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...Also why do they have to make roads out of them.. where did that come from? Just put them out on land somewhere, you don't have to drive all over them.

This was my first thought too. Making the solar panels into roads (or vice versa) is compounding the problem. Just put the 25,000 mi^2 of solar panels in the middle of the desert and call it even. Adding a layer of glass or some sort of protective surface is going to lessen the efficiency and raise the cost of production and maintenance. I'm all about green energy, but there are better places we could be spending our money and energy.

Back at uni, I did a mini-course on the the Solar Car challenge, because my University made some of the solar panels for the top cars, and we also had a car that entered and did fairly well (for a low budget). One of the things we learned was that solar cells lose efficiency very quickly from a variety of things. The two that most researchers ignored in the lab but mattered in the field was heat and dirt. The cars in the race are washed with cold water thoroughly at every opportunity because colder, cleaner cells are substantially more efficient. Think CPU overclocking - lower temperatures improves things a lot.

Now lets compare this situation to a typical road which is:
a) Blistering hot most days.
b) Really, truly, thoroughly dirty.

Sounds like the perfect place to put an expensive solar cell panel!

Another thing we learned is that a single "test" panel in a lab operates very differently to a bunch of real panels in the field. What a lot of naive researchers miss is that the amount of sunlight over the entire collecting surface in the real-world is not constant. For a one-square-foot panel, it is, but for any significant surface (the size of a car, road, whatever), it won't be. The surface will be curved or partially shadowed. This matters a lot because if you just connect a bunch of cells together, they perform roughly the same as the worst of the lot. If there's a few cells under a shadow, that's drags down the efficiency of the panels receiving sunlight. To efficiently extract energy from a bunch of panels receiving differing amounts of light takes a bunch of expensive power management electronics that can combine the different cell outputs in the right way.

In practice, cells are so expensive that the best place to put them is on huge, flat, orientable panels out in the desert where there's no clouds, no rainfall to cake dirt onto the panels, and they can be oriented to face the sun at all time, like this array in southern California.

UNSW is a true veteran of the solar car racing world. I wish them all the best of luck in their treck across the outback, and hope they bring lots of spare tires!

Let me take this opportunity to plug the premire solar car race, coming up this October, for its 20th anniversary, the World Solar Challenge. I hope to be there, and I'm sure UNSW will join the rest of the field. Everyone come watch if you can, or at least follow along online.

http://www.wsc.org.au/2007/

• Best grade solar cells: triple junction cells which are normally only used in satellites, efficiency around 25%. Probably only the top 3 cars can afford this.
• High efficiency electronics: maximum power point trackers and brushless motors, both with efficiencies over 95%. Most teams use this.
• Low weight (less than 200 kg): judging from the pictures the car is a load bearing carbon frame, which is much lighter than a tube frame with a shell as used by most other teams. Low weight obviously saves energy when going uphill and it is said to save a lot of flat tires.
• Aerodynamics: the design was heavily optimized and tested in a windtunnel. With side-wind, for example, the design works a little bit like a sailing boat. One of their advisors is world famous for his designs of glider wings.
• Lot of testing and preparation: they did first aid courses, skid courses, test drives on the local race track (the local formula 1 driver did some laps), they have been in Australia for more than a month before the race to test on the road, ....
• Good facilities/advisors: TUDelft is a technical university with (among others) faculties of aerospace, electrical and mechanical engineering. One of the advisors was former astronout Wubbo Ockels.
• A lot of money to pay the things above: they got a huge sponsorship deal with a big local electricity company. Budget per race is probably around 1MEuro. Part of the money comes from the university itself, which has paid back big time in PR value.
• Hard work: as I understood the whole team (~11 persons) took a one year brake from their studies.

