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7th World Solar Challenge Underway
downundarob writes "At around 200310182230 UTC the World Solar Challenge will leave the start line. Entrants will traverse more than 3,000km of the Australian continent from tropical Darwin to balmy Adelaide, in cars powered by nothing more than the sun.
One of the unique propositions of the World Solar Challenge is that it is run in one stage. Once competitors have left Darwin at 8am on the first day, they are on their own. Apart from compulsory stops at the seven checkpoints, each team endeavours to travel as far as it can each day, but must make camp by 5pm each evening."
Hardly seems that they are totally on there own if they have to make camp by 5. It would be cooler to see who can get there first with no other rules than the check points. The teams with the technology to charge up a bit durring the day get a leg up.
Why hasn't anyone bothered to make a car that's at least part solar for everyday use?
Sorry, my karma just ran over your dogma.
I wonder if there is a way to follow the progress of the racers.....
Since when has Adelaide been known as balmy ... capital of the driest state on the driest continent on the world ...
Proving that solar (and other alterntives) have come on leaps and bounds in the last decade or so. Why do we still persist with nuclear, oil, coal, with all the attendant problems (pollution, wars over oil, etc), when we could cover a small proportiion of the deserts of the world with solar cells, and the roofs of our buildings, and the coasts with huge offsiore wind farms & tidal turbines, and have all the power we need?
"You lied to me! There is a Swansea!"
Aoyama Gakuin "AGU Aglaia"
Aoyama Gakuin's original solar car was built eight years ago but many of the components, including solar array, batteries, driver interface and ampere-hour metre have recycled and been upgraded to meet today?s technological standards. Another improvement is the more reliable electrical and ventilation systems. The team has twice participated in the WSC, in 1999 and 2001. The 22 student members of the team will vie for a good place in this year?s event.
And:
Holden - "Eco4 Astra"
Eco4 - Astra is a standard European production vehicle participating in the Greenfleet class. The vehicle is powered by a 1.7 litre turbo charged, intercooled, diesel engine. While the vehicle has a more than reasonable level of performance, it has been developed with a focus on high fuel economy and reduced greenhouse emissions. The vehicle is fitted with aerodynamic underbody aids, to reduce aerodynamic drag and also includes low rolling resistance tyres. The highest recorded speed of the vehicle is 175kph. The opportunity to evaluate and demonstrate diesel technology, while generating public awareness of diesel efficiencies is an opportunity not to be missed by the Holden team.
There is no god
I mean realy, it doe snot extend our knowledge about solor power, it does not inovate or make new solutions. all it does is give universities with lots of money the ability to build super lite cars that run on solor power. big deal.
I want to see an S prize. the first group that can develope the best price/performance ratio for solor power gets money or something, then the next time, the next prise it set to be 5% better than the last performance, and the money increases as the ratios get harder to reach.
that would be exciting stuff.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
Oy, govnah. Sounds like Mad Max, it does- only a might quiet'ah, none of them pesky cannibals an' bettah scenery.
I dare someone to show up with a crazy looking vehicle and start taking out contestants with crude weaponry. Extra bonus points if your vehicle spews fire, brandishes lots of pointy edges, and gets under 5mpg. That'll show those eco-freaks who's boss.
Please help metamoderate.
When it turns to night could participants use their sparcs, ultras, and enterprises to keep going? You did say Solar as in Sun right?
MoFscker
It's too bad this year's winner of the American Solar Challenge couldn't raise enough money to ship the car to Australia and compete.
I don't like this mandatory 5 pm camp time. It seems to me that a critical test of solar technology for travel is being able to move even in low/no light situations, and thus of batteries. Why not give a start time and destination, and simply go by first across the finish line? If someone manages to build a machine that gets the optimal balance of power gathering plus battery capacity to maintain the highest average speed across lighting changes then they win.
You can follow the progress of the Queen's University Team here. The Queen's team came 7th in this year's American Solar Challenge and is looking to finish in the top 3 in this competition. One of the unique features of the Queen's car is that it is a two-seater, one of the few in the world.
