Utah's powered pavement: Electric charging roads being developed at Utah State University

LOGAN — Researchers at Utah State University are on the verge of an electric idea. They're rolling out cutting-edge technology, where the road charges your electric car or truck as you drive.

The future of electric cars: no plug, no cords, no waiting hours to charge, because the road does it for you. It's not just a pipe dream of tomorrow. It's being developed at the ASPIRE Engineering Research Center at Utah State University.

"Here at this facility, is focused on this wireless charging, both in terms of a stationary wireless and then also what's called dynamic wireless," said James Campbell, chief strategy officer at ASPIRE Research Center.

Campbell said electronic magnets built into the ground give cars a charge and a push.

"As the vehicle drives by, (it) quickly gets a zap, so to speak, and that can help propel the vehicle to keep going," Campbell said. "It can propel it for about a quarter mile. Then you need another charge, then another quarter mile."

It's pretty amazing technology. A test track at Utah State is used to test different tech to charge cars as they're moving. They're also testing a wireless charging dock that can fully charge an electric semitruck in half an hour.

"We've been developing here at Utah State University a 1 megawatt charger. That's one of the largest wireless chargers in the world — equivalent to about a thousand homes," Campbell said. "Just like with your cellphone, you just put it onto a pad. So you can drive your car up to it, you can pull in there and you can receive a charge without having to plug in."

With this technology, semitrucks traveling longer distances, hauling heavy freight, could park and power up.

Engineers on the project tell KSL it requires rethinking the road.

"Roadways in the future could become something much, much more than just asphalt that we drive on to get from A to B," said Tyler Munk, an ASPIRE civil engineer.

He explained that electrifying the road is no different than installing other utilities currently underground. In one version of the tech, rubber transmitter pads are placed 6 inches under the asphalt, charging any receiving car above it.

"The receiver pad has a coil in it and it receives that, and turns it back into a voltage," Munk said.

Engineering students at Utah State are part of the development.

"It compliments the classroom so well. So I learned the theory in class, but then I get to apply it here," said Sally Vogel, a USU master's student of electrical engineering.

It's hands on education they plan to look back on with pride.

"Just look to that future and say, 'Hey, I was a part of this when it started,' and how exciting that is to just have my hands in the middle of it,'" said USU mechanical engineering student MacKay Baugh.

But it's not just something being worked out in a lab. A fully electrified road is operational right now, being field-tested at Utah's Inland Port in Salt Lake City. A quarter mile stretch at the port's west entrance can charge any equipped car or truck while its moving.

"So this is just one part of the charging solutions that ASPIRE is bringing at this location," said environmental and sustainability director Mona Smith at the Utah Inland Port.

Smith said the next step is finalizing the megawatt pad to rapid charge heavy semitrucks. The port believes its the perfect place to introduce the technology to the world.

"The goal is really to prove that fast charging solutions for heavy-duty battery electric vehicles is possible," Smith said.

It's technology developed in Utah's backyard, practically on our doorstep.

"You don't really necessarily see it happening until it's happened, and I think this is one of those things you're not going to notice happening, until all of a sudden it's there," Campbell said.

An electric idea, grounded in Utah, moments away from becoming reality.

There are 10 universities — including USU, Purdue, Colorado, UTEP, and more — all working on this technology, but headquartered at Utah State University. ASPIRE plans to roll out the technology in full at the Utah Inland Port, late this summer or early fall. They expect the everyday driver could see it in person in the next 10 to 20 years.

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