• Best grade solar cells: triple junction cells which are normally only used in satellites, efficiency around 25%. Probably only the top 3 cars can afford this.
• High efficiency electronics: maximum power point trackers and brushless motors, both with efficiencies over 95%. Most teams use this.
• Low weight (less than 200 kg): judging from the pictures the car is a load bearing carbon frame, which is much lighter than a tube frame with a shell as used by most other teams. Low weight obviously saves energy when going uphill and it is said to save a lot of flat tires.
• Aerodynamics: the design was heavily optimized and tested in a windtunnel. With side-wind, for example, the design works a little bit like a sailing boat. One of their advisors is world famous for his designs of glider wings.
• Lot of testing and preparation: they did first aid courses, skid courses, test drives on the local race track (the local formula 1 driver did some laps), they have been in Australia for more than a month before the race to test on the road, ....
• Good facilities/advisors: TUDelft is a technical university with (among others) faculties of aerospace, electrical and mechanical engineering. One of the advisors was former astronout Wubbo Ockels.
• A lot of money to pay the things above: they got a huge sponsorship deal with a big local electricity company. Budget per race is probably around 1MEuro. Part of the money comes from the university itself, which has paid back big time in PR value.
• Hard work: as I understood the whole team (~11 persons) took a one year brake from their studies.

• Best grade solar cells: triple junction cells which are normally only used in satellites, efficiency around 25%. Probably only the top 3 cars can afford this.
• High efficiency electronics: maximum power point trackers and brushless motors, both with efficiencies over 95%. Most teams use this.
• Low weight (less than 200 kg): judging from the pictures the car is a load bearing carbon frame, which is much lighter than a tube frame with a shell as used by most other teams. Low weight obviously saves energy when going uphill and it is said to save a lot of flat tires.
• Aerodynamics: the design was heavily optimized and tested in a windtunnel. With side-wind, for example, the design works a little bit like a sailing boat. One of their advisors is world famous for his designs of glider wings.
• Lot of testing and preparation: they did first aid courses, skid courses, test drives on the local race track (the local formula 1 driver did some laps), they have been in Australia for more than a month before the race to test on the road, ....
• Good facilities/advisors: TUDelft is a technical university with (among others) faculties of aerospace, electrical and mechanical engineering. One of the advisors was former astronout Wubbo Ockels.
• A lot of money to pay the things above: they got a huge sponsorship deal with a big local electricity company. Budget per race is probably around 1MEuro. Part of the money comes from the university itself, which has paid back big time in PR value.
• Hard work: as I understood the whole team (~11 persons) took a one year brake from their studies.

...and if you actually want to see the article, rather than timing out, you can get the NYUD cache:

World Solar Challenge

No they don't they already have google maps:

http://www.wsc.org.au/2005/on.the.road/map/

MIT give us our soldering iron back. They've put tape over dead cells on their array, with little messages like "You should see the other guy's car!", and "Our driver is from Harvard."

And, yes, there's a whole lot of sfa between Darwin and Port Augusta (the southern end of the Stuart Highway) - I've driven it many times.

From the University of Calgary

MIT's Tesseract met with disaster. Tesseract's front, left, carbon fiber tire rim broke on a tight turn causing the driver to loose control and roll over. After a few tense moments it was announced that the driver was okay, walking away with only a sprained wrist and some very rattled nerves. At the team meeting later in the day, it was mentioned that when the solar car was righted, the driver's head actually bumped the ground as the canopy had split on impact. Thankfully, MIT is one of a few teams participating in the WSC that prioritizes safety over aerodynamics, using both a roll bar and a helmet. No one doubts that the inclusion of these two safety measures assured that the driver was able to walk away today. Tesseract, on the other hand, did not fare as well as its driver. The array and top shell suffered substantial damage, but like any dedicated team, MIT is now burning the midnight oil in hopes of being on the starting line tomorrow morning

http://www.wsc.org.au/2005/on.the.road/map/

Provisional results have been posted in the media section of the offical World Solar Challenge site.

Provisional results have been posted in the media section of the offical World Solar Challenge site.

They may start with batteries charged with 5kWh of stored energy

http://www.wsc.org.au/2005/competition/vehicle.cla sses/solar/

> during the qualification they got off track and rolled over.

Upside down country did it, the solar car was merely trying to right itself.