There's a lot of technical information about the Queen's car here (Pages 4 and 5)
I've heard of such a thing in myth and legend. This article talks about it as if it were real. Or maybe this is one of those experiments trying to detect this mythical Daystar. Could be interesting.
and more efficient than photovoltaics. Not quite yet on a par with conventional power on a cost basis yet but getting very very close.
It's difficult to see how it might power a vehicle though, stirling engine?
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
we all make mistakes
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Yesterday it was 30 degrees celsius (86F) Friday was low 20's today mid 20's.Very nice Mediterranean climate
The race itself is a "tour-de-force" of solar technology - these cars will not be fully economic/affordable until we have a solar cell that delivers 50%+ efficiency at a low cost-per-cell. As a supplementary power source for a smart-type battery car it could eventually prove interesting - leave your car parked in the sun when you go to work, and get a free ride home!
One thought I had on battery cars - why not "swap" batteries at a garage, instead of pumping in fuel (petrol, hydrogen..) - you dont "own" the batteries, just hire them, and keep swapping them for a fully charged set at each garage..
"You lied to me! There is a Swansea!"
They should make it free for all. No camps, and have weapons and make it like Mad Max!! (J/K)
-Seriv
One thought I had on battery cars - why not "swap" batteries at a garage, instead of pumping in fuel (petrol, hydrogen..) - you dont "own" the batteries, just hire them, and keep swapping them for a fully charged set at each garage.
For it to not be time and labor-intensive, the method by which the battery pack is installed and removed would have to be roughly uniform across *ALL* cars of that style. Look at "normal" cars--they all get their gas pumped in the same way. Taking out and putting in a several-hundred pound battery pack is a bit more complicated than sticking a nozzle in a hole.
Also, what's the incentive? What would you be willing to pay the "juice" station owner for this service? There's no way it would be self-serve, at least not for years. And where's he going to put all these packs while they're charging up before getting installed on a new car? That's a significant storage/power issue.
No, I think fuel cells, gassed up with methanol or somesuch, is more feasible... though also far-off.
The good ol' internal-combustion engine (ICE) has many, many years left in it. Want to improve air quality? Quit fretting about the number of cars on the road, and target the tiny tenth of a percent of the cars out there that, due to age or neglect of maintenance, are the REAL polluters.
3. Profit!
2. ???
1. On Soviet Slashdot, a Beowulf cluster of alien Natalie Portman overlords welcomes YOU!
I was SOOO proud of having NEVER seen the goatse.cx picture too.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
..yet on this discussion?
..on this discussion?
I imagine something like what you have at the oil-changing places... a pit in the floor that you drive over. Once your car is lined up, a robot in the pit removes your current battery pack and puts in a fresh one.
Also, what's the incentive? What would you be willing to pay the "juice" station owner for this service?
As a rule of thumb, I think people would be willing to pay as much as an equivalent (in terms of drivable miles added) gasoline fill-up costs them now. So perhaps $5-$10 per battery change?
And where's he going to put all these packs while they're charging
up before getting installed on a new car? That's a significant storage/power issue.
Where do gas stations store all their extra gasoline now? In a big pit in the ground, of course. There are no real problems here that haven't been solved before.
No, I think fuel cells, gassed up with methanol or somesuch, is more feasible... though also far-off.
I tend to agree, but I don't think a battery-swap system would be impossible if people put their minds to it.
Want to improve air quality? Quit fretting about the number of cars on the road, and target the tiny tenth of a percent of the cars out there that, due to age or neglect of maintenance, are the REAL polluters.
Are you suggesting that once we get rid of those, the air pollution problems will be solved?
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
If they are promoting reaserach they would wna tthe contestants to want to run as long as possible. If you can harvest excess energy and store it in batteries during the day and the run all night, that's a much better design, and therefore much more useful. A real solar vehicle won't be day-only. Or if it is it sure won't sell.
