Solar Frontier announced on Tuesday (Feb 9) its CIS solar panels were installed by Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. (“K Line”), on its newest environmentally friendly transport ship.

K Line’s new ship, a car-carrier named Drive Green Highway, integrates advanced energy-efficient technologies and design improvements to reduce its impact on the environment. It is the first of 8 similar vessels that will be built under K Line’s “Drive Green Project”, and was launched Tuesday at a ceremony in Nagasu Port in Kumamoto, a coastal city in southern Japan.

Drive Green Highway uses its sheer size to improve its emissions efficiency. The vessel is 200 meters long, 37.5 meters wide and uses an improved design that enables it to carry up to 7,500 passenger vehicles at once.

Drive Green Highway integrates among the world’s most advanced environmentally friendly and energy-saving technologies. These range from its greenhouse gas suppression systems in its engines to Solar Frontier’s CIS solar panels on its decks.

Combining the advantages of its design and technology improvements, Drive Green Highway will emit 25% less carbon-dioxide (CO2), 50% less nitrogen-oxide (NOx) and 90% less sulfur-oxide (SOx) per vehicle transported.

Contributing to Drive Green Highway’s energy efficiency is one of the largest solar energy systems on any ship in the world. More than 900 of Solar Frontier’s CIS solar panels have been installed on Green Drive Highway’s top deck, totaling 150 kilowatt-peak of electricity generating capacity. The electricity generated by these solar panels will be used to power all LED lighting on the vehicle deck

K Line selected Solar Frontier’s CIS modules to install on their new ship because they generate higher electricity yield (kilowatt-hours per kilowatt-peak) than crystalline silicon solar panels in real-world conditions. Their strength in hot environments and salt-mist environments, such as at sea, will support Drive Green Highway as it ships cargo around the world.

“K Line is demonstrating how solar energy can improve the energy efficiency and reduce the ecological impact of the shipping industry,” said Atsuhiko Hirano, CEO of Solar Frontier. “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.”

Source: Solar Frontier