THE WORLD SOLAR CHALLENGE
Australia Best Buys online are proud supporters of the World Solar Challenge, and in particular, the Regency Park TAFE's entry into the World Solar Challenge race. The race will be run starting on October 25th 2009 and will commence from Darwin, ending up in Adelaide, a distance of approximately 3,050 kilometers with entrants being powered soley via the suns energy.
The drive will require 50,000 watts of energy, and you can help the Regency Park TAFE raise the required funds by donating a Watt Hour of Power - Each Watt Hour of Power raised will assist the project, and business's who donate 40 hours or above will recieve a framed certificate of appreciation - You can donate to Solar Spirit here and be part of this amazing event.
The challenge is being competed by 45 Solar Car teams from around the globe, including participants from Australia, Canada, Netherlands, China, United Kingdom, USA, Turkey and India. As this is still an up and coming technology, there is also a mass of corporate attention from leafing vehicle manufacturers such as GM Holden, Suzuki, SAAB, Tesla, BMW and Ford who are competing in the Eco Challenge category of the Global Green Challenge. These are the companies working on energy smart cars and the Solar Challenge is an opportunity for these companies to take advantage of cutting edge solar design.
The communities and towns on the route will also see a boom in local business, as not only the teams, but a huge entourage of media will be following the race, town by town. Again, the media will be represented by the worlds larger agencies bringing not only welcome dollars to local business's but also world coverage of the vastness that is the Australian outback, and of course the ingenuity of our Australian entrants, partucularly the Regency Park TAFE - whose entry in the last challenge "Kelly" did extremely well. Refer the photo below.
Another upside is not just in vehicle technology, but also in other solar power related areas. Another beauty of the concept is that the entries are University based, meaning that students are learning on real projects a number of important skill streams - Not just solar power generation but aero dynamics and a raft of other skills required to hand build a vehicle capable of travelling through a vast wilderness purely on the suns rays.
With the corporate interest that is enbedded in this years challenge, along with the learning opportunities for University students and staff can assure us to a degree that a cleaner and greener environment is being taken seriously, and will trickle down into our day to day technology. For more information, photos and the chance to talk about this subject yourself, refer to Solar Power Social.
