USU Breaks Ground on Electric Roadway Test Facility

Utah State University broke ground Sept. 23 for its Electric Vehicle and Roadway (EVR) Research Facility and Test Track, the first facility of its kind in the United States.

The complex will include a 4,800-square-foot research building and electrified quarter mile oval-shaped test track designed to demonstrate in-motion wireless power charging for electric vehicles. The EVR will be located near the existing USU Power Electronics Lab at USU’s Innovation Campus to leverage the combined capabilities of the two facilities.

The EVR will work toward developing electric vehicles with unlimited range. Using wireless inductive power transfer pads embedded in the roadway, electric vehicles can seamlessly charge while in motion, drastically reducing the need for large battery packs and cumbersome charging stations. Utah Business

2 Northern Utah projects among UDOT's top 10 for 2013

UDOT plans to continue repaving U.S. 89/91 from the Sardine Canyon summit to State Road 23, also known as Center Street in Wellsville. Daytime lane closures will be taking place throughout the summer. This project is number six on UDOT's top 10.

Next on the list is a unique interchange for Northern Utah. UDOT is planning on constructing what it refers to as a diverging diamond interchange, or DDI, on the I-15 and 1100 South interchange in Brigham City [see the related YouTube video below for a simulation of how a diverging diamond interchange works]. Cache Valley Daily

Wirelessly-Charged Electric Bus Unveiled in Utah

The next-generation of electric vehicle technology was on display last week, as Utah State University (USU) rolled out a wirelessly-charged electric transit bus.

Dubbed the “Aggie Bus,” the 22-foot vehicle powers-up by sitting over charging pads embedded in the roadway. Through a magnetic field, the bus receives 25 kilowatts of energy — enough power to drive approximately 30 miles before needing a recharge.

For the initial demonstration held on Thursday, Nov. 15, researchers charged the bus in a garage-like laboratory with an above-ground charging pad, and then took university and media passengers on a short ride.

Officials tout the Aggie Bus as the first bus to receive wireless energy of up to 25 kilowatts with more than 90 percent efficiency over an air gap of six inches. That gap includes roadway materials such as asphalt.

From a consumer perspective, the system is similar to rechargeable pads that mobile devices sit on to wirelessly recharge. But in this case, the device could sit on a shelf above the pad and still receive power.

The idea is that eventually, a public transit bus could charge up, go on its route and, every time it stops to pick up passengers, it would sit above an in-ground charging pad that would recharge the vehicle.

If it works as planned, the technology could set the stage for a viable form of non-fossil fuel power. Some work still needs to be done before you’ll see big city transit authorities adopting the technology, however. Researchers must still test various forums of surface materials to determine which are the most conducive to charging, and they need to increase the height of the air gap. But officials believe the question is now a matter of “when” rather than “if.” Government Technology

Utah’s pollution-cutting plan moves on despite resistance

State regulators pressed forward Wednesday with a thick package of rules to cut winter pollution in northern Utah.

With proposals to expand auto-emissions inspections, encourage public transit and cut industrial pollution, the sweeping emissions-cutting plan would impact all those living and doing business in the state’s inversion-plagued urban areas. And that explains why one area — Cache County —already has balked at implementing a key regulation: requiring its residents to begin emissions testing on cars and trucks.

Even though the state’s air-pollution experts have been working on the plan for more than two years, it still falls short of the health-based pollution standards the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is requiring states to meet by 2014. And while harmful PM 2.5 pollution will be cut significantly, regulators continue to search for still more reductions in the microscopic soot that builds up in the basins during winter inversion periods.

EPA standards allow a daily average of up to 35 micograms per cubic meter of PM 2.5 pollution in the air for no more than seven days a year, but that limit is exceeded as many as 30 times some winters. (On the other hand, the state easily meets the annual average limit of 15 micograms of PM 2.5)

In Salt Lake County, another 5 percent reduction in emissions is needed even with a five-year deadline extension to 2019. New data from fast-growing Utah County shows further reductions of more than 10 percent in emissions would be needed to meet EPA limits there. With an emissions-testing program, Cache County is expected to meet the EPA standard. Salt Lake Tribune

Cache County OKs road funding

Six road projects in Cache County will collectively receive $5.4 million from the county’s road tax.

The County Council on Tuesday approved the allocation — exactly as the valley’s mayors and county executive, or Council of Governments, had recommended — but not before some disagreement over Logan’s 200 East project between 450 North and 1250 North, which will receive $3.1 million.

A motion made by Councilman Val Potter to wait on funding 200 East failed by a 4-3 vote.

“I wanted to hear the input from Logan city on that, and my concern was the safety issues,” Potter said later in the week. “We as a council had heard a number of complaints from residents about the safety of the roundabout being right next to the middle school. I wanted to put the funding for the project on hold until we heard back from the results of their evaluation.”

Councilman Craig Petersen argued that the council should not get involved in a “technical issue about how we build a road.”

“I just find it odd that we would substitute our judgment for the city’s,” Petersen said. “Based on the preferences for how a road should be built, I just don’t think that’s an adequate reason for us to micromanage.” Herald Journal

Cache County mulls mandatory smog checks

The Cache County Council is pursuing plans for a mandatory vehicle emissions testing program to comply with federal air quality standards.

The Herald Journal of Logan reports a group  comprised of representatives of the county, Bear River Health Department and Utah Division of Air Quality held its first meeting last week to discuss how to implement the program.

In December 2009, Cache and Franklin counties were designated a single "non-attainment" area by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for violating a federal air quality standard related to particulate-matter pollution. Standard Examiner

Utah State University shuttle system getting wireless electric bus

If batteries did not weigh or cost so much, most drivers might be wheeling electric vehicles by now.

A new Utah State University technology could overcome this barrier to electrically powered transport. How? By transferring power through the air, from charging pads embedded in a road to a vehicle’s undercarriage 10 inches above, minimizing the need for on-board power storage.

This fall a USU start-up company will test the economic viability of such as wireless power transfer, or WPT, in the shuttle bus system at the University of Utah. Fueled with a federal grant, the U. is installing charging pads at bus stops and buying new electric buses to supplement its 28-bus fleet of diesel and compressed natural gaspowered vehicles. Salt Lake Tribune