Volvo Hybrid Electric Garbage Truck?
My relationship with garbage trucks is love/hate at best. Of course I want the bags of stuff carried away. (Trust me on this, I have three cats.) But there are three things that make me want to throttle trash men:
- Time is indeed relative to them.
- Anything that involves them having to get off the truck probably won’t get done.
- The truck is a groaning, emission belching behemoth.
Sometimes I watch that antiquated, polluting beast lumbering up the street and I can fairly see the ozone layer dying.
Apparently the Swedes feel much the same way. The Swedish Energy Agency just awarded AB Volvo $1.4 million to develop a variation of the Integrated Starter, Alternator, Motor system (I-SAM) for use in heavy vehicles, in particular, garbage trucks.
The system supports:
- regenerative braking
- electric launch and assist
- electrification of power steering
- air conditioning and air compressor
- avoidance of idle
This is the same system that was developed for use by the US Air Force in Granite construction trucks. The new project’s goal is to achieve 30 percent better fuel economy in the heavy trucks.
Perhaps there is progress in the world when garbage trucks go hybrid-electric. Of course I’ll really declare it a miracle when they can get the garbage guy to jump down off the truck and get that empty six pack of brewskies off the curb.