A new truck and trailer combination has successfully completed the world’s longest zero-emissions, solar-charged refrigerated transport route in Australia.
Protran Solutions’ new Sunswap Endurance completed the trial by driving the 1,671 kilometres between Sydney and Brisbane in a return B-double configuration.
The tag 22 pallet trailer operates entirely on battery-electric power charged by solar energy.
According to Protran Solutions, the real-world trial demonstrated “exceptional performance” over 32 continuous hours of operation, transporting chilled eggs and frozen meat without any external power input from the truck, trailer or grid infrastructure.
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The Sunswap Endurance system runs completely on solar power and electric batteries, with the trial seeing 62 per cent of battery capacity left at the end of the trip. The system ran overnight and in early morning, covering seven hours without solar input, with no power being sourced from truck or trailer systems and no plug-in shore power required.
“These field-testing results have proven what we wanted to validate in terms of cold chain capabilities for solar-powered refrigerated transport for depot-to-depot operations,” Protran Solutions general manager Grant Turner says.
“The Sunswap Endurance system has proven it can handle the Sydney-Brisbane return route while maintaining precise temperature control for frozen and chilled freight types, all without consuming a single drop of diesel for refrigeration.
“What’s particularly impressive to our trial partner was the system’s performance during overnight operations when there’s no solar generation and significant parts of the trip had rain as opposed to sun. The battery reserves and energy efficiency meant that the trip completed the entire journey using just 28 per cent, which is remarkable.
“This gives operators genuine confidence in the technology’s reliability and opens up new possibilities for sustainable logistics within the cold chain sector.”
The trial route encompassed diverse operating conditions, including a 13-hour loaded journey with chilled eggs during an overnight run, followed by a 19-hour frozen meat transport that concluded with unloading at 2am.
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