Outside Visby on the Swedish island Gotland, the installation of the world's first wireless electric road has been completed, Kallanish learns from power company Vattenfall.

When it comes to long haulage heavy transport, it may not be enough to charge the batteries in charging stations along the road. Instead, segments of the roads could be electrified so that vehicles may be charged while driving, Vattenfall explains the idea behind the project.

For the Smartroad Gotland, 1.5-metre-long copper coils were installed under the asphalt on a public road between the airport and the city center. With the help of corresponding coils in the vehicle, the electric power is transmitted via induction. As a partner in the project, Vattenfall has, among other things, delivered an energy storage through its solution power-as-a-service. The large battery has a power output of 240 kilowatts and is partly fed from solar cells.

It is in Sweden and Germany that most projects on public roads are carried out. In 2017 the countries entered an innovation partnership, with electric roads as one of the areas of cooperation. Today also France is part of this partnership. In Germany, a similar wireless electric road is also being built for a bus line in the city of Karlsruhe.