Another oddity, that khaki colour car there looks like a 4 door GTO 'coupe'

Strange

I'm also curious how they plan to keep solar cars from mixing with general traffic; there has been at least one fatal accident involving a solar car (which came apart like paper mache) a few months ago when a solar vehicle was being tested.

The rules of this race and the World Solar Challenge are similar. (I believe this is deliberate, so a car built for one race can race in the other.) The cars are required to have escort vehicles at all times in the World Solar Challenge. I should imagine the American race would be the same.

Honestly, what was wrong with an enduro race on a closed race circuit? At least then it would be more controllable, and emergency/rescue crews would be barely a minute or two from any participant. There are numerous reasons we do our racing OFF public roads...

The Toronto solar car, and similar vehicles at universities around the world, serve as rolling testbeds for high-performance solar technology. They are not intended as commercial vehicles, being rather long-distance race cars designed for competitions like the World Solar Challenge) and SunRace.

For a collection of photographs, see the WSC photos from 2003. To keep the scale intact (and because it is the vehicle I have easy numbers for), the "Queens" car in the lower-left corner of the page is approximately 6m long, 2m wide and 1m high. The vehicles are extremely light, with the Queen's car coming in at 410 kg (902 lbs) without driver. [1]

Periodically (*) the Canadian vehicles tour regions of the country to provide a conservation and engineering presentation aimed primarily at high school students. I doubt that CBC's comment relating the tour to last summer's blackout has any basis. It appears that the tour kicked off at the end of July.

My heart goes out to those who knew Andrew Frow.

*: Possible annually, the Canadian Solar Tour site I found is currently down.

[1] Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. <http://www.solarcar.queensu.ca>. Referenced numbers from <http://130.15.142.62/solar/CurrentCar>. (Both will slashdot really easily, so not linked)

The Toronto solar car, and similar vehicles at universities around the world, serve as rolling testbeds for high-performance solar technology. They are not intended as commercial vehicles, being rather long-distance race cars designed for competitions like the World Solar Challenge) and SunRace.

For a collection of photographs, see the WSC photos from 2003. To keep the scale intact (and because it is the vehicle I have easy numbers for), the "Queens" car in the lower-left corner of the page is approximately 6m long, 2m wide and 1m high. The vehicles are extremely light, with the Queen's car coming in at 410 kg (902 lbs) without driver. [1]

Periodically (*) the Canadian vehicles tour regions of the country to provide a conservation and engineering presentation aimed primarily at high school students. I doubt that CBC's comment relating the tour to last summer's blackout has any basis. It appears that the tour kicked off at the end of July.

My heart goes out to those who knew Andrew Frow.

*: Possible annually, the Canadian Solar Tour site I found is currently down.

[1] Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. <http://www.solarcar.queensu.ca>. Referenced numbers from <http://130.15.142.62/solar/CurrentCar>. (Both will slashdot really easily, so not linked)

I'll bet the SAE wants to push the envelope of gasoline internal combustion engines since the infrastructure is already in place. They probably feel that right now, any incremental gains in that technology will have the most short-term benefit.

Longer-term fuel efficiency is probably best explored using the technologies you mentioned.

The solar car challenge is another cool event that explorers alternate power sources.

-ted

faster than walking speed

I'll say. At the last World Solar Challenge, the winner's *average* speed was close to 100 km/h (over 60 mph for imperialists), over a distance of 3000 km (183'732 furlongs).

are available here, in PDF format unfortunately. Rounding out the top five behind the Dutch are Aurora Vehicle Assn, MIT Solar Electric Team, Queens University, and FH Bochum/SBU.

Not really, 30 teams total, from 12 countries.
Here's a list

What about the world's fastest SOLAR-electric car?
The Nuna II, just won the World Solar Challenge, travelling 3000 kilometers in just 31 hours, averaging around 97 km/h.

Does anyone know if the times the race takes are getting shorter each year? In other words, is the technology actually getting better each year?

I can't speak for the American race but in the World Solar Challenge the seventh team in 2001 came in quicker than the top place in 1999.[1] So yes, the technology is improving and so are the teams.