Parent made an excellent point, apparently without realizing it:
Activities like this give aspiring engineers of various disciplines an opportunity to work on a large project. In engineering fields, work experience on large projects is invaluable.
Also, activities like this expose many of the people who would be designing the cars/power plants/??? of the future to solar power.
In that sense, these activities are more important than the X-prize (or "S-Prize"), because it exposes people to these technologies, making them more comfortable using them in the future. It doesn't matter if you have a 98% efficient solar panel costing $1/MW, if no one in design is willing to risk using it.
As the parent implied, solar tech is not ready yet, but I maintain that in preparation for the future when the technology IS ready, activities like these are needed to allow for more rapid adoption.
If you ever spend some time in Darwin you'll figure out that Adelaide actualy is balmy compared to Darwin. +25 compared to +40. Balmy vs. Very HOT. I'd take Adelaide any day of the week.
Ride recklessly only when safe to do so.
NO TEXT
Congrats, /. This post even got modded 2. Nice people. The moderators, I mean. The original poster is, how can I say... a minor problem.
Have you done the math how much land would be covered to replace 1 1000 MW Nuclear Power Plant? The best Solar technology today would need $5 billion dollar investment in Solar panels alone to generate 1000MW, and covers about 10 Sq miles. That is 10 square miles that has 100% Sun exposure 365 days a year.
For California alone, to meet peak demands in the summer, we would need to build 45 of these. That's 450 sq miles of your Desert covered up with solar panels, and we better hope that we get good sun there all the time, or else, the state goes dark.
In the winter, when we don't get as much sun shine, the solar panels will operate at reduced efficiency. Reducing peak power available.
Of course, now what do we do at night? I don't believe anyone has gone and figured out how to supply 15,000MW using lead acid batteries, for up to 14 hours a day. Talk about environment pollution and disaster!
We've harvested as much Hydro power available here in CA without damming up Yosemite Valley. And the need of the salmons is beginning to outweigh the needs of the people.
Wind power requires... WIND! Sites that has enough wind aren't all that common, and people are very upset about Turbine generators because
1. They kill birds.
2. They are an eyesore to some, especially people with beach properties.
One energy source that we should be tapping from, for LONG TERM, is Solar Satellites. A 5 Sq Km Solar Panel in GeoSync orbit can beam down power to a receiver station, and putting up 10-12 of those will take care of the energy needs for the forseeable future.
Where is the 7th World?
How do we challenge it?
Do your best, hope for the best, suspect the worst.
That is a verry mis-leading post! The URL points to a webpage where a woman has shit on her face and then the goatse.cx/hello.jpg is everywhere!
Someone please moderate the parent post quickly so other people aren't fooled into clicking.
Who modded this up? When do I get moderator points so I can help slashdot.org defeat these trolls?
One day, but each has to transport five pre-teens to school, soccer (futbol) practice, and get in and out of a parking lot at Starbucks quickest.
For those interested, here is the race web site of the Sunswift II team from UNSW.
poor Adelaide
Although i am not involved in any way, i'm still proud that the last race was won by my university, Delft University of Technolgy (the Netherlands).
Have a look at the page of the team here.
They won the last race as debutants, mainly because they got some big money from a power company that allowed them to buy space grade (triple junction?) solar cells. They are coached by Wubbo Ockels, the only dutch astronaut, so ESA is also involved.
karma police: arrest this man, he talks in maths; he buzzes like a fridge, he's like a detuned radio. [radiohead]
Here's the problem: you aren't sure that this sat will be efficient enough during these 15 years to deliver these 2GW. Perhaps 2GW at the beginning, but 0.5GW at the end (and I'm perhaps stretching the current state of technology).
Now this brings a dent in the economics of the project, doesn't it?
OTOH, you can probably count on economies of scale: if that thing works, there will probably be a couple dozens of these birds up there.
and heading for a crap cold week of 18.
the adelaide weather definetly used to be better than this when i was a kid.
more like shitty than balmy.
Not just the wildlife.
