Solar Showcase
The World Solar Community is an active group of teams and individuals who get up to all manner of multi-disciplinary activities.
Some of their many achievements are showcased here.
If you are aware of any that are missing, drop us a line.
Solar Team Twente racing with weather expert in their ranks
06/10/2011
Solar Team Twente has paired up with famous meteorologist and weather forecaster Helga van Leur for the 2011 Veolia World Solar Challenge.
She has an important role in the team Twente and she will be the specialist in the programme on the themes:
- environmental issues (green flying, traveling/ solar energy/ cloudcomputing and green/ climatechange australia)
- everyday an item about the sun: it's force, UV, energy etc.
Helga will also make a daily television programme for national broadcaster RTL 7 about Solar Team Twente's adventures during the race. She decided to join the team because she admired the team's passion for developing innovative and sustainable technology. This also spurred her on to pursue a television programme with the team. Together, they gathered enough support in only four months for eight airings.
Starting on October 14th, the programme will follow Solar Team Twente during their race. It will also provide background information on sustainability, climate change, technological innovation in the Netherlands and what Solar team Twente's technology can contribute to a more sustainable future.
Every week day from October 14th, there will be a twelve minute show at 17:45 hours Dutch time. On Saturday the 15th, there will be a special episode about the Qualifying session at Hidden Valley Raceway at 15:45 hours, right after the South Korean Formula 1 Grand Prix Qualifying broadcast."
2011 Veolia World Solar Challenge Offical Program
06/10/2011
The 2011 Veolia World Solar Challenge Event Program is now avaliable!
Download and view the Event Program here.
Sun Shines on World Solar Challenge Partnership
21/09/2011
The future is shining even brighter for the biennial World Solar Challenge event, Darwin to Adelaide, thanks to a winning partnership with Veolia Environmental Services Australia, CEO of the South Australian Motor Sports Board, Mark Warren announced today.
The deal includes naming rights for this year’s event which will now be known as the Veolia World Solar Challenge in 2011.
World Solar Challenge Signs Sponsor
21/09/2011
CAMERON ENGLAND - AdelaideNow
The World Solar Challenge has locked in naming-rights sponsor just in time for this year's event, signing Veolia Environmental Services Australia as its main backer.
The Veolia World Solar Challenge will run from October 16-23, with 39 from 20 countries racing solar-powered vehicles from Darwin to Adelaide, covering about 3000km.
Veolia Environmental Services group general manager SA & NT Laurie Kozlovic said that the partnership was a natural fit for the company, which specialises in a range of environmental, water, energy and transport solutions.
The World Solar Challenge is all about Innovation, Adventure and Achievement
19/08/2011
Watch this inspiring presentation and get excited about the 2011 World Solar Challenge 16 -23 October! See you at the start line in Darwin Australia!
University of Sakarya Solar Car Project ‘SAGUAR 2’
10/08/2011
University of Sakarya Solar Car Project ‘SAGUAR 2’ was presented in Halic Culture and Congress Center / Istanbul on 22nd of July by Sakarya University Advanced Technologies Application Community(SAITEM). The unveiling ceremony was followed by many national and international press with Project sponsors.
SAGUAR 2 is the second SAITEM’s Solar Car Project for WSC which is produced by SAITEM’s WSC 2009 experience. After the Unveiling Ceremony, SAGUAR 2 was tested technically throughout 3 days in Istanbul Park F1 Track.
According to test information;
- SAGUAR 2 is the lightest Solar Car SAITEM’s ever produced.
- SAGUAR 2 is the fastest Solar Car in Turkey.
- SAGUAR 2 is the most efficent Solar Car SAITEM’s ever produced.
- SAGUAR 2 has light mechanical component with high strength according to previous SAGUAR Project.
More Information contact, SAITEM-Media Promotional Relations Manager, Nazım AÇICI
+ 90 551 602 09 40 nazimacici@saitem.org
SolarWorldGT Unveiled!
06/07/2011
SolarWorld GT has been rolled out in Germany Bochum University of Applied Sciences and presents the next step of design evolution.
No doubt - solarcars from Bochum are extraordinary.
Four wheels,two comfortable seats, two doors, focusing everyday life, this car was build not only traveling through Australia. The WSC will be the first step of a circumnavigation of the world only with onboard solar power.
Nuna6 Unveiled in Amsterdam
05/07/2011
Nuon Solar Team unveils Nuna6
The 2011 Nuon Solar Team unveiled the Nuna6 at the Amsterdam Westergas factory. This brand new solar vehicle will be used by the team to compete against 30 teams from across the globe at the World Solar Challenge in Australia.
