Named ‘Endurance’ and designed and manufactured by clean-tech business Sunswap, this development sees solar panels fitted to the roof of the trailer which, in combination with a modular battery and energy-efficient system, provides an emission free solution to power the trailer’s refrigeration unit.
It is fitted to a Chereau manufactured reefer that has had its specification optimised for efficiency, courtesy of Chereau UK distributor Reefer Trailer Centre. Adaptations include the installation of vacuum insulation panels (VIP), the use of HFO Foam and of half-width sliding bulkheads, for temperature-controlling a smaller area when transporting a partial load. A switch is also fitted to the rear door which turns off the evaporator when the door is opened so that energy is not lost, while a solid front evaporator protector prevents any waste or product getting into it.
The trailer will operate within the fleet of a Tip customer on UK roads with the objective being to establish that zero emission TRU functions at least as effectively as if powered by diesel without determinant to the transport operation.
According to Tip, the TRU is connected to the cloud and capable of collecting thousands of data points in real-time to ensure fridge components are kept within optimised operating parameters to maximise performance and efficiency.
This use of data generated from the trailer’s operation along with tailoring the battery capacity to the operator’s journey requirements and the utilisation of solar panels is expected to facilitate an uninterrupted operation. If required, mains re-charging between operations is available. Throughout the trial, TIP will be receiving regular ‘performance’ reports from Sunswap’s suite of analytics products.
Alastair Gough, head of business development at Sunswap, said: “The trailer on trial is predicted to demonstrate that around 80% of the refrigeration unit’s power requirement can be drawn from the solar panels and that the trailer can be used as part of the triallist’s normal transport operation with no loss of efficiency, whilst producing zero tailpipe emission. Our experiences to date have indicated that the system can be operated at between 10 and 20% of the cost of diesel units.”
