In a move that could prevent electric cars running out of power without any way to charge, high tech manhole covers have been designed to charge cars on the go.
The environment is an incredibly important feature to the world’s survival. Our homes run on electricity and often gas, our devices and appliances need to be charged and there are plenty of instances where power is required in order to make the most of technology. While these things can run on renewable energy sources, with wind turbines and solar panels and even wave based ways of utilising electricity being available, there’s one industry in which this is more difficult to implement – our cars. But what happens if a more eco-friendly electric based car runs out of juice on a long journey or even a short drive? It will need to be charged, or pushed from one place to the other and since neither of these solutions will be particularly fun for anyone, one start-up has created high-tech manhole covers to do the job of charging when electric cars are out and about.
Created by a New York City based start-up, called HEVO Power, the company are billing their newly founded creation as a kind of ‘wireless charging station’. With implementation that sees these charging stations resemble manhole covers that you’re likely to see on many American streets, the proposed units aren’t as obtrusive as, say, a dedicated wind turbine or an entire lot of solar panels dedicated to charging electric cars. HEVO Power describes the devices on their company website as “[a] durable, embedded hardware unit [that] will be deployed as a sustainable infrastructure device in city streets, parking lots and garages, motor pools, highways and other highly trafficked areas,” It’s also said that HEVO Power are looking to collaborate with the New York University to roll out the electric car charging scheme into pavements near Washington Square Park by early next year.
However, while the benefits are clear, the invention, which is classed as a “Level 2 charging station” will see cars take around 8-12 hours to fully charge a vehicle, which is hardly ideal for those who are only going to be parked in a parking spot for 30 minutes or less. HEVO Power founder Jeremy McCool does say that should multiple HEVO Power charging stations be placed on a street “as you go down the street you’re collecting a charge” so perhaps there are some benefits to this yet.
We’ll keep you posted as we know more.
Source: Computer World, Fast Company
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