Sweden is testing a semi-truck trailer covered in 100 square meters of solar panels::A Swedish manufacturer wants to harness green energy from a cargo trailer's free real estate.
Sweden is testing a semi-truck trailer covered in 100 square meters of solar panels
3 years ago by L4sBot to c/technology
jonne 17 points 3 years ago
I feel like it could be great for running cooling systems on trailers and stuff like that, not sure if it would be worth the hassle for adding range.
Even on a purposely designed solar car like the lightyear one it really only works because they used all the weight saving and aero tricks possible, which you can't really do with a truck that's supposed to haul cargo.
variaatio 11 points 3 years ago
Yeah. the one good use I see is reefer trailers. Since some times they have to sit long times, with still the coolers running to keep the cargo within demanded thermal limits to keep the cold chain uninterrupted.
Most cooling is obviously needed when it is hot... so in summer and thus sung light time. So the panels would probably nicely run the coolers instead of having a fuel burning generator keeping the coolers going.
During winter, when there is no light. Well it's probably cold enough ambient the reefer isn't using lot of cooling anyway.
jonne 6 points 3 years ago
Only about half of it would actually be producing power at any one time, at a sub-optimal angle.
But I'm sure someone did the math and it makes some kind of sense for whatever use case they're imagining. Would still probably be better to have static solar panels along highways and charging trucks with some kind of pantograph setup instead.
nous 6 points 3 years ago
But I’m sure someone did the math
I would not put too much weight on that. The number of solar roadway projects and similar tech that when you run the numbers shows it being a complete waste of time - only for many different cities to invest in running a test (at their own expense) only for the project to fail later on for being too costly and not giving the benefits they were promised. Solar solutions seem to be the modern day monorail grift from the Simpsons...
Would still probably be better to have static solar panels along highways and charging trucks with some kind of pantograph setup instead.
This is the type of thing we should be investing in first IMO. A solar truck might make sense some day when solar is cheaper and more efficient - but we currently have a lot of static infrastructure around solar we could be building instead of these less efficient trucks (that is in terms of use of the solar cells, rather than the trust itself).
fuzzzerd 5 points 3 years ago
That's basically the way interurban trains operated for years before the highway system and personal vehicles replaced that mode of transport. It wasn't solar powered back then, but the idea makes a lot of sense.
zoe 2 points 3 years ago
20kwc capacity: nice also add 20kwh lithium storage at 200kg weight and it could help in few instances like cooling perishable cargo or driver's cabin when engine shut off, but definitely not to expand range
ElectricCattleman 34 points 3 years ago
Putting solar on moving vehicles makes no sense except for very specific use cases.
Install those same panels on the ground and you can point them at a good angle for sunlight capture 24/7, don't have to literally carry the weight of them everywhere, don't have to worry about them getting dirty all the time from moving around winter roads, and are much easier to repair.
ElectricCattleman 7 points 3 years ago
Oops 🙊 you know what I mean though.
kionite231 4 points 3 years ago
Put solar panels on a vehical and move it around the globe xD
philodendron 2 points 3 years ago
Put the panels on a plane that flies above the cloud and chases the sun around the earth. And then use all the captured energy to power… the plane?
_apokalipto_ 3 points 3 years ago
Solar panels on one side, lunar panels on the other! Boom! Free electricity 24/7!
n0m4n 4 points 3 years ago
Solar ditches make more sense. Carrying solar panes add weight and air resistance. The trailer area is 416 ft which can hold ~33 panels if panel configurations are optimized for a trailer. Weight will be 3000 lbs, which cuts the tare payload by 6%. This is not enough electricity to run a semi with two drivers splitting driving responsibilities, running day and night, and in weather that does not have power for the cells.
Trains are the most efficient system that we have. I wonder how the math would work for trains? I expect that it would be a net gain, but the added complexity of connecting and disconnecting for each car as the cars get switched in yards would be a nightmare. Once travelling, there is little braking and acceleration, which lowers the power demands.
TammyTobacco 4 points 3 years ago
It'd be good for temporary power after a natural disaster or for an event.
ElectricCattleman 4 points 3 years ago
A tractor trailer FULL of solar panels would be great!
CaptPretentious 6 points 3 years ago
Those don't exist.
Amount of power that can be generated is dictated by the angle to the Sun. You need to be perpendicular. Panels on the ground can slowly move and rotate to kind of track the sun. Or you put a bunch of mirrors and make a tower made of solar panels.
