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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."
Volkswagon Phaeton
$60k-$100k is currently out of most of our price ranges, however it does exist.
A further possibility for controlling the atmosphere in the Phaeton is offered by the sliding sunroof. It may be had in both glass and solar versions as an option. The sunroof is operated via a preselector in the roof-mounted console. The solar sunroof is the biggest of its kind on the market. The 28 integrated solar cells provide 24 Watts of energy, which is also used to power the electric fan when the vehicle is at a standstill. In the summer this reduces the interior temperature by up to 20 degrees. Unpleasant air currents and loud wind noise when the roof is open are prevented by a speed-sensitive, electronically-controlled wind deflector.
wheeeeeeeee!
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.
Solar car challenegs showcase and advance the state of high efficiency photovoltaic (PV) cells and bugger the price. To be useful as a real-world energy source, PV needs to be looking for better dollars per watt. If I could get PV at a low enough $/W I'd shingle my roof with the stuff.
Some might say that low-cost PV will be a spin-off of this research, but I doubt it. Low cost PV technologies can't effectively use silicon, or gallium etc due tothe high amounts of energy required to make large areas of the stuff.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
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)
The 5pm camp rule has nothing to do with the fact that the cars are powered by the sun. It's simply for the safety of the teams competing. One of the teams in the past has once calculated that the optimal driving strategy is to drive through the day and night (driving a bit slower at night since you're limited to a 5kWh battery pack). This has been proposed as a rule change a few times for the ASC, but has been rejected simply for safety reasons. (some of) These cars cause enough of a disruption on roads during the day time. And the crews/drivers need their sleep as well. You can't necessairly afford to take a huge team of drivers with you.
No, it's not the principle of harvesting power and running at night for solar powered cars. It's the suggestion that you might even *THINK* about doing it in *this* race in particular.
Take a look at a map.
Now, although this might not be entirely clear to some, the road in question is two lanes for most of the distance. I believe it's even sealed bitumen for all of the distance too (not sure) - an excellent quality road. However, the point is, you are not talking about a built up freeway or something here.
At 5pm in summer in NT and SA the sun won't be down for at least half an hour (hopefully). That gives plenty of time to stop everybody and make sure that nobody is on the road at dusk. In Australia, dusk is typically when the wildlife starts moving. For the 'roos and wallibies certainly, and considering the streach of road, probably quite a few emus too.
In all these cases, you have modern braking and a very solid frame on your car. If you're lucky, you may be able to steer well and only clip the animal in question.
Now hit it with an amalgum of solar panel and fiberglass with regenerative braking systems designed to conserve as much power as possible. Note that steering won't be as good either for swerving while braking.
Made my point yet?
(For the record, if you're not experienced in driving in Australia, you should NEVER swerve to miss wildlife. You've far higher chance of walking away if you hit something on the road than if you roll the car or hit a tree instead.)
Not to mention the fact that between Katherine and Alice Springs your crossing cattle country, and this road is UNFENCED. Having just driven the Darwin - Alice Springs track you need to add Cows, and Donkeys to the list, and possibly even camels closer in to Alice and southwards.