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Headline: Electrified Road Opens In Sweden

Caption: PICTURE SHOWS: The electrified road works by transferring energy to the vehicle from a rail in the road through a movable arm. .... STORY COPY: An electrified road that enables fossil-free road transport has opened in Sweden The inauguration of eRoadArlanda on Wednesday (11 April), sees the first road of its kind to allow both commercial and passenger vehicles to be recharged while driving. Approximately two kilometres of electric rail have been installed along public road 893, between the Arlanda Cargo Terminal and the Rosersberg logistics area outside Stockholm. The electrified road works by transferring energy to the vehicle from a rail in the road through a movable arm. The arm detects the location of the rail in the road and as long as the vehicle is above the rail, the contact will be in a lowered position. The electrified road will be used by electric trucks developed as part of the project. eRoadArlanda say: "the project is working to make electrified roads of the future a reality and is part of the Swedish Transport Administration’s pre-commercial procurement of innovation. The solution is based on conductive technology that uses an electric rail installed in roads to power and recharge vehicles during their journey." Electrifying 20,000 kilometres of roads in Sweden with conductive feeds is expected to cost about SEK 80 billion (£6.65 billion). In terms of safety, only short sections of the conductor are powered at a time in conjunction with a vehicle’s passage. This means that if anyone should stand on the road and poke into the track and touch the conductors, nothing will happen until a car is very close, in which case, the risk of impact will be greater than that of an electric shock. The upper part of the rail is earthed, which prevents animals and humans from getting a jolt from walking on the road. The solution, described as "both sustainable and cost-effective", will allow existing public roads to be electrified and help to create a future of fossil-free road transport. “One of the most important issues of our time is the question of how to make fossil-free road transportation a reality. We now have a solution that will make this possible, which is amazing. Sweden is at the cutting edge of this technology, which we now hope to introduce in other areas of the country and the world,” says Hans Säll, Chairman of the eRoadArlanda consortium and Business Development Director at NCC. Tomas Eneroth, Swedish Minister for Infrastructure, and Lena Erixon, Director General of the Swedish Transport Administration, were on hand at the formal inauguration ceremony for the road. “It is important to break new ground when it comes to climate-smart road transport. That’s why the Swedish Transport Administration supports innovative development projects that contribute to long-term, sustainable solutions,” says Lena Erixon, Director General of the Swedish Transport Administration.

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