[1] This improvement in timing was also affected by the race taking place later in the year.

Actually, the rules for solar races almost always place a limit on the $/watt for the cells, so that competitors can't "buy" the win.

The biggest solar car race of them all, the World Solar Challenge (WSC), doesn't. The rules for 2001 are available online for you to check. I am told this years rules won't change in that respect. One of the best parts of the WSC in previous years has been that the rules are so open. Unfortunately, now that the technology is maturing top teams `buying a win' is becoming a problem. It would be a pity to see solar racing go the way I am told American motor sport has gone.

This race if more of a contest of who can make the lightest car body and go the furthest on X amps of battery and solar cells, rather than who can make the best solar technology automobile.

Quite frankly, you'll never see untested technology being used in these sorts of endevors. Its far more profitable to start a company to research, develop, promote, produce and sell these sorts of technologies.

I beg to differ. Lake Tuggeranong College used a prototype CSIRO motor during two of their three World Solar Challenge (a similar race heald in Australia). sUNSWift built their own cells (litterally; if you've ever seen solar cells being built this is a huge achievement) and developed their own technique for sealing the cells in composites (i.e. encapsulation). Both these teams developed their own aerodynamics, at least some of their own electronics, own telemetry software and a myriad of other non-trivial engineering tasks. The whole is made up of many smaller parts. What makes these projects special is that they all join together into something terribly nice.

Bro, here's the schedule.

Can't help mentioning that I submitted a story Saturday (in time to see the cars on display) but it didn't get accepted by the editors. IT did have a link to the schedule too...

Solar Car Race - Chicago to California

We all know that solar power is cool. Even cooler is when you use it to go 80mph on a freeway, with the power consumption of a hairdryer! The American Solar Challenge unites teams from many Universities in the goal of racing their custom-built solar-cars from Chicago to California.
That's 2300 miles along Route 66! They start Sunday morning in Chicago, but you can check out the official schedule to see when the cars will be passing through your state. If you're in Chicago now, the cars are on public display (while last-minute tuning continues) at the Museum of Science and Industry.

Google has a number of related items. For photos and blogs, try these: ASC daily photos, ASC dialy diaries, a Stanford blog.

For the first time this year, 2-person cars will be entering the race. Unfortunately, only two of these passed the scrutineering tests: The Stanford Team is racing a 2-person back-to-back configuration. Here's a list of races held in the U.S.A. in the 90's. A similar race in Australia is less student-oriented.

[ I submitted the following as a story on Saturday. Plenty of links and info, but it got passed up. ]

Solar Car Race - Chicago to California

We all know that solar power is cool. Even cooler is when you use it to go 80mph on a freeway, with the power consumption of a hairdryer! The American Solar Challenge unites teams from many Universities in the goal of racing their custom-built solar-cars from Chicago to California.
That's 2300 miles along Route 66! They start Sunday morning in Chicago, but you can check out the official schedule to see when the cars will be passing through your state. If you're in Chicago now, the cars are on public display (while last-minute tuning continues) at the Museum of Science and Industry.

Google has a number of related items. For photos and blogs, try these: ASC daily photos, ASC dialy diaries, a Stanford blog.

For the first time this year, 2-person cars will be entering the race. Unfortunately, only two of these passed the scrutineering tests: The Stanford Team is racing a 2-person back-to-back configuration. Here's a list of races held in the U.S.A. in the 90's. A similar race in Australia is less student-oriented.

"Michigan will not be participating in the 2003 American Solar Challenge. While qualifying for the race in Wisconsin, the car suffered steering system failures which did not allow SpectruM to qualify for and enter the race.
...
The team is also exploring the possibility of racing SpectruM this October in the World Solar Challenge in Australia, as well as participating in the inaugural 2004 Phaethon Hellas Solar Rally held in Greece before the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens."

umich.edu/solarcar

• Gas is cheap. In the US, it's almost subsidized. Most european countries pay the same amount per L as we pay per gal.
  