As they say in the movie about the small hawaiian school team which competed 10-15 years ago - watch out for the road trains.
For those who don't know, these are tractor,trailer,trailer,trailer units (Used to be up to 5, I believe that's now limited to 3, someone correct me please)
Driving at night in a low profile car might well be cooler (less driver fatigue), but it's far more dangerous - apart from the road trains, roos and emus, there are also feral camels - and these like to lie on the tarmac at night soaking up the road's heat to keep warm....
This guy still is modded as 0, instead of -1.
This is not the worst post, but it's one of the worst cases of _bad_ moderation I've seen over the last 5 years or so.
Google news search for World Solar Challenge (sorted by descending date)
Yes, the link I gave you showed you the maths - indeed to generate *all* the power needed just with solar would require large areas of land. That is why I was suggesting that such scheme should operate in conjunction with other alternatives. You dont need to meet "peak" demand in the way you suggest. Dont forget that there is an area in your home that can be used to generate free power - your roof. You can cover the roof of your home with solar tiles, combined with systems that directly heat water for the house etc.
Zero annual electricity bills for these guys - the tiles make as much electricity as they take from the grid. (ok with gas heating). Check also This link, This link , This link or This link
Do you think that nuclear is a better option? Or cheaper? The UK (and many other countries) has squandered truely huge amounts of money on nuclear, now, it appears, with no positive end result - they are going to be left with a collection of reactor sites that are going to be very expensive to decommission and clean up. If they had invested just a fraction of that money on renewables, we would be burning a heck of a lot less coal/oil/gas now. There are actually parts of the world (ie Chernobyl) that are too radioactive to live, thanks to mistakes/miscalculations made by the nuclear power industry..
And the point is - why bother with nuclear, why take the risk? It is becoming very apparent that alternatives really can deliver cheap electricity, without the same level of pollution and waste. Furthermore, costs of solar cells will drop as volumes increase. Case in point - look at the monitor you are (probably) looking at now - if it is TFT - and think how much the price has decreased in the last few years as manufacturing techniques have improved and volumes increased.. Push the production volumes up, and have every house in the country use solar tiling..
The UK is setting a target of getting 20% of its power from re-newables by 2020, and a lot of that will be wind-power. There are soon to be huge offsiore wind farms in construction.. And they are not noisy, nor do they upset wildlife - thats basically a myth - same site documents the evidence. The USA has a similar wealth on uneploited wind sites too..
In the UK we could in fact have 200% power needs just from offshore/onshore wind without too much difficulty. What do you do when you have too much power? Turn it into hydrogen for cars. What do you do when you dont have enough power? Burn some hydrogen.. We already have infrastructure to transport gas.
"You lied to me! There is a Swansea!"
The sungroper team from Western Australia is 258km out of Darwin, 61km from the Katherine control stop, and all are well.
:-)
We've set-up the mobile internet dish in the dark and we're merrily typing away at our camp kitchen table, sending messages to the world. The sungroper website is being updated as we speak, but I'll leave it to you to find it, so we have a chance to upload before you swamp it
The car performed as expected, but the weather had a bonus cloud base - not a lot of charging happened. While we're happy, and ahead of several other teams at the moment, we've got a tough day ahead with some trailering by the look of things. I guess that if a nuclear device were to be set off that might boost our charge a little more than the sun;-)
You might recall a post a week or so ago, about the mobile internet satellite guy down under, we'll it's me again and as promised we're live and kicking with the dish!
Please be kind to the sungroper web-site!
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That would be the idea - all batteries would comply to one format - maybe some differences in capacity size for different vehicles, but otherwise a standard system. The system could be automatic, a machine is aligned to a panel & takes the old one out & puts a new one in. Remember petrol is not easy to handle safely, a lot of development & technology goes into making a modern service station safe.
At the moment in the EU we pay US $50+ for a full tank, and the station owner makes peanuts on that, so there is room for profit.
