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Sweden is testing a semi-truck trailer covered in 100 square meters of solar panels
(www.popsci.com)
this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2023
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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
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.
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)_/¯