Solar panels on roof tend to be fixed infrastructure. You get what you get.
So if they apply panels to a vehicle you have two options. Flat or angled.
If they're flat and the only time you're ever going to get the maximum amount of power from them is during noon when the sun is directly above your vehicle. If angled that means the height of the vehicle has changed and they direction that they work is very dictated. If they track the Sun then they're probably going to waste more power than they can ever produce by constantly moving because you're on a vehicle that's constantly moving.
GiddyGap 0 points 3 years ago
Those don't exist.
No one said it does.
Generally speaking, solar panels aren’t optimized for near-constant traveling. As such, it’s “fairly involved from a technical point of view,” said Falkgrim. Despite only recently starting prototype testing on Sweden’s public roads, he explained the project is “about seeing if the solution makes sense, and so far we believe it does.” Although such a design isn’t expected to become widespread on roadways for a few years, Scania’s initial testing shows the tech is not only feasible, but promising.
jj4211 4 points 3 years ago
While they could do things to mitigate the angle of incidence, ultimately that same photovoltaic material will fare better angled consistently toward where the sun might be. If you've run out of room everywhere else, sure, time to look at trailers. But so long as we have spare other places, those are better places.
The trailer might be going through shaded areas, there's only so much optics can do to correct for angle of incidence, and the added weight means we are using energy to move them around when they'd be better off stationary anyway.
Even residential solar is a dubious proposition, since you have to work around roof lines that are rarely optimal for solar. In that case it can make some sense for owning your own generation, particularly with battery, to go "off grid", but I have a hard time imagining similar for the trailer.
CaptPretentious 1 point 3 years ago
Those don’t exist.
No one said it does.
Pretty sure these solar panels aren’t just your regular residential or commercial building panels. They are specially made for this purpose.
This you?
BakedGoods -1 points 3 years ago
Ah yes. The old "this isn't an optimal solution that will solve all problems so no one should be working on it"-argument. You must be fun at parties.
CaptPretentious 0 points 3 years ago
Listen this isn't mixing drinks or some opinion piece were there's no one clear way. Things cost money. Every company that would seek to implement this is going to be looking at an ROI. Suboptimal numbers is going to make the project look bad and waste a bunch of money. Sorry if I'm 'not fun' because I'd rather have functional solar power than the appearance of solar power.
AllNewTypeFace 24 points 3 years ago
It’ll help a little in the long summer days. In the winter, when it’s mostly dark, removing the panels to save weight may be a good idea.
Disgusted_Tadpole 9 points 3 years ago
Imagine testing solar panels in Sweden
StickBugged 1 point 3 years ago
Would work for roughly 4 months every year lol
Mnemnosyne 7 points 3 years ago
I swear it seems like some of these harebrained schemes must be being created by people who want solar to fail so that they can point at the failure when the dumb idea doesn't work.
Vahenir 4 points 3 years ago
I could see this working for either running cooling and such for refrigerated cargo or if they stick a battery in the trailer. In the latter case it would be possible to just charge it for free while the trailer sits in a lot somewhere. Then when the truck comes they plug in the battery and use the stored up power.
FlyingSquid 4 points 3 years ago
I'm guessing it won't be driving to Lapland this winter.
nous 9 points 3 years ago
It is also added cost, added weight and complexity. It is only a good idea when those factors are outweighed by the benefits it brings - which is increased range? Or would it be better to put those solar pannels in stations alongside the road where trucks can go and charge up again? Then you can better place the panels to make more effective use of the sun rather than only having maybe half of the facing the sun at a time.
There are trade offs to everything and even if it is just wasted space does not make it a viable solution. We have seen foolish tests before - like the various companies trying to put solar panels under roads which has been a utter failure every single time they have tried - expensive, less efficient, and quickly needs to be replaced due t all the ware. Vs doing the saner thing and putting them above the traffic or in car park roofs... At least this idea has more merit then that. But still worth asking the question as to if it is the best use of resources.
nous 6 points 3 years ago
With all the solar roadways test projects that have been done over the years that every time the experts say is a complete waste of time and then end up failing completely - I don't assume that everything is taken into account any more. This seems like one of those ideas were the resources could be better spent on a different design.
