The vanadium redox battery - an energy reservoir for stand-alone ITS applications along motor and expressways

This paper presents a new technology/system to supply stand-alone ITS applications along motor- and expressways with electrical energy. The constantly increasing requirement for general mobility, while at the same time ensuring personal safety, requires a broad-based information system, including also the entire network of traffic routes. Focusing on traffic routes, traffic management and information systems are under consideration all over Europe to offer information to the road user. In Austria the national motor- and expressway operator, ASFINAG, is currently implementing a new national-wide traffic management and information system for the motor- and expressway network. One main requirement of the peripheral components of this system (e.g. variable message signs) is a reliable power supply. Costly investments would be necessary to ensure a grid-bound provision of electricity for all components which are implemented on the entire high level road network, about 2,000 km. Therefore ASFINAG together with partners initiated the following R&D project to develop an alternative to grid-bound provision of electricity, state-of-the-art of diesel generators and lead-acid batteries which requires intensive maintenance.