August 2021

42 n TRANSPORTATION July/August 2021 www.drivesncontrols.com Scunthorpe e-highway could fast-track UK to the future of freight E lectric lorries that draw their power from overhead cables could be running along a 20km stretch of the M180 motorway near Scunthorpe by 2024, following the decision by the Department for Transport to fund UK’s first study looking at the electrification of long- range trucks with dynamic charging, using overhead wires. The £2m study is part of £20m allocated to zero-emission road freight trials under the government’s recently announced Transport Decarbonisation Plan. HGVs (heavy goods vehicles) are currently responsible for 18% of all road vehicle CO 2 emissions in the UK, despite representing just 1.2% of the total number of vehicles on the road and 5% of the total miles driven. These vehicles are, however, essential to the UK economy, transporting 98% of the nation’s food, consumer and agricultural products. The new plan describes them as being“critical to our economic well-being”. New diesel and petrol lorries will be banned in the UK by 2040 but, at present, there are no large-scale technologies capable of powering long-haul lorries with no exhaust emissions. The size and cost of lithium-ion batteries needed to power fully-laden trucks over long distances makes battery-only systems unattractive, while using fuel cells would require advances in technology and a refuelling infrastructure. A report last year from the Centre for Sustainable Road Freight (a joint initiative involving Cambridge and Heriot-Watt universities), found that“electric highways”using overhead powerlines could reachmost parts of the UK by the late 2030s at a cost of £19bn. “Overhead catenary power will provide the lowest cost, lowest carbon, and most rapidly deployable solution to decarbonise long-haul road freight in the UK,”says the Centre’s director, Professor David Cebon. The idea is to use adapted trucks that draw power from overhead wires via pantographs, similar to those used for trains and trolleybuses. As well as powering the truck directly, the electricity will also charge a battery, allowing the truck to detach from the line to overtake and to reach its destination, with zero emissions from start to finish. The new project, funded via Innovate UK, is being led by Costain, and will include the truck-maker Scania, Siemens Mobility and SPL Powerlines among its partners. The latter three have already been involved in e- highway projects in Germany and Sweden, the latest of which involves five trucks running on a 3.4km stretch of highway in Germany. The UK initiative plans to deploy the technology on a much larger scale than attempted elsewhere to date. The project will look at electrifying at least 30km of the M180 linking the port of Immingham with logistics hubs in Doncaster and its airport. The partners plan to take the lessons learned from the European projects, and provide technical, economic, and environmental recommendations for installing a proof-of- concept with a bigger demonstration fleet. An electric road system across the UK could create tens of thousands of jobs, with around 200,000 new electric trucks being needed over a 10–15-year period. It will provide an opportunity to revamp the UK truck-building sector and its supply chains, futureproofing it by accelerating digitalisation. Research by the consortium has found that truck operators could recoup investments in new vehicles within 18 months, due to their lower energy costs, while the infrastructure would pay for itself within 15 years. According to Sue Kershaw, managing director of transportation at Costain:“This study is another important step towards understanding how industry could work together to tackle one of the largest carbon emission producers in the country and create a cleaner, greener and more efficient road freight network across the UK.” WilliamWilson, CEO of Siemens Mobility adds:“Investing in proven technologies like eHighways can help us go further and faster to decarbonise the UK’s transport network, and support jobs and growth to level up the country. By building on successful trials from other countries, our trial will help the UK move a step closer to replacing polluting trucks with clean, efficient electric HGVs.” n A new government-funded study could lead to electric trucks powered from overhead lines running along a 30km stretch of motorway near Scunthorpe by 2024. The technology is thought to be the cheapest and most rapidly deployable way of decarbonising long-haul road freight in the UK. Several e-highway pilot schemes, such as this one in Germany, have proven the viability of the technology. Photo:Ministerium fürVerkehrBaden- Württemberg