Written by: Adrienne Brookbanks
South Africa’s Solar Challenge 2010 kicked off on 23 September 2010 and the winners were announced on 4 October 2010. This epic, ten day race saw five local teams and three overseas teams compete against one another with self-built solar powered cars, travelling the length of South Africa.
The challenge is organised by the Innovation Hub and the Advanced Energy Foundation. The event kicked off at the Innovation Hub in Pretoria and the teams travelled through Bloemfontein, Beaufort West and Cape Town before returning to Pretoria via George, Port Elizabeth, Durban and Badplaas along the eastern side of the country. Teams had to put their cars through gruelling qualifying and technical inspections in order to participate.
The winning solar car
At the end of the 4,061 km race, Japan’s Tokai University won the event with their 162kg solar powered car. This is the second consecutive victory for the Japanese university at South Africa’s Solar Challenge (this is the second time the event was held and their previous win was in 2008). The university’s car, called the “Tokai Challenger”, was equipped with Sharp compound solar cells developed for outer space applications. According to Sharp-world.com, the cells have a cell conversion efficiency of 30%, the highest level in the world, with an output of 1.8kW. Sharp’s solar cells are the only solar cell products approved for use by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).
The vehicle maintained an average speed of 90.1 km per hour. The Tokai Challenger also won the world’s largest solar race, called the Global Green Challenge, which was held in Australia last year.
About the team
The winning team is called the Tokai Unviersity Challenge Center Light Power Project and they are led by Professor Hideki Kimura. The team consisted of 16 members of who the majority are students at the university. Kimura researches high-efficiency solar cars at the University’s engineering department.
Japan’s leading driver, Kenjiro Shinozuka, was also part of the team. Shinozuka is part of the Tokai University School of Engineering alumni and he was the first Japanese to win the Paris Dakar Rally.
“The Japanese set the South African record for the longest distance travelled in one day on solar energy at 565,3 km,” said race Director Winstone Jordaan. Jordaan is the founding member of the Advanced Energy Foundation and he has been involved in energy and mobility innovations for a number of years.
A bumpy ride
Some teams didn’t have it as easy as others. The Malaysian team, for example, arrived in South Africa only a few days before the race due to a failure of a fuel cell for fuel cell bike. They found hydrogen and spare batteries only minutes before their departure at the kick-off line. Jordaan said that he would like to see the 2012 event attract more entrants, especially from South African Universities
With official support of Federation Internationale de l´Automobile, the Department of Science and Technology, the race is known as one of the most gruelling challenges. Teams were able to choose between two categories when entering the competition: the Challenge Class and the Adventure category. The Challenge Class is solely for sun-powered vehicles while the Adventure category includes other forms of alternative transportation, such as biofuel-powered cars, hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles and more.
Besides the records broken by the Japanese team, a team from the University of Johannesburg also set a record for travelling the furthest distance in a single South African event (1 845 km) with their Bar-1 hybrid vehicle. They also travelled the furthest distance in one day (472,3 km).
The Johannesburg German School also broke a record for travelling the furthest in a single event by a South African school (483,5 km) as well as for the furthest distance by a South African school in one day (94,5 km) with their solar-powered vehicle, called Sonnebrand.
“South Africa has incredible opportunities to become a leader in solar and other advanced energies, and the Solar Challenge is the perfect place to develop the skills, technologies and teamwork needed to realise our potential,” concluded Jordaan.
The liveeco team
