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42 Solar-Powered Cars Race in 31st Annual 'Solar Challenge' Race (engadget.com)
An anonymous reader quotes Engadget:
It's a special moment in the history of clean energy: the 30th anniversary World Solar Challenge has begun. A total of 42 solar-powered cars (the largest field to date) left Darwin, Australia on October 8th to travel roughly 1,880 miles to Adelaide. The race officially lasts a week, but it's likely going to end considerably sooner for the front-runners -- the world record holders, Tokai University, took just under 30 hours in 2009...
This year, the race regulations are a clear sign of how rapidly solar technology is changing. Teams have to use a smaller solar collector than before: cars in the Challenger class can have no more than 43 square feet of solar cells versus nearly 65 square feet for the previous race, in 2015. That's half the area allowed on cars from the original 1987 race. In other words, technology is advanced enough now (both in solar cells and the underlying vehicle designs) that you don't need a sea of panels to keep a car running.
This year, the race regulations are a clear sign of how rapidly solar technology is changing. Teams have to use a smaller solar collector than before: cars in the Challenger class can have no more than 43 square feet of solar cells versus nearly 65 square feet for the previous race, in 2015. That's half the area allowed on cars from the original 1987 race. In other words, technology is advanced enough now (both in solar cells and the underlying vehicle designs) that you don't need a sea of panels to keep a car running.
The World Solar Challenge is supposed to be a biennial race held in the "odd years" but they've missed a couple along the way. 2017 will actually be the 14th race.
Uh-oh. I'm sensing a really stupid statement coming up..
And...there it is!
Most of the world's population does not live "in a place with inclement weather and short days". Most of the world's population lives within 30 degrees of the equator. Finland is the anomaly, not Australia.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the...
You are welcome on my lawn.
Do you live somewhere metric? 62mph isn't fast.
3,000kms in 30 hours = 100km/h. Sustained speeds of 100km/h powered purely by solar energy is fast, really fast and a big improvement from the race beginning.
67 km/h (42 mph) was the average speed on the first race in 1987. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Apart from Northern Territory, the maximum speed limit is 110km/h on major highways in Australia with most roads being 100km/h.
This race is driving big improvements in electric vehicle technology, just what we need if we are going to exit fossil fuels any time soon.