The institutional closure of the European Project Unplugged has taken place today in Zaragoza. This Project is a European initiative that in the past two years and a half has developed the fast wireless charging of electric vehicles and has investigated how the use of this inductive charging in urban environments improves the convenience and sustainability of electric mobility. Among other representatives, Marina Sevilla, general manager of Energy and Mining in the Government of Aragón; the general marketing manager of Endesa, Mr. Javier Uriarte; general manager of CIRCE Foundation, Antonio Valero; as well as representatives from across the European Consortium, participated in the event.
The primary objective of the Unplugged Project was to build a flexible inductive charging station which enables to charge electric vehicles up to 50 kW, which is the master key, for instance, when providing a full integration of electric vehicles in the urban road system (dynamic or en-route induction). Unplugged has fulfilled these objectives by examining in detail the technical feasibility, practical problems, interoperability, perception of the user and socioeconomic impact of inductive charging.
Last Wednesday’s agenda has included the real demonstration of this charging system for two different power needs in charging: a light vehicle (3.7kW) and a van (50kW), achieving flexibility of charge in addition to enabling smart communication between the vehicle and the network, in line with the latest inductive charging standards and taking into account interoperability.
The UNPLUGGED consortium is managed by FKA and ENIDE and coordinates the efforts of the main players of the sector: automotive (such as Volvo, Centro Ricerche Fiat, Hella or Continental), energy (ENEL and ENDESA) and transport companies (such as Transport for London) between the various key research and technology centers, such as the CIRCE Foundation, for a total of 17 partners.
The method for charging electric vehicles by inductive charge represents an alternative to the conductive charging method that is performed through connection of a cable between the vehicle and the charge point. Based on this method, the EV user will just park the car over a platform charging underground, and, with no type of physical contact or additional effort, the car battery will be charged.
This innovative system is based on wireless power transfer (WPT) between a device integrated in the electric vehicle (secondary coil) and another buried underground (primary coil), without any connection cable between the electric vehicle and the charging point.
Source: Endesa.
