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About
the Company
Energy Transport Technologies
[ETT] was incorporated in year 2000 for the purpose of
developing and manufacturing non-contacting inductive energy
transfer equipment for recharging electric transit buses
from under the road surface at stops and layover stations.
ETT, under contract with H.R.
Ross Industries, has developed, constructed and tested
various designs of coupled inductors and associated power
converters for buses intended to eventually service the
Boston SilverLiner transit network. Unfortunately, September
11 terminated the project.
However, the ETT team
continued with the development of the energy transfer
technology on its own. In year 2002 we successfully built
and tested a high frequency, ultra-thin, multi-coil
transformer-inductor assembly which transferred 125kW over
7” airgap (the approximate distance between the road surface
and the bottom frame of the bus).
The uniqueness of the new
design is that it controls the direction of the energy flow
from the roadway pad to the undercarriage pickup, correcting
for bus to charge-pad misalignment. It works like a magnetic
beam. The vehicle parks over the pad, the direction control
maximizes the power by sweeping its energy beam, and then
just in few minutes, inaudibly, automatically and without
any moving mechanical parts, the vehicle recharges from the
roadside power for many miles. This is the core technology
of our ‘Wireless Energy Transfer’ or WET system.
Applications range from 30’ to 60’ transit buses for mass
transit such as Bus Express Loops [BEL] and Bus Rapid
Transit [BRT]. School Bus fleets are ideal users of the WET,
having ample time for recharging at schools while waiting
for students and overnight at depots. Smaller units for
passenger cars (hybrid and electric) are under development.
In years 2002 and 2003 the ETT
team realized that the Wireless Energy Transfer was the
ideal link between the new alternative energy technologies
of combined heat and power generation [CHP] and a new
generation of hybrid and electric vehicles. The WET enables
the generation of propulsion power off-vehicle with the
dramatic reduction of carry-on fuel and engine weights.
The CHP equipment and
alternative fuel supplies can be installed in the utility
room of a ‘green building’, a hospital, a hotel or in a
‘energy efficient school’ along the path of the vehicle. The
electricity generated in these buildings will be used for
the building itself, but also will be connected through a
microgrid to the vehicle charging pad in the adjacent
roadway. Once the electric vehicle is at the stop, the
energy flows from the facility utility room to the charging
pad, and from the charging pad, wirelessly, to the vehicle
onboard energy storage. |
