Tokyo-based Solar Frontier says that its CIS (copper indium selenium) thin-film photovoltaic (PV) solar panels have been installed by Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd (K Line, one of Japan's largest shipping companies) on its newest environmentally friendly transport ship.
The car-carrier 'Drive Green Highway' (which is 200m long by 37.5m wide, weighs over 76,000 tons and carries up to 7500 passenger vehicles) integrates energy-efficient technologies and design improvements to reduce its impact on the environment. It is the first of eight similar vessels to be built under K Line's Drive Green Project, and was launched at a ceremony in Nagasu Port in Kumamoto, a coastal city in southern Japan.
As well as energy-saving technologies including greenhouse-gas suppression systems in its engines, Drive Green Highway has more than 900 Solar Frontier CIS solar panels installed on its top deck, totaling 150 kilowatt-peak of electricity-generating capacity (one of the largest solar energy systems on any ship in the world). The electricity generated will be used to power all LED lighting on the vehicle decks.
Solar Frontier says that K Line selected its CIS PV modules for the new ship because they generate higher electricity yield (kilowatt-hours per kilowatt-peak) than crystalline silicon solar panels in real-world conditions, as well as being resistant to hot environments and salt-mist environments, such as at sea.
Combining the advantages of its design and technology improvements, Drive Green Highway should emit 25% less carbon-dioxide (CO2), 50% less nitrogen-oxide (NOx) and 90% less sulfur-oxide (SOx) per vehicle transported.
"K Line is demonstrating how solar energy can improve the energy efficiency and reduce the ecological impact of the shipping industry," says Solar Frontier's CEO Atsuhiko Hirano. "This is one example of the greater role that solar energy has to play in our future, supporting an ever broader range of technologies in a wider range of industries."
