The World Solar Challenge took place in Australia last week. This is a race that takes place every two years and is specifically aimed at solar cars. A total of 28 teams had to cover the 3,000 kilometer route from Darwin across the Australian outback to Adelaide using solar power alone. The winner emerged on Sunday. According to Golem, the Belgian team Innoptus was able to achieve victory with its solar mobile “Infinite”.
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Winners had a “secret weapon” with a special fin
Infinite reached the finish line at the World Solar Challenge in 34 hours, 4 minutes and 41 seconds. The Belgian team, then still called Agoria Solar Team, was able to win the last race in 2019, but 48 minutes slower than this year. Because of the corona pandemic, the race did not take place in 2021. The race begins in tropical Darwin and takes the solar cars on a 3,000km route south to Adelaide. Innoptus beat 27 challengers, including the runner-up in the last race, the Dutch team Twente. Third place also went to the Netherlands with the Brunel Solar Team.
Team Twente’s car was only a few minutes behind Innoptus for much of the route before finishing second, around 20 minutes behind. This year’s route confronted racers with smoke from forest fires and stormy winds. A special fin on the winning car improved the vehicle’s stability in crosswinds. Marketing manager Pauline Vanvuchelen described the fin as her “secret weapon”.
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Bushfires hampered World Solar Challenge
“We arrived in Adelaide first and that’s because we followed our own strategy for 3,000 kilometers. We had to take a number of factors into account: there were bushfires along the route which resulted in less power, other things like clouds and the weather constantly changing, but we were able to stick to our strategy and all “We had to plan ahead and that ensured that we were the first to cross the line here in Adelaide,” said Cedric Verlinden, team manager of the Innoptus Solar Team.
The solar teams design and build their cars themselves. These must be no longer than 5 meters and no wider than 2.2 meters. The rules limit the area of installed solar systems to 4 square meters. Drivers rotate shifts from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and camp on the side of the road at night. If a driver weighs less than 80 kg, ballast is added, according to the regulations.
Teams from the DACH region achieved 12th and 13th place
Two solar car teams from the DACH region also took part in the race. aCentauri from Switzerland came in 12th and was the last team that was able to cover the full 3,022 kilometers. The Sonnenwagen Aachen team from Germany was unable to complete the race, but reached the stage in Port Augusta after a journey of 2,718 kilometers ahead of the other participants. As a result, the Germans reached 13th place.