Battery electric lorries may soon receive a charge while on the move in Yorkshire, with overhead catenaries set to be installed on a 20km stretch of the M180 near Scunthorpe.
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Trial of the electric road system – led by Costain and involving Siemens Mobility – would see power delivered to heavy goods vehicles via pantographs. The project is one of several to receive a share of £20M from the Government and be delivered by Innovate UK to develop systems that could support the roll out of zero emission road freight.
The electric road trial would operate in a similar fashion to trolley buses which were a common sight in several UK cities until the 1960s. This week’s announcement marks the start of a nine month feasibility study into the M180 trial. The motorway in question is a popular road haulage route, linking the port of Immingham with logistics hubs at Doncaster and its airport.
Siemens Mobility’s chief executive William Wilson said: “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.”
He added that the M180 trial builds on similar projects delivered in other countries including Germany.
Another of the consortium’s partners is the Centre for Sustainable Road Freight. Its director Professor David Cebon said: “Overhead catenary power will provide the lowest cost, lowest carbon and most rapidly deployable solution to decarbonise long haul road freight in the UK. This project will test the concept at the next level of detail.”
Costain’s managing director of transportation Sue Kershaw added: “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.”
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