Home > Solar Trailer
Solar Powered Trailer
-
Increased mileage and range extension
For an electric truck: getting power is key.
That’s why Edison Motors has engineered the solar trailer.
The test prototype was done using a flat-deck with solar panels, Edison has tested the viability of powering an electric truck from solar panels on the trailer and it works.
-
Project Dry-Van
Edison has taken its off-grid solar project expertise and used that to start the building process of a solar powered van.
Estimated Prototype completion date: Spring 2023
Estimated Available for Sale: Summer 2023
Built On Experience
A history of solar projects
Before Edison there was trucking & solar
Chace and Eric started SEI Logistics in 2015 together with a 1969 Kenworth logging truck. The trucking company grew and expanded into hauling and building power generation projects. And then Eric took on the roll of engineering solar power projects. Our first solar project was a a small First Nations community in Northern BC. We realized they had a huge peak load demand and optimized their 90kw generator down to a 35kw generator, installed a large battery to supply the peak load demand and solar to offset production during the day. The result was a huge reduction in cost with a 2 year system payback in fuel savings. It also lead to quite communities and no diesel engine had to run in the day time.
Doing these types of projects is what led Chace and Eric to start Edison Motors, an electric truck is just an off grid power system after all. With off-grid power system engineering and trucking being their specialty it was time to build an off-grid electric truck.
Before Edison Motors was even started Chace and Eric designed and manufactured these solar light tower trailers exclusively for Finning CAT
From Solar hybrid systems to Solar light trailer manufacturing
The founders of Edison Motors got their first start at manufacturing with the light tower trailer
With their passion for reducing diesel consumption and their experience in construction and dealing with diesel light tower, the partners knew there had to be a better way than diesel. So they invented the 100% solar & battery light tower trailer SLT-6. They designed, test and built these on their own and then through SEI Logistics they entered into an exclusive supplier/manufacturer agreement with Finning CAT to supply solar light tower trailers and ground mounted solar racking systems.
The Solar Dry-Van & Reefer is Edison’s entry in the solar market
Diesel-battery is only 2/3 parts of the off-grid solution
An Electric Semi truck is just an off-grid power system essentially. Instead of running 100% diesel and having an oversized motor to meet peak load demand, our diesel-electric makes the system more efficient by making the battery supply peak load demand.
The only difference between our off-grid mine/community projects and the truck is the lack of solar to meet daytime energy production. The solar trailer is the solution to this problem
Building off our experience with trailer and racking manufacturing, we have built a solar system that can attach to the side of a semi truck trailer and produce energy for the truck
option 1:
solar trailer and electric truck
If the trailer is being towed by a fully electric or diesel-electric truck. The solar trailer can directly send power through it’s invertor to the truck’s batteries. Increasing electric range in real time.
It can also have a battery pack so that when it’s parked at a warehouse it can store this energy for when the truck is connected and then transfer power to the truck or back to the warehouse to lower its energy bill.
Option 2:
Solar trailer only
If the truck is not electric the solar trailer can still make sense for these applications
Reefer - When equipped with battery storage the solar trailer can provide energy to a reefer unit to cool the refrigerated trailer.
Warehouse power - if a trailer spends a lot of time in a yard and waiting to load it can connect to the warehouse/shop powerlines and provide clean energy to the facility
APU Power - APU’s still run diesel for heating and air conditioning, while it’s more efficient than idling its still burning diesel. A solar trailer can run an electric APU without the need for an diesel motor, increasing driver comfort
Auxiliary power: For specialized trailers such as office/shop/supply trailers having the solar and batteries can provide power to run external equipment without the need for an onsite generator, like a giant solar light tower
