Dutch win solar-powered race across Australia

The Dutch Nuon Solar Team from TUDelft has won the world solar challenge three times in a row. Second place was Australian Aurora which was 3 hours 20 minutes behind the dutch and third place was American Michigan. As a proud student of TUDelft I just had to post this :rock: .



US Source:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/2005092...Y8Bxg8F;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

Dutch Source:
http://www.solpower.nl/archives/2005/09/nuon_solar_team_3.html#more

you have every right to be proud.

Neat achievement.

Wow. Excuse me for asking, why do you think they/you won? Ive heard they use a lot of windmills in that part of the world with 24 volt electrical systems. Think that maybe the case?

Glad someone is working on this.

They most likely won simply because they did good research, used innovative ideas and persevered.

It's a bit of a stereotype to think that those of us in Silicon Valley must be good at computers or that Dutch people must know about windmills. Watch out for that kind of thinking, it limits you.

The design looks quite similar to others that have doen well in the same race. Low, lots of top surface, very areodynamic.

A few years back the deciding factor was laser etched solar cells that allowed more energy collection at oblique angles. A 3 hour lead is pretty good.

Interestingly, they had a rule requiring each car stop at 5pm every evening to make camp. This, IMHO, was a bad decision, since a car that was able to eke the last bits of energy from a sinking sun should have been able to take advantage of that. The same applies to cars that managed to conserve and store power. They should have been allowed to continue after dark too.

Just my 2 cents.

I think the dutch team has won, because the improvements that they have done to the new car, the nuna 3. But looking back at the results, the new car is 45 minutes faster than the nuna 2 (the old car from 2003). The second place is 3 hours and 20 minutes behind nuna 3. It would mean, even if the dutch didn't improve his nuna 2. They still would have won by 2 hours and 35 minutes (in theory). In other words the other teams are just having bad luck or they didn't improve their cars enough.

The improvement they have done is:
- Using one of the most efficient solar cells: Gallium Arsenide Triple Junction
- Improving aerodynamic shape of the car: Reduced air resistance and also to use the side wind to propel the car.
- Weight: they have reduced weight, so there would be less tire wear. Less chance for a flat tire
- Strategy: They measure the battery capacity and weather conditions as input for their optimalisation program. So they would know what the optimum speed to ride is at that moment. And they use a pace car to remove debris from the road.

Edit: I just saw them launching a new site in a commercial of a dutch free newspaper metro: http://www.metexcusesaandeconcurrentie.nl/
The website names means: with apologies to the competitors

Maybe, that rule about stopping at 5 o'clock had something to do with the terrain. It might be that there are large hills, or deep valleys, on the course that would block out the sun in the later part of the day. If this were the case, it would be unfair if some of the racers had their sun cut because of where they were on the course.

Just a thought...

I did a search for world solar challenge and found the web site. One of the pictures was quite telling. The Nola3 team was shown at dusk holding the car's solar array at a 90 degree angle to catch the last few rays of sunshine. They had lifted the whole upper surface of the car off the frame to do this. That tells me that there is some battery capacity on board and that they were not really "stopping the race at 5PM" as much as they stopped moving. The extra charging time probably made a difference and was therefore part of the race.


Daniel

Yeah I saw a few groups was doing that. One group had a truck to hold that panel, I guess it's legal within the rules. The rules are, no charging external or changing batts once the race starts. Because the batts were sealed.

http://www.engin.umich.edu/solarcar/blog/

scroll down to these words:

Solar array charging from on top the semi:

Edit: I think I'm wrong, I think I see two people on the truck's lift. I thought the americans had a panel holder to do the job.

Btw, every racing team has a judge traveling with them. So nobody is stupid enough to try something that's against the rules.

Three wins in A row---Good job I think you should be proud of your school mates that pulled that off. Best of luck next time to make it four times in a row.
Topper

I didnt mean to stereotype anyone, just wondered if that played a role. Lots of rich powerful people in tthis world dropped out of college and came from poor families.

Well then cobb, I can say it windmills certainly played a role. If windmills never existed in the Netherlands, they wouldn't have become a rich western world. Because of windmills we have lands that are below the sea level. And also we were capable of mass producing wooden ships. So yes, windmills played a role in this . But electrical windmills didn't play any role in this race. The reason is very easy, cause it's a solar powered car... There are no turbines(or windmills) in it. The aerodynamic shape has nothing to do with windmills and the idea of using side wind to propel the car came from sailing. I hope that answered your question .

Congrats to the Dutch! And congrats to my alma-mater, U of Michigan!

PLus I heard they had a sail that would pop up when no one was looking!:naughty:

Re: Dutch win with American Help

Emcore, from New Jersey produced the solar cells used in the racer.

http://compoundsemiconductor.net/articles/news/9/9/25?alert=1

The cells:
http://www.emcore.com/assets/photovoltaics/PhotoV_ATJ_Prod_Sheet.pdf

Funny thing, is much of the other technology on the vehicle is also from the USA, and other places, but they don't mention any of the American stuff on their website.

Of course there is the Belgium Biel motor, stuff from Switzerland, IBM, and many other places around the world.

Seems they chose just the right parts to put in their car to win.