• Suburbs. Most Americans don't live anywhere near where they work. There isn't the abundance of public transportation, and when there is, it's considered to be un-cool, or it's not on equal footing with driving. [face it, cars are a status symbol... no other reason for me and other dumbasses to drive in every day when we know there's a chance at spending 3hrs to go 20 miles into DC].
  
• Bad Drivers. Bad drivers => more accidents => more accidents => more government regulations => 'safer' cars => heavier cars => worse gas milage. So now, we've got someone who wants to be fual efficient, and make a nice, light car (which they can), which can protect a driver from a 45mph offset crash.... but they can't regulate the bumper height to keep that Suburban from accidentally backing over you.
  
  Bad drivers also brings us the need to 'intimidate' other drivers (bigger == more fierce), and drive faster (faster == scary... nevermind that drag being a factor of velocity cubed), etc.
  

It's a shorter route, yes. However, it wouldn't have the nostalgic value (of doing the same route as Hans). The same team (perhaps with a slightly different set of people) competed in the World Solar Challenge last year which is from north to south as you describe.

Tom Rowlands
(Sorry, I can't sign this.)

power of light to create mechanical energy

Isn't it like solar car racing...on a really small scale? Eh? Something like this?

In case you were curious about the final rankings, you can find them here

The World Solar Challenge is a race to motivate research and development into harnessing solar energy

I haven't looked at all the teams yet, but so far they seem to be aiming to improve performance by improving aerodynamics and reducing weight, not by improving the efficiency of the electricity generation.

One exception is the aurora team, but I can't find any technical details of the improvements they're claiming.

Saturday 17/11 Registration and Scrutineering at Alice Springs
Monday 19/11 DAY 1 Alice Springs to Erldunda 199 km
Tuesday 20/11 DAY 2 Erldunda to Marla 252 km
Wednesday 21/11 DAY 3 Marla to Coober Pedy 233 km
Thursday 22/11 DAY 4 Coober Pedy to Glendambo 253 km
Friday 23/11 DAY 5 Glendambo to Port Augusta 289 km
Saturday 24/11 DAY 6 Port Augusta to Quorn 116 km
Sunday 25/11 DAY 7 Balaklava to Adelaide 92 km
TOTAL DISTANCE 1434 km
Regulations of the 2001 World Solar Cycle Challenge, 6.2 The Course

More importantly, how does this traumatize the local kangaroo population?

Driving the solar car: Is plenty of fun! I've driven through Missouri, Oklahoma (where I experienced an unpleasant bout of dehydration), New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona. The most beautiful places to drive through are New Mexico and Arizona. NM has gorgeous mountain ranges and scenery that is taken straight out of a Western movie. I drove through the Zule mountain range into Albuquerque and also from Flagstaff to Kingman, Arizona. The stretch of geography from NM into AZ is incredible. In the evening, as the sun sets, the most beautiful hues of colours are reflected off the mountain ranges and the stars are brilliant against the night sky.

I love Canada as much as the next person, but the good old Americans at The UMR Solar Car Team finished only 80 minutes behind big blue in a car cheaper than Waterloo's, and God only knows how much cheaper than UM's. More bragging on UMR: Their array probablly produced 25 percent less power than UM's, and they lost by like 2% in terms of time. But I'm not bitter. Watch for UMR in World Solar Challenge...they'll have a pimpier array and be ready to beat some blue ass.

World Solar Challenge is the probably the longest solar car race. It started about 13 years ago. It is scheduled for Nov or Oct this year.

ASC is looking great this year, with some new rules allowing more liberal use of higher technology. (e.g. space grade cells, etc...). (Similar to the WSC ;-).

Our car will be up against a number of these in a few months (in the race from Darwin to Adelaide - WSC)! Looking forward to seeing you all over here...

Sunswift 2 (the University of New South Wales Solar Racing Team's solar car) will be competing in the race...

Our website is "in progress" (pending approval)... But is at: www.sunswift.com. Check it out in months to come. I'm looking forward to showing you the new car. It should be fairly special. Back to that abstract. ;-). Dave.