Though I have not run the numbers - I am just skeptical of this solution. Not saying it wont work - just I don't have high hopes for it to be a good solution at this point in time. It seems to me that solar panels in static places are still needed and are more efficient and can feed into the grid when not feeding a battery. And we should be questioning if this is actually a good idea. We seem to have a lot of ideas that sound good on the surface until you actually run the numbers - yet projects like that still get funding. Especially around supposably greener technology solutions.
CaptPretentious 2 points 3 years ago
Because the people who greenlight these projects are usually just idiots in charge of things. This will waste a bunch of money but will give the appearance of trying to do something. They'll make a bunch of money, and they look good doing it. When it fails they will pass the blame to someone else.
AdamEatsAss 23 points 3 years ago
Solar is getting more efficient by the week. It'll always be a marginal gain but it's still a gain. An applications engineer somewhere is likely doing the cost benefit analysis to determine the cost per panel to km of drivable energy produced to determine the x number of year return on the panels. If you assume the lifespan of a commercial long haul truck is about 20 years it could add up to a decent amount of energy savings and the panels would still retain some salvage value after that lifespan.
CaptPretentious 3 points 3 years ago
I love your optimism, bit that's not how any of this works.
It will never be more efficient to put panels on the vehicle. Any vehicle ever. Dirt, trees, buildings, bridges, tunnels, etc. All block light. And panels available today, are around 23% efficiency. And they only get worse over time, estimated a 90% lots at 20 years.
Could they make better panels someday, sure. Would it still make more sense to put those panels on top of buildings or an open areas where they can get lots of sun. Yes.
jj4211 0 points 3 years ago
The issue is that while it may be a trivial gain, that same photovoltaic material would generate more energy in a fixed installation. Also, as an installation on a truck, the weight of the system contributes to the energy needed to move the truck, somewhat negating the benefit.
So sure, have your electric truck. The trickle charging of any onboard solar system wouldn't even be noticeable though, and it's better to have the panels on grid helping drive the charging infrastructure. I saw someone guesstimate a theoretical peak of 25kw. My car charges at home at half of that, and even for my comparatively tiny car, that takes a long time to restore range, compared to it driving down the road. The truck might be able to get an extra 5 miles of range per hour of peak sunlight with 25kw system under realistic conditions, and that same material might be able to extract 40-50% more energy over time in a fixed installation.
Junkers_Klunker 12 points 3 years ago
Might be enough to run the compressor if it's a reefer.
Tb0n3 5 points 3 years ago
874sq-ft is needed for 15kw a trailer is 450. A reefer is around 15kw and needs to be able to run all day and night some times. Just wouldn't work at all. Especially if you had to carry around the batteries for night. It would just be way too heavy.
Ghostalmedia 10 points 3 years ago
I don’t know why you’re behind downvoted. Solar still isn’t great for vehicles. This probably about 7-10 days of travel a year at best.
Seems like there would be better green tech to spend this money on. This seems like a lot of money for not much impact.
kitsuna 4 points 3 years ago
Not much impact for a single vehicle, but if somehow magically deployed at a mass scale 10 days of travel a year erased from even just half of our shipping truck Fleet would be a significant boon.
Let's not forget the panels don't only work when the truck is in motion, there are lots of trailers that just sit in the yard for good chunks of the year. They can now be plugged in and feeding the grid during that time
nous 8 points 3 years ago
How much more of an impact could these panels make if they were put in stationary places where they can make better use of the available light. Rather than have one side always be facing away from the sun and the other not being optimally placed with only the top being somewhat better placed? Not to mention when there is any shadows from trees, buildings etc during the trip. Could we do better by just building a bunch of service stations along the routes that have these panels instead that truck drivers could plug into periodically? Or even be charging batteries that can be quickly swapped when a truck arrives?
IMO this is only a viable option when panels are dirt cheap, we already have solar stations around the place. And ATM seems like we should be better investing in those stations first.
Ghostalmedia 1 point 3 years ago
Given that is about $20k for panels panels on a home, and about $200k to convert a truck to electric.
Given the option of adding panels to 10 trucks, or taking another ICE semi entirely off the road, it seems like the latter is a much bigger win for the environment. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
HappycamperNZ 4 points 3 years ago
They can gain 50,000k extra a year, but its also a plug on hybrid so don't know how much is panel vs hybrid.
HappycamperNZ 1 point 3 years ago
Sorry, 50,000 km
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Rough estimate of 72 cell panels at 2m² and 500W per panel puts this at a peak performance of 25kw. More than twice the average home installation.
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