Solar Cars

Post by **ferret76** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 1:35 pm

G'day All,
I headed out of town on Sunday to a place called Noonamah with a few other motor vehicle enthusiasts to watch the contestants in the Global Green Challenge pass by. This is a race is held every two years and is for solar powered cars and hybrids. The hybrids leave on Saturday and the solar powered cars the next day. The race is held on open roads from Darwin to Adelaide. Here is a selection of entrants in this years challenge:

Stanford University (US)( they shipped out their own support vehicles with them)

MIT (US)

Tokai University (Japan)

Cambridge University(UK)

Principia College(US)

A German entry, VW inspired I think.

Leeming Senior High School/Murdoch University(Aus)

Team Nuon(Netherlands)Their solar array alone is worth US$250 000. In the days leading up to the race they crashed the car in road tests and very nearly didn't make the start. The entire team was staying in a scout hall around the corner. Nice people.

Team Revolution(Netherlands). This vehicle has a variable pitch array to allow the solar panels to follow the sun during the day.

Malaysian entry.

Singaporean entry

University of Malaya entry. My personal favourite. It has a grille and headlights, that's my idea of a car. Unfortunately, it is about as fast as an unattended shopping trolley in a gently sloping carpark covered in gravel. I hope they get to Adelaide though, I loved this car.

An ambitious overtaking manouvre.

An entrant being overtaken by a road train. Part of the scrutineering before the race involves parking the car on the road while a three trailer road train thunders past at 100km/h. There were a few incidents in the first few races in the early nineties when cars were flipped by road trains and some injuries occurred.

Some of the club cars out spectating.

Millions of years ago, the earth was covered in lush forests, soaking up energy from the sun. Those forests are gone, buried deep beneath the earth and have turned into oil. Oil is extracted and refined into petrol, I put the petrol in my car. Behold, my solar car.

Post by **rayofleamington** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 2:53 pm

University of Malaya entry. My personal favourite. It has a grille and headlights,

The idea of headlights on a solar car is a bit lost on me...

however it is recognisable as a car and the fact that it has doors so you can get in and out should make it win by default!

Post by **Blaketon** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 4:39 pm

Not much use in the UK - we need water powered cars

....might have worked during the last month or so??

Post by **Mick_Anik** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 6:18 pm

Will obviously be the first choice of people in the pizza delivery trade! Also ideal for the transportation of omelettes and pancakes.

Seriously, though, thanks for the pictures and info. I like modern science. I heard a programme today about the way that bacteria in clouds may be in control of rainfall!

Post by **rayofleamington** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 6:29 pm

Will obviously be the first choice of people in the pizza delivery trade! Also ideal for the transportation of omelettes and pancakes.

I didn't get the joke until you mentioned pankakes

Post by **ferret76** » Fri Oct 30, 2009 3:20 pm

For those interested, the Tokai University team won breaking team Nuon's four win streak.

Post by **eastona** » Sun Nov 01, 2009 11:58 am

That's really cool. Love the high school one.

I was thinking the other day. If I disconnected the alternator and put a solar cell on the top of the Morris, I wonder by how much my mpg would improve.

Alternative is to put solar cells on the roof of the garage and swap batteries at night.

Idle thoughts really. I'd get better mpg in an easier way if I just stoped driving it like a hooligan.

Andrew
(who's been on holiday and obviously thinking too much!)

Post by **rayofleamington** » Mon Nov 02, 2009 7:48 pm

I was thinking the other day. If I disconnected the alternator and put a solar cell on the top of the Morris, I wonder by how much my mpg would improve.

Ford (and probably many others) have protoypes running around that do just that. The theory with smart charging alternators and small solar cells is that during sunlight the battery is recharged therefore the alternator won't need to draw that power from the engine (unless the battery level drops a lot)