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World Solar Challenge Started in Australian Desert

Posted by Zonk on from the go-sun-go dept.

photonic writes "The World Solar Challenge has just finished the first racing day. It is a 3000 kilometer race from Darwin to Adelaide for cars that are powered by solar energy only. The results from this day have not yet been published, but intermediate results suggest that the Dutch Nuon Solar Team is again on the lead. This team from Delft University of Technology has a reputation to uphold since they also won the previous two races in 2001 and 2003, the last one in a record breaking 97 km/h average. The Tesseract team from MIT was less fortunate: during the qualification they got off track and rolled over. After some fixing up they still managed to qualify into 7th place on battery power, but with substantial damage to the solar panel their challenge will be finishing rather than winning."

5 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. solar energy only? by n01 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What does "for cars that are powered by solar energy only" mean. Do the batteries need to be empty at the start of the trip? Or as full as they were at the start when the cars reach the finish?

    Otherwise I wouldn't count it as "solar energy only", even though they might have charged the accumulators beforehand through the solar panels.

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    1. Re:solar energy only? by pilardi · · Score: 5, Informative

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

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

  2. Those wacky australians... by baryon351 · · Score: 5, Funny

    > 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

  3. Imperial units by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    3000 kilometers = 12648.3018 btus per pound force
    97 km/h = 8.03640075 furlongs per minute

  4. I really respect these guys by DoubleRing · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It takes a lot of work to build one of these cars. Plus, using them is a lot of work. Think of it this way: you're out in blazing sunlight, no fans or ac (would be using too much extra power, which you can't afford). You start as soon as your car will start (a few minutes after the crack of dawn) and keep going until your car's battery runs down. You don't stop at a hotel because, most probably, there isn't one where you stop. These guys are really building the future. And I respect that.

    On another note, does anyone know of a similar competition using hydrogen feul?

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