[This message has been edited by FieroSTETZ (edited 08-13-2021).]

[This message has been edited by 82-T/A [At Work] (edited 08-14-2021).]

[This message has been edited by randye (edited 08-15-2021).]

quote Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: Hmm... I'm not sure I really understand the cost savings there. These trucks still technically have to have batteries, and... now they will have to have some crazy contraption that attaches to the roof which skids along the lines... which most certainly will add wear to the lines, and of course the cost of suspending all those lines. It would make sense to me that, more realistically: Offer tax breaks for large semi trailers that are completely covered in solar panels on the roof (maybe it extends travel by 50 miles?) Add power / charging stations along the way, independent of normal gas stations (so as to reduce congestion between either) I'm not really seeing the suspension lines making much sense... just me.

I agree in the sense that I cannot "see" stringing overhead electrical lines above any sizable fraction of the roughly 50,000 miles of roadway that comprises the Interstate Highway System in the United States.

It only makes sense (potentially) where there is a relatively short stretch of highway with a high volume of heavy duty truck traffic shuttling between "A" and "B".

This was published not too long ago (2017) on a U.S. trucking industry website:

quote A new, zero-emission highway concept for moving freight is undergoing testing near Long Beach, California.

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quote German technology giant Siemens and the South Coast Air Quality Management District are conducting a one-mile, zero-emission eHighway demonstration in Carson, California, to determine the feasibility of a dedicated electric highway. The test involves three big-rig trucks hauling freight along a stretch of highway that uses Siemens technology to electrify select highway lanes via an overhead catenary system. This catenary system supplies the trucks with electric power, similar to how modern-day trolleys or streetcars are powered on many city streets, but the system also allows for truck operation outside the electrified sections of infrastructure. . . . Unlike a streetcar, these test trucks can connect and disconnect automatically with the contact line while moving to easily switch lanes or pass other vehicles without being permanently fixed to the overhead system. . . .

"Siemens Begins Zero-Emissions Highway Testing in California"
TruckingInfo staff; November 13, 2017.
https://www.truckinginfo.co...esting-in-california

More recently, on that same trucking industry website:

U.S. demonstration project focused on intermodal transport, with heavy duty trucks shuffling cargo between container ship facilities and nearby railroad freight terminals:

quote In 2017, Siemens tested the pantograph concept in a six-month southern California demonstration project, running three trucks along a one-mile stretch of electric highway — one battery-electric truck, a clean natural-gas hybrid-electric truck, and a diesel-hybrid truck. The test took place in Carson, California, near the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, an area where state and local officials have focused a great deal of regulatory and government-incentive-based attention on reducing truck emissions. It’s also a logical place for such technology because there are heavily used stretches of road in and out of the [container ship] ports that would be targets for the overhead charging infrastructure.

"Can 'Electric Highways' Help with Zero Emissions Truck Goals?"
Deborah Lockridge for TruckingInfo; August 6, 2021.
https://www.truckinginfo.co...missions-truck-goals

So I think we could see this on a limited basis here in the United States. Not saying it's anything more than an outside possibility. An old idea that gets revived in the not so distant future.

It's clearly made more progress towards becoming a "thing" in Germany, although it's still very much a work in progress that may not come to fruition as a permanent part of the German transportation infrastructure.

It's not like I personally have an overhead roadway electrification "dog in this fight."

I think I like it partly because of nostalgia.

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Get ready for the forum's number one malefactor to post yet another absurdly overblown rant about Liberals, Leftists, "Greenies" (etc.) being dominated by their emotions, and in so doing, demonstrate once again how he himself is governed by his emotions over his reason, to an extraordinary and seldom-seen extent, whenever he is logged into this forum.

He should just log out of this forum and go back to being "Great Again", without littering up this joint (so to speak) with one more ill-considered word or image.

[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 08-14-2021).]

[This message has been edited by randye (edited 08-15-2021).]

Just a minute here . . . well, a minute and a half.




Select ("click") the image to enlarge it to full size.

[This message has been edited by rinselberg (edited 08-15-2021).]