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Ronald Parise of Suffield, Connecticut, thinks he can make electric buses go
farther. Today’s batteries can’t store enough charge for long journeys, and
drivers don’t like stopping for top-ups. Parise proposes using a radio antenna
on top of the bus to pick up microwave signals from overhead transmitters every
few hundred metres along streets (W0 98/50996). Microwave energy is converted
into electricity, which charges the battery or keeps an onboard flywheel
turning. For safety reasons, the transmitters only switch on when a bus is
directly underneath. Each bus has its own low-power radio beacon, which triggers
the transmitter when it gets within range.