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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."
...now we've got a fRying dutchman.
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Someone had to do it.
So the big question - are we getting close to practical electric cars? Ok the vehicles in this competition are a "tour-de-force" of solar technology, but perhaps one day we could really have cars with advanced light-weight cheap batterys (thanks to advances in laptop/mobile batteries), and solar panels to charge when you leave your car parked in daylight. Also add regenerative braking, a fairly rapid recharge cycle, and for longer journeys give the garages something to sell - they can "hot-swap" batteries for a fully charged one, for a price. Is that the future, or is it Hydrogen fuel cells? Or some combination of both?
Again, I just cannot figure why 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 (British Wind Enrgy Association page) & tidal turbines, and have all the power we need?
"You lied to me! There is a Swansea!"
In Australia they have signs on the road every 50km or so saying "Drowsy Drivers Die". In other countries they have an alternative to keep them awake, called "scenery".
No? I zee zat zere ees no pleesing you. Zee dutch won! Iznt zat veird?
No! No! No! that is German.
In Dutch it's more like : I see dat der is no pliesing joe. Issent det wierd ?
Congrats to the Dutch Team !!
....Excuse me, but
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.