Continuing to pump & rely on increasingly rare oil resources creates political problems in ares like the Middle-east, as well as causing pollution and global warming. Furthermore oil is a resource that should be preserved for thingslike manufacturing plastics in future generations, not just burned for cheap'n'dirty energy..
"You lied to me! There is a Swansea!"
http://www.3nw.com/energy/resources/wind_lead_epi. htm
http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update24.htm
http://www.ptreyeslight.com/stories/apr20_01/energ y_plan1.html
"You lied to me! There is a Swansea!"
Also, the manufacture of solar cells is rather like that for other chips in terms of energy and (nasty) chemicals. Then there's the task of collecting that power and distributing it to where people live (or storing it in batteries made of heavy metals and other funky crap).
Yes, we should strive for better energy soucres. But just now, I don't see any alternative energy sources that are capable of meeting our appetite.
Xix.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
Hi all,
.08Ah was put into our 26Ah batteries. We now had 2.08Ah to start the day.
/.
We got up in the morning in total darkness at 4am and headed out to 58km short of Katherine. There we set up the array and waited for the sun which never arrived. A grand total of
After deliberation, we trailered to the control point in Katherine where we were welcomed with open arms. Apparently reports overnight varied between - we'd given up, gone back to Darwin, gone bush or went camping - no-one seems to read this list, or
During and after our half hour control stop we tried to charge until 10:29 we trailered until 11 looking for the sub. At 11:12, Doug started driving, with a total charge of 4.08Ah. We started driving and drove for 80km on sunlight alone - no battery charge was used.
It should be noted that nothing was wrong with Sungroper, just that the weather gods had decided to share a serious cloud-base with us - including later rain.
We put Sungroper into the trailer at Mataranka and headed for the hills. We drove all the way to Dunmarra control point where we arrived at 16:20 and achieved a charge until sunset of another 6Ah, total charge is now 10Ah.
Bevan is updating the web-site and you should see data arriving there shortly.
Want more updates:
Send an email to: sungroper-announce-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
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Are you suggesting that once we get rid of those, the air pollution problems will be solved?
No no, but it would help. Our air pollution problems won't be solved until my officemates start using Tic-Tacs.
3. Profit!
2. ???
1. On Soviet Slashdot, a Beowulf cluster of alien Natalie Portman overlords welcomes YOU!
Until some team designs their car with a few solar panels on the back to catch the headlights from the chase van, and aims those headlights to hit that one spot. Not as much as full sun, so it isn't worth it if you are racing during the day, but if you want to go all night you can cheat a lot by generating power elsewhere, and using light to beam it at you.
At the end of the third day, we're camped in Tennant Creek after driving for the first half of the day and then trailering for ~170km. Satellite connection is live, and we're getting lots more people here. We got a good charge this morning, used only 6Ah out of the batteries while driving today (leaving ~4Ah in the batteries). Between this evenings charge and tomorrow morning, we should be able to start tomorrow with about 21Ah in the batteries, and spend almost all day driving. We think the steering's out of alignment, as we're getting performance 20-30% worse than track testing before the race.
We've just discovered that while we can receive SMS's on the Iridium phones (for free) we can't actually SEND SMS's - Onno has just downloaded the user manual. We're getting your SMS's, and appreciate them, but don't be offended when you don't get a reply...
Tomorrow the plan is to get maximum distance on our almost full batteries, driving at a nice steady speed all day then trailering forward if necessary to a good campsite, probably the same place Sungroper stayed last race, past Barrow Creek (we've been told Ti Tree is a dump).
We've done a total of 480km under solar power, and 506 trailered. Needing to trailer during during race time (before 5pm, and getting to control stops by 5:10pm) really cuts down our available driving time, as we need to stop and put the car in the trailer really early. We need to choose a spot with room to put the car in the trailer (often tens of km apart) with enough time to spare to guarantee worst-case time to the control point. Partial (at best) to full cloud for all of the first two days didn't help either...
We hope to put lots more solar km on the clock tomorrow, we've left the clouds behind and it's completely clear.
Photos and info will be up on the website soon.
--Andrew
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