Stop to recharge will be a thing of the past

Abstract: Electric road systems can be defined as a system transferring energy from a road to an electric vehicle while the vehicle is in motion, either to power the vehicle’s movement or to charge its batteries. This thesis aimed to investigate how this relatively new technology of electric road systems could be implemented in a port. The research was conducted by having a two-fold research purpose. Firstly, the research identified which factors were relevant to consider when implementing an electric road system in a port. Secondly, the study examined how ports differed in terms of how suited they were for implementing an electric road system based on the previously identified factors. The work was limited to only studying the electric road system technology developed by Elonroad, and to mainly focus on one type of port operation, namely container terminals. A literature study of current knowledge of the electric road system technology and container terminals was conducted, followed by several interviews with experts to establish an in-depth understanding of these two previously unrelated topics. Based on the information collected, this study created a framework containing the most relevant aspects to consider when implementing an electric road system in a container terminal. The framework and its included parameters then formed the foundation for creating a tool used for identifying differences in the compatibility of an electric road system implementation between various container terminals. A pilot test was conducted on this tool in order to evaluate and demonstrate the usefulness and applicability of the tool. The results of the study showed that there are four overarching factors with thirteen underlying parameters that are relevant to consider when investigating an electric road system implementation in a port. Moreover, it was shown that different ports were variously suitable for an electric road system implementation when examining them using the thirteen identified parameters.