jam in there)

    I know you gotta start somewhere, and NIMBY. But maybe 100 times the first 100 m after a traffic light would be more useful?

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 16 2017, @11:16PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 16 2017, @11:16PM (#555022)

    You might have missed that this is for charging.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Wednesday August 16 2017, @11:33PM (2 children)

      by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday August 16 2017, @11:33PM (#555027)

      No.
      It's over the road, for driving power. Tramway on wheels, like in many cities, but able to switch to diesel when the electrified section ends (or to pass).
      10km at 90km/h clocks in at under 7 minutes. Good luck charging a truck battery in that time. THe sparks would be wonderful at night.

      The infographic in TFA is nicely bullshit, giving huge numbers on how much could be saved if every single section of everything had those ugly electrical cables and every truck was suddenly a hybrid (at no ecological building cost, I'm sure). Which is not going to happen.

      • (Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday August 17 2017, @12:21AM

        by frojack (1554) on Thursday August 17 2017, @12:21AM (#555032) Journal

        Yup that's how I read it.

        A ten km demonstration project which will do nothing but ugly up a highway, and not be of sufficient length to charge anything.
        They will probably have to fund the addition of trolley-arms, because no trucker is going to want to shell out for that when it can only be used on this specific 10km of road.

        They are planning to use something different than trolley arms because those are cantankerous. Even the pictured elevated pickup arms on the trucks are likely to rip down the wires on the first swerve to avoid some other road hazard.

        --
        No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
      • (Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Thursday August 17 2017, @08:17PM

        by LoRdTAW (3755) on Thursday August 17 2017, @08:17PM (#555540) Journal

        You want to really make this a fucking disaster? Start a campaign to merge this project with solar freakin roadways. The end result will be so disastrous that you could use it to convince people that burning coal and building 1960's nuke plants is green.