World Solar Challenge is a competition for solar-powered cars that started in 1982 when Hans Tholstrup and Larry Perkins took the distance between Darwin and Adelaide, Australia. They did it with their home-built solar car Quiet Achiever and convinced other “backyard engineers” to participate. The competition is held twice every year since then and is getting more and more popular.
The Cruiser category is new for the competition and was declared for first before the race within October 6th – 13th,2013. This category was created with the purpose to stimulate development solar-powered vehicles for every-day-use. And the first champion from this category is Stella “the world’s first solar- powered family-car”. The vehicle was developed by Solar Team Eindhoven, a team supported by Eindhoven University of Technology. The car achieved top speed of 120 km/h and maintained average speed of 67 km/h with 3 people inside. The distance passed was nearly 3000 km.
Stella has solar panels on its roof and back, as the back panels could be lifted in order to charge the batteries while Stella doesn’t move. The team states that the car generates more electricity than it uses.
There are still some tasks to be solved (for example, the development of efficient energy storage system to allow night driving for the vehicle), but Stella is a vehicle that gives hope for creating an alternative of the current fossil fuels.
SOURCE: [interestingengineering]
