Solar-powered transportation owes a great deal to the participants of races and contests such as the World Solar Challenge in Australia. Starting in 1987, this biennial event covers a 3,000-kilometer route from tropical Darwin in the Northern Territory, to cosmopolitan Adelaide in South Australia. The challenge includes not only navigating the route, but involves a great deal of strategy as well, as teams must conserve energy while maintaining consistent speed. History shows that this can be a delicate balance.

Solar cars are not the only vehicles which will be on display for the event this year. Parallel contests involving electric and other alternatively-fueled cars will take place as well. We are showing you their official website before any news or media information is available, so you've got a head-start on following the race. It should be fun!

[Source: World Solar Challenge]

Using a body of carbon fiber, Kevlar and epoxy swathed over a honeycomb core, the Sinag solar car, a first for the Philippines, is set to enter the 20th World Solar Challenge in Australia in October. The three-wheeled vehicle converts energy from the sun into electricity using 400 solar cells, silicon-based, which are capable of sending 2000 watts to a pack of lithium polymer batteries and in turn to the electric motor driving the rear wheel. Like other solar racers, the car seats one person and relies more on endurance than outright speed. We wish all of the cars a good race in Australia, hopefully the experience and knowledge gained will help to increase the efficiency of more normal cars like those that we all drive today.

Related:

• Solar car ready to promote alternative transportation in Philippines

[Source: Manila Times]

click on the above image to view the photo gallery of the team exhibit

Solar cars are going too fast!

I stopped by the University of Michigan solar racer exhibit at the Detroit Auto Show and discovered that race organizers are slowing down the cars for upcoming major races. Even though the cars must compete on public roads and go no more than 65 mph, too many of them are running right on the edge. Top speed for some of the racers is over 85 mph. I talked with a few of the student engineers who said the latest rule book for the 20th running of the World Solar Challenge, which will be staged in Australia later this year, calls for changes that affect the aerodynamics and available power to slow down the vehicles.

The first significant ruling forces drivers to sit upright. Previous vehicles had the drivers lying in the prone position but now the seat-back angle is regulated. The new body design won't be as slippery with a bigger cockpit.

The other major change limits the area used for solar cells. In previous years the teams could put solar cells anywhere on the body, although there were dimension limits for the body. Now they're limited to about six square meters, robbing the teams up to 40 percent of their power generation. However, with a smaller solar array, there may be options to decrease the size of the body and possibly improve aerodynamics or reduce weight. The new restriction will also help teams with cost. Each gallium arsenide solar cell, which is about the size of a business card, costs $200 to $300.

The University of Michigan is the defending North American Solar Challenge champion. On display were the 2005 champion named Momentum and the 2001 champ named M-Pulse. Both vehicles also placed third in the World Solar Challenge, a 1,800-mile run down the middle of Australia. The team needs to raise more than $2 million to build the car (the solar array runs nearly $500,000) and for team support.

Click on the images above or below to see a high-resolution (1,280 pixel wide) image gallery of U of M's solar car display .

The University of Toronto's Blue Sky Solar Racing program began in 1997. Now with over 100 student members, they're in the process of developing their third solar race car which should be ready for the 2007 World Solar Challenge. For Ecofest 2006, they brought their 2nd generation vehicle which is dubbed Faust II.

The Faust II is a single-seat solar race vehicle capable of reaching a top speed of 75 mph. The silicon-based solar cell array is able to generate 1000 watts with 19 percent efficiency. The powerplant driving the rear wheel is an NGM DC brushless electric motor which produces 5kW (about 6.7 hp). The shell is made from carbon fiber and Kevlar and is attached to a tubular aluminum frame. The overall weight of the car is roughly 450 pounds.

Representatives for the program were graduate students Branko Daljevic and Amy Bilton as well as the managing director, Andreas Marouchos.

Andreas feels that the solar race car project is a good way of educating the public and promote alternative-fuel vehicles. He said that he believes the technology to power our cars on different sources of electricity exists for the real world. The problem we face right now is getting the government and public to accept these technologies because the major car companies will build what the public wants. He also keenly noted that the first solar cars began to appear in the 1970s, "astonishingly close to the first oil crisis." Andreas has been with the project since 2001.

More information about the Blue Sky Solar Racing Program can be found at their website.

You'll find more pictures by clicking the continue link.

Undergrads at the University of Missouri-Columbia are hard at work putting together a hydrogen fuel cell solar vehicle that will compete in the 2007 World Solar Challenge. That’s about as green as it gets. The SunTiger team’s website is still focused on the team’s performance at the 2005 solar car and race, but information on the new vehicle, called Tigergen I, I think, is hidden in the “Tech” link and will be made more available when the SunTigers tour Missouri this summer. The students are doing their own aerodynamic design work and are working hard to keep the fuel cell within the operating range of above freezing and below boiling. [Source: Mizzouhydrogen.org, Hat Tip: SunTiger Christopher Millner]

[Update: My mistake. The car will be powered by hydrogen fuel cells only. No solar is involved in the 2007 car. It'll still be pretty green, though, and I'm not sure how it'll be in the World Solar Challenge, but maybe Chris can post this info in the comments below]