Further to Electreon’s report for the purpose of implementing a wireless charging project for the metro lines under the responsibility of Cross Israel, the Company is honored to update that on November 3, 2024, the Company signed an agreement with Cross Israel, pursuant to which the Company will design, deploy and maintain a road that enables dynamic wireless charging (while traveling) and static (while stopped) on the metro line in Haifa (the “Project”).
According to the agreement, the company will serve as the sole supplier for Cross Israel for a period of 36 months, during which there will be an operating period of approximately 12 months. Cross Israel will have the right to extend the agreement period for an additional period or periods totaling up to an additional 24 months. The company will be responsible for the operation and maintenance of the project, in exchange for a total of approximately NIS 15.8 million.
Additionally, as part of the project, which was approved and funded by the Ministry of Transportation, the company’s technology will be installed on five Golden Dragon buses for Superbus Transportation and Tourism Ltd., which operates the Metronit line.
The deployment of the company’s technology on the metro route will allow the buses included in the project to be charged throughout their operating hours, thereby extending their travel ranges and operating hours compared to their current operation, where operating hours and travel ranges are short due to the limitations of the battery capacities of these buses. In addition, charging while the buses are in operation will subsequently allow for a reduction in the size of the bus battery, in a way that can significantly reduce the costs of switching to an electric bus fleet, which is significantly more expensive than diesel vehicles.
The project will examine the contribution of the company’s wireless charging system to the efficiency of the Metro’s BRT (Bullet Rapid Transit) fleet, among other things, in terms of logistics, energy, and operational aspects, in preparation for a more extensive deployment and towards a full transition of the fleet to electric buses.
The Metro is a rapid bus system that uses dozens of articulated electric buses, which travel most of their route on designated public transportation routes. The Metro project has 5 lines, with a cumulative length of approximately 104 kilometers, which serve passengers in the Krayot area, Haifa Bay, the lower city, Hadar, West Haifa, Nesher and Vigor, and work is currently underway to extend the Metro to southwest Haifa and Tirat Carmel.
During the operating period, up to 16 sections of wireless charging infrastructure, each 100 meters long, will be installed, according to operational priority that will maximize charging while traveling, from a pool of 2,120 km that have been marked as potential installation locations. Therefore, a total of 1.6 km of dynamic charging infrastructure will ultimately operate along the route of the lines. In addition, the project will include 4 static charging stations.
This article was originally published by Electreon.