Nuna6 is the lightest car ever driven by the team, weighing in at approximately 145 kilos – about half the weight of the original Nuna that competed in 2001. At exactly 444 centimetres long, the car is also the smallest of the Nuna fleet. All the key elements of the previous models have been enhanced to produce the Nuna6. The car’s electric motor performs with an efficiency of 98% and air resistance has been reduced by almost 10% compared with the Nuna5. The next few months will be spent making the Nuna6 raceready and equipping it with the very latest technology.
Solar Team Twente presents 21Connect
27/06/2011
On the 23rd of June we presented our Solar Car named 21Connect to the press and our partners in respectively Amsterdam and Hengelo (Twente). On our website you can find more news about our solar car and view the photo stream of the event.
We also launched an App for Android, iPhone, Nokia and Blackberry phones, it can be downloaded from the mobile App markets. So if you have such a phone and you like to be updated about our project you can download it!
On our website you'll also find some movies about Stuart Highway as produced by the media crew who visited Australia:
- About Chris Selwood, Event Director - WSC: http://bit.ly/jUb8f9
- About airstrips along Stuart Highway: http://bit.ly/j4cRnG
- About maintenance of Stuart Highway: http://bit.ly/kRBzpu
Entry Announcement - World Environment Day
05/06/2011
Adelaide Australia 5 June 2011
12 months ago to the day we announced the regulations which would govern the 11th World Solar Challenge.
Entries are now closed and we are pleased to report that the response has been overwhelming.
30 international teams is our ideal number, however we have now accepted 40 teams from 20 countries - with more now on a growing waiting list hoping for someone to drop out and give them a place.
The response for volunteers has been similarly over subscribed with people coming from around the globe at their own expense to be part of this unique event running over 3000km in a single stage.
North and South America, Europe Asia and the Middle East are strongly represented. Newcomers this year are China, Korea and Pakistan. We wish all our teams well as they embark on the gruelling process of not only pre-qualification, but the logistical challenge of getting their solarcar, their team equipment and themselves to Australia for the greatest adventure of their lives. Young people not only dreaming of a cleaner, greener future, but working hard to make those dreams a reality.
Racing on Solar Power
24/05/2011
This coming October will see many young talents embark on a great adventure in Australia: The 'World Solar Challenge'.
The Netherlands is sending two teams to compete, and although the goal is to win, significant added value will come from the knowledge on innovation and sustainability acquired while building a solar vehicle.
This know-how will have major benefits for industry in the future.
University of Michigan wins American Solar Challenge
26/08/2010
26 June, 2010: Finishing more than two hours ahead of its nearest competitor, the University of Michigan Solar Car Team has won the American Solar Challenge for a third consecutive North American title.
The week-long, biennial 1,100-mile competition for solar-powered vehicles started in Broken Arrow, Okla., on June 20 and ended in Naperville, Ill., on Saturday, June 26. The U-M car was the first of 13 to cross the finish line at around 2 p.m. ET, for a final time of 28 hours, 14 minutes and 44 seconds.
This is the sixth North American title for the team, which won the inaugural event in 1990 with its first car, the Sunrunner.
"It's an unbelievable feeling," said engineering student Steve Durbin, the team's race manager. "This race means a lot to us because we're defending our home territory. It's great to see that all of our hard work paid off."
Aurora Christine's Performance in the 2007 World Solar Challenge
14/07/2010
Christine was originally built by the Ford Solar Car team for the first World Solar Challenge, in 1987, coming second. In 1990 she raced again, as the AERL entry, coming 6th. After a race in Japan in 1992 we retired Christine to the Ford Discovery Museum, in Geelong.
In 2007 for the 20th anniversary of the first event we dragged her out of retirement, installed a new array, motor, brakes, array tilt mechanism, instruments, batteries, wheels, tires, motor controller, maximisers and pedal box. We waited for a lightning storm and then Igor threw the switch.
Bright Idea - The Birth of Tesla Motors
14/07/2010
On a late July afternoon in 2003 an electric car powered by the sun and built by Stanford students rolled across the baking Mojave Desert, headed for Los Angeles. Stanford’s entry that year in the biennial American Solar Challenge race, the car - resembling a ground-hovering spaceship - traveled up to 60 miles per hour on roughly the same energy needed to run a hair dryer.
The car finished 15th in the race, which had started in Chicago several days earlier. But the student engineers from Stanford were too pumped up to care. That night, they gathered at a house in L.A. rented by former team member J.B. Straubel, ’98, MS ’00. Although they’d had little sleep for the past week, everybody stayed up until morning scribbling calculations on white boards and stray napkins. "It dawned on us that with a larger lithium-ion battery, you could have actually run this car without a solar array for the whole race," Straubel recalls. "We were thinking about how to apply this to the real world."
A few months later Straubel had lunch with PayPal founder Elon Musk and helped persuade the young entrepreneur to invest $4 million in a startup company that eventually became Tesla Motors.