By Paul Homewood
h/t AC Osborn
An electric road system which could see a network of overhead charging cables along the UK’s major road network ‘would almost completely decarbonise UK road freight’, a report has found.
The plan, which would cost an estimated £19.3billion, would see National Grid powered catenary cables charge 65 per cent of the nation’s lorries using an extendable rig known as a pantograph- similar to those used on an electric train.
The proposal, which has the potential to pay for itself within 15 years, is believed to be ‘technically viable, economically attractive and could be achieved by the late 2030s’, according to the report by The Centre for Sustainable Road Freight.
According to the report, the cables would link to lorries driving on the inside lanes on 7,000km of the UK’s roads and quickly and cost-effectively decarbonise HGVs.
The overhead cables, which are often used on trains, supply the positive and negative electrical circuit that is picked up through a pantograph collector sitting on the roof of the HGV.
The electricity transmitted along the active pantograph would power the lorry’s electric motor and recharge an onboard electric battery, enabling the vehicles to travel to destinations outside of their electric zones.
The pantograph can be easily connected to and disconnected from the contact wire either automatically or manually at the push of a button.
The HGV vehicle can then move away from the wires to overtake or complete its journey.
As most of the comments in the Mail have pointed out, why waste £19bn, just to cut emissions by a tiny 5%?
Claimed savings are at best dubious. What allowance, for instance, has been made for upgrading distribution networks?
Then there are the problems of going off the main trunk routes, In theory, lorries will switch to battery power, but how long will that last? And what about European freight?
And then there is the question of where all of this electricity would come from.
The report comes from the Centre for Sustainable Road Freight, and personally I would not trust anything from any body with “Sustainable” in the name. They claim that the economics are so good that it should easily attract private finance. I’ll believe that when I see it!
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July 28, 2020 at 06:48AM
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