Swedish truck manufacturer Scania introduced a unique solar-powered hybrid truck model last week. The one-of-a-kind vehicle is currently being tested on public roads in Sweden as part of a two-year research collaboration.The world’s first truck powered by solar energy
In a press release by Scania, it was stated that the plug-in hybrid truck has a 560 horsepower engine and comes with an 18-metre trailer covered with new lightweight tandem solar panels that provide the electric propulsion of the vehicle. More than 100 square meters of space on the trailer is covered with panels containing Midsummer’s new perovskite solar cells, which are said to produce twice as much energy as conventional solar cells. Scania claims that this is the first time a truck of this size is powered by electricity from solar panels.
This project is part of a research project aimed at developing solar-powered trucks with low climate impact and is partially funded by the Swedish government’s innovation agency, Vinnova. For those wondering, the vehicle has a total battery of 300kWh, of which about 200kWh is in the trailer section.Scania claims that the solar energy produced by these panels can provide a range of up to 5,000 km per year in Sweden, but double that in sunnier countries such as Spain, reaching around 10,000 km.
There is still a long way to go before the use of solar energy in automobiles becomes widespread, but if this happens, automobile emissions are expected to decrease significantly. As of today, the vast majority of vehicles on our roads have internal combustion engines that use fossil fuels to generate power. Even electric vehicles get their electricity from conventional sources, which often includes thermal energy from burning coal.
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