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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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Technology
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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.
Yeah but we're talking 100 square metres here, that could make a significant difference.
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.
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.
Yeah, I know it's basically reinventing trains, but it would be a great inbetween solution to have trucks stay in a dedicated lane in a semi-automatic mode on long stretches, while they can service the last few kms without having to transfer the load.
If you call them PanoPods you can probably get venture capital funding and then just go buy a train and paint it with a cool design.