Going green and off-grid

When it comes to electric trucking, Western Australian transport operator Centurion is leading the way. 

Initially receiving funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) in 2023, as of late July, it’s off-grid battery electric vehicle project is now fully operational. 

The major milestone in local sustainable freight transport has seen Centurion commission two of Australia’s first fully off-grid, 100 per cent renewable energy, battery electric truck projects. 

Centurion’s Perth Airport depot operates two charging sites, named North and South. The North charging site was commissioned back in February and the South charging site is now live as of July, adding a further 10 Mercedes-Benz eActros 300 battery electric trucks to service the Perth metropolitan area. 

This addition brings the Hazelmere fleet to 30 electric trucks, all fuelled by onsite green energy supply. South site energy infrastructure includes 2.2MW of rooftop solar, 3.44MWh of battery storage, 75kW and 150kW chargers, and a back-up generator operating on HVO. 

The total project specifications include 30 eActros 300 battery electric trucks, including 25 rigid trucks and five prime movers, 4.4MW of rooftop solar, 10.3MWh of battery storage and 15 dual-port slow and fast chargers. 

On top of this, fully off-grid charging infrastructure and back-up generation using hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) is also at the site. 

“The project is now fully operational, and it marks a significant milestone in progressing our decarbonisation journey,” Centurion CEO Justin Cardaci says. 

“Completing this important infrastructure milestone and having the full electric truck fleet operational is a great outcome for Centurion. It shows that with the right partnerships and investment, sustainable freight solutions are achievable today. 

“Centurion actively seeks to deploy technology where its ready to displace the diesel transport equivalent and the ARENA funding certainly helps support the economics of this project. 

“We’re not only reducing emissions but also providing electric trucks fuelled by green energy that can deliver a high-quality reliable service for our customers.” 

The $36 million project was delivered in partnership with Daimler Truck, Cape Dunstans, Switch Batteries and bp Australia, and made possible through $15.8 million in funding from ARENA. 

Centurion says this project demonstrates how industry collaboration, renewable energy and innovation can drive meaningful change in Australia’s transport and logistics sector, reducing emissions while maintaining operational performance. 

Keeping the charge 

With the two sites now fully operational, Centurion had to figure out how they were going to utilise and manage their uses. 

Holding different capacities and charging times dictated which site the different parts of the electric fleet would use. 

“The concept of the North site is all built around overnight charging,” says CFC Group Manager of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability, Hamish McHaffie. 

“It holds the energy store that it gets from the solar array, stores that energy until the trucks return after a day’s operation, which are typically returning in that sort of 20 to 50 per cent type range. 

“They go and charge overnight, and then they’re redeployed in the morning on their duty cycle of daytime operations. Depending on the level of charge they come back at, they’ll be on charge for 10 to 11 and a half hours at most.” 

With the two sites set up, Hamish believes that this will offer Centurion greater flexibility in managing their electric fleet. 

There will be different operating needs depending on the time of day that they run and the kind of work they are doing. The South site will again offer a point of difference to the charging in the North site. 

“The South charging site will work as our higher capacity site,” Hamish says. 

“It now services up to 10 trucks at a time. That solar array is all geared around a duty cycle for those trucks charging there. 

 “They can go out, operate in the morning, come back in the afternoon, jump on charge, use the sun and that direct generation to charge up and then be redeployed in the evening or nighttime. 

“Potentially there will be trucks that will come back later in the day that we will use that battery storage for, where we can put them on and give them a quick squirt and then send them back on their way. 

“We can put a truck on the South site, give it a quick top up and then we save the North site charging locations for the trucks that will be returning with the least amount of battery charge.” 

While the capacity of Centurion’s solar panels is quite substantial, it is an energy form that still comes with its limitations. 

With keen awareness of this, Centurion is confident through testing that the storage capabilities of its charging sites will overcome even the most overcast and rainy winter days. 

“We’ve designed the project in a way from the outset and in our discussions with ARENA, to give us energy security throughout the winter,” Hamish says. 

“We modelled out very early on what the charge we could store would look like during winter periods, and how that would need to translate to the size of the solar array we would need to build. 

