Utah State University plans to build a test track to research the concept of dynamic wireless charging. Working with the Woodbury Corporation, USU will construct a 4,800 square foot high-bay facility and an oval test track. The facility will provide space, equipment and IT infrastructure to work on electric vehicles ranging from a passenger car up to a full-size bus.

Rob Behunin, VP for Commercialization and Advancement, called it “the next generation of technology in our wireless power transfer program.”

Over the last few years, USU has worked with a USU spin-out company called WAVE to develop technology that would allow a bus to charge wirelessly while parked on an electrical charging pad.

“The desire to move along this trajectory from stationary charging to in-motion charging has always been part of the strategy,” said Behunin. “There are lots of issues if you think a car is going to move on an electrified highway. You have to have load balancing and level of charge; you have to have interoperability between different cars and the roadway. This is all going to be very groundbreaking research.”

USU hopes that the track and accompanying features will attract interest from other research groups and companies to use to test their products.

The university hopes to break ground on the track by late summer or early fall.

Source: The Herald Journal