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Dutch Win World Solar Car Challenge
Sick Boy writes "The Dutch solar car Nuna II, using ESA space technology, finished first in the World Solar Challenge, a 3010 km race right across Australia for cars powered by solar energy. Having set off from Darwin on Sunday 19 October, Nuna II crossed the finish line in Adelaide in a new record-breaking time of 30 hours 54 minutes, beating the previous record of 32 hours 39 minutes set by its Dutch precursor Nuna in 2001."
The thing is nobody said that the solar panels were developed in Holland. Cloudy weather has nothing to do with it. Solar panels came linea-recta from ESA (ESTEC). They are Ga-As solar cells used on space sattelites.
Darwin to Adelaide is 3000km or roughly 1875 miles. That's a little more than the distance from Detroit to Florida.
This is why so many people here think "Ignorant American" is a tautology. I've got five bucks that says you've mistaken Australia for Austria.
australia is at a guess a third the size of here.
I just love the sense of geography you have in the USA!
It's like every time a discussion of how behind the USA is with broadband or mobile phone technology, a load of you pipe up with "but the USA is so big! That's why we're behind!"
Get yourself a globe (not a flat map - they distort the sizes of countries.) Cut out a shape approximately the same size as the USA, then position it over other places in the world. You will find that the USA isn't as big as you thought it was.
They have software managing all the energy uses. There's lots of sensors picking up lighting conditions, road conditions, load on the engines, incline, wind, etc. They all feed into some computer which is in one of the follow cars. This then recommends the driver at what speed he should be going.
:-)
They were actually hoping for overcast skies, as this is where the car can really gain on the competition, with the battery/panel management software. In sunny weather every car can drive top speed, but when its cloudy you have to start being clever with your solar panels input vs. battery usage vs. speed (energy usage).
Also, they have pretty efficient solar panels: 3000 Gallium-Arsenide Triple Junction solar cells, 24,5+% efficiency (total 9 square meters).
They also got specially designed tires. Very low roll resistance. The electric engines are mounted in the wheels, so there's no power loss in transmission or gearing.
And of course the frame is a monocoque structure (it doesn't need an internal frame/chassis), of lightweight composites.
These are just some of the things they did. I'm getting this from their website, which is unfortunately in Dutch.
And no, we don't capitalize the 'the', only at the beginning of a sentence.
Cheers,
Costyn.
The Official Steve Ballmer Webpage
the report (in Dutch) says: "gemiddelde snelheid van 97.02 km/h" and also "de gehele dag gemiddeld zo'n 110 km/h gereden, de snelheidslimiet in South Australia.". In English: "average speed of 97.02 km/h" (60.29 mph) and "the whole day an average of 110 km/h, the speed limit in South Australia". The race takes place on public roads, remember?
my other sig is a 500 page novel
Not really, 30 teams total, from 12 countries.
Here's a list
The path I walk alone is endlessly long.
30 minutes by bike, 15 by bus.