“In some cases, this could be up to seven or eight times what is required on a typical summer, sunshine-filled day, but we know now we’ve got that security. 

“We operate our backup generators on HVO, so biofuels have also become a key component to the grand credentials of the project.” 

Hamish says while the project carried risk to it, especially with the adoption of electric vehicles, taking on a challenge was one of its drivers. 

“A big driver for us was the excitement that we’re taking a bit of a risk,” Hamish says. 

“Because we’ve got to be able to create a system that has energy security, we have to make sure we’re not relying on the grid. 

“We’ve been able to accelerate the introduction of electric trucks into the fleet by having it off grid. Knowing that we’re using green energy with solar and battery charging going into the trucks is a positive too.” 

An electric future 

Looking towards the future, Justin believes that Centurion is continuing along the innovative path they’ve forged in the past. 

The off-grid charging sites are the next step towards lowering their emissions. 

“If you look at our fleet over the 10 to 12 years, we’ve been very quick to adopt the latest Euro standards,” Justin says. 

“We’ve had to be understanding that as our business is growing, our carbon footprint also grows significantly. We’ve been really strengthening our relationships with the OEMs over the last decade. 

“Seeing the new technology they’ve been bringing forward has probably enabled us to see that as a path for us that we see value on.” 

The eActros has been a popular model in fleets looking to boost their electric trucking presence, with the eActros 600 being named the 2025 International Truck of the Year by a jury of 24 editors and senior journalists from the commercial vehicle press in Europe. 

The International Truck of the Year is presented to a truck launched in the previous 12 months that has made the largest contribution to road transport efficiency. 

It was just the second time an electric truck was named the winner of the award. 

In addition to its trio of lithium-ion batteries and reduced noise capacity, the eActros also features two liquid-cooled motors integrated into the driver axle. 

It has 536hp (400kW) peak power output and 443hp (330kW) continuous output. 

A five-stage recuperation braking system works like an engine brake to both spare the service brakes and recoup electricity, which is fed back into the batteries. 

It also comes with Lane-Keeping Assist, Attention Assist and Stability Control Assist, and tyre pressure monitoring, with the ability to use front and side radars – and a front camera – to automatically brake for pedestrians and other vehicles if the driver is distracted. 

Centurion says it has been thrilled with the performance of the trucks so far, and have been able to get great insight as to how they work in conjunction with the off-grid charging. 

“Feedback in terms of driver performance has been fantastic,” Justin says. 

“The Daimler Portal does have the ability to give us some of the insights about driver behaviour and the way they’re performing,” Hamish adds. 

“It hasn’t been a major focus of ours just yet, as we’ve mainly wanted to get the trucks out there and make sure that the energy infrastructure is live and operating and giving us the security of energy that we need. 

“We want to get these trucks used by our various customers and learn the various requirements for them in the Perth metro area. Now that everything’s working, that’s the next step. 

“How the driver behaviour piece works with charging optimisation is something we’ve continued to think about. We might find out that a battery isn’t performing the way it should be, or one particular driver is always coming back with a lot less charge. 

“We’ve also got the knowledge sharing agreement with ARENA to make sure we’re learning these lessons, so having the data management systems in place is an important and exciting part of the project.” 

Centurion is not only looking ahead at how it can change its fleet of trucks, but also the evolution of its drivers too. 

They have developed a key partnership with an inclusive employment pathway to bring people who may struggle with employment into the world of transport. 

“We really deliberately went out and looked for a different group of drivers. It’s another area that’s been exciting for us,” Justin says. 

“We’ve got a partnership with the Western Australian All Abilities Football Association, so we’ve been offering neurodiverse people employment opportunities. 

“One of our drivers, Blake, has been employed through this. Seeing how proud he is of his truck and really enjoying every part of the job has rubbed off on the rest of the drivers, it has been awesome.” 

The next step for the project is to optimise the integration of the green energy and electric truck fleet into Centurion’s wider operations at the Perth Airport depot.  

This project will generate significant learnings, and Centurion, in conjunction with ARENA, will be seeking to share this knowledge across the industry. 

Read about Tim Giles’ test drive of the eActros from early 2025.