Protran Solutions has announced a semi towing a solar-powered refrigerated trailer manufactured by UK-based Sunswap has successfully completed a 1,671 km round trip between Sydney and Brisbane, running entirely on battery and solar power.
Sydney-headquartered Protran said the real-world trial of a Sunswap Endurance trailer unit, which is powered by onboard batteries and roof-mounted solar panels, demonstrated exceptional performance over 32 hours of continuous operation, transporting temperature-sensitive freight without any external power input from the truck, trailer, or grid infrastructure.
“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 General Manager Grant Turner said. “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.”
Turner said he was particularly impressed with the integrated battery and solar system’s performance during overnight operations when there was no solar generation and the fact that rain fell for significant stretches of the trip.
“The battery reserves and energy efficiency meant that the trip completed the entire journey using just 28% which is remarkable,” he said. “This gives operators genuine confidence in the technology’s reliability and opens up new possibilities for sustainable logistics within the cold chain sector.”
Results from the trial show the trailer used a total of 85.9 kWh of energy, with 27 kWh coming from the battery and 58.9 kWh generated by solar with 62% battery capacity remaining at the end of the trip. The use of the solar power reduced diesel consumption by 64 liters of diesel and avoided 172 kg of carbon emissions.
Transport is Australia’s third-largest source of greenhouse emissions, according to government data, and is on track to become the highest-emitting industry by 2030, with heavy trucks a major contributor.
Sunswap said its technology delivers not just a zero-emission alternative to diesel-powered transport refrigeration systems commonly used in cold-chain logistics but provides up to 81% reduction in operating costs.
“Operators are choosing Endurance because it handles demanding operations better than diesel while cutting costs dramatically,” Sunswap Chief Executive Michael Lowe said.
Sunswap said its Endurance units are already being used across the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Chile, and production is scaling rapidly to meet international demand.
The company said the units deliver 24 hours of frozen operation from a single charge, with solar panels mounted across the trailer roof continuously charging the onboard batteries, extending range and reducing charging requirements. The batteries can also be topped up from the grid overnight. The units handle -25 C frozen to ambient temperature control.
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The trailer sounds like it will be a great edition to the industrial sector. I can’t wait to see it on the roads in the U.S., when tariffs end. I didn’t notice any mention of the type of batteries used. What type of batteries were they?