Towards high-power bi-directional wireless charging for marine (Meg-3)

Recharging batteries is problematic for maritime, and more-so for maritime autonomy. In harsh marine environments, cables and plugs are exposed to mechanical stress and corrosion.

This 9-month project will work towards an inductive wireless power transfer (WPT) system potentially capable of delivering hundreds of kilowatts of power across metre-scale distances. Wireless charging gains significant advantages by eliminating those issues. Where time is critical, WPT also eliminates the need for connecting and disconnecting plugs, optimising docking time as charging can begin once the ship-side receiver is close enough to the shore-side transmitter.

Wireless charging is therefore a key enabler for electrified maritime, especially autonomy, contributing to reduced greenhouse emissions, reduced O&M costs, increased reliability and increased safety. Furthermore, bi-directional wireless charging with energy storage system connectivity expands the opportunities to decrease the cost of ownership of infrastructure.

Finally, downloading data between submersibles underwater is challenging: radio-waves don't propagate; acoustics is slow; optics visually impaired. Hence, data transfer during the wireless charging cycle is a novelty being sought.

The outputs from this project will be a 3kW, 13.56MHz bi-directional wireless charging demonstrator with data transfer for maritime, charging a docked vessel through the hull at high efficiencies. We call this vessel Meg-3\.