Smart illuminative Charging (SiC) of Future Electric Vehicles Using Roadway Infrastructure

¹ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78249
² Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131-1070
³ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78249

^* Corresponding author: sara.ahmed@utsa.edu

Abstract

Inspired by the fact that there is an immense amount of renewable energy sources available on the roadways such as mechanical pressure and frictional heat, this paper presents the development and implementation of an innovative charging technique for future electric vehicles (EVs) by fully utilizing the existing roadways and the state-of-the-art nanotechnology. The paper introduces a novel wireless charging system that uses LEDs powered by piezoelectric nanomaterials as the energy transmitter source and thin film solar panels placed at the bottom of the EVs as the receiver, which is then poised to deliver the harvested energy to the vehicle’s battery. The lab-scale prototype device was developed to testify the proposed mechanism of illuminative charging (i.e., “light” couples pavement and vehicle as a wireless energy transfer medium), and the synthesized large-area nanomaterial produced high output voltages of up to 52 mV upon mechanical pressure.