Solar cars roll across Earth's driest desert
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — The second annual Solar Challenge has begun in Chile's Atacama desert, where 15 solar-powered cars rolled out of an old salt mine Thursday.
The solar-powered prototypes will travel more than 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) through the world's driest desert in the four-day, multinational race.
There are two categories: cars powered only by solar energy, and three-wheeled models that get a little help from pedals pushed by the drivers themselves.
The cars had to be built for less than $7,000, forcing their makers to be creative more than wealthy. Most of the teams represent university engineering departments.
The big finish comes Monday, and the winners get prizes of $30,000 in the solar category and $9,000 in the hybrid category.
The solar-powered prototypes will travel more than 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) through the world's driest desert in the four-day, multinational race.
There are two categories: cars powered only by solar energy, and three-wheeled models that get a little help from pedals pushed by the drivers themselves.
The cars had to be built for less than $7,000, forcing their makers to be creative more than wealthy. Most of the teams represent university engineering departments.
The big finish comes Monday, and the winners get prizes of $30,000 in the solar category and $9,000 in the hybrid category.
Love those sand tires.
this is cool, and no this is not the only place..To days inverters are more efficient, and than the older ones.
In fact to day solar prducts are better then yesterdays, we have units that can charge even on a cloudy day and the charging borads are very tiny with on Transistor to regulate the power, some solar lanterns after fully charged can stay lit for nearly a month if allowed to charge long enough..At any rate today's solar tech is far superior then what we had in the 90's the only reason why they use the desert is because it is an even playing field, in fact solar technology fails at higher temps, this is the one reason why they do these in the desert. They need the harshest element. that they can find
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They need to abuse the vehicles. any one not understanding this has no clue as to what these challenges are all about . it is a test of Solar Collection technologies IE the collectors, a test on electronic components and a test on motors and the like..Just remember, The rovers that are on Mars, Spirit is still running..well limping along after 8 years. and it is an expensive .
@lee986321
The ultimate limit of solar-powered ANYTHING is the insolation - the amount of energy the sun delivers at the Earth's surface. The sun delivers about 1kW per square meter - on a clear day with the sun directly overhead. The "car" pictured looks as if it might have between two and three square meters of solar panel area. Of course, commercially available solar cells are around 15% efficient, meaning you get only 150W of that 1kW. A typical "real" electric car requires around 200kWh of energy per mile at normal speeds; In the real world, you would need to charge that real car for over an hour before you could drive it for one minute.The solar cells used in space exploration have higher efficiencies, and are MUCH more expensive - even so, if you could have a 100% efficient solar cell (and it doesn't get any better than that), you will still collect only 1kW/m^2.
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A practical application of a solar-powered car would be to put up an array of panels separate from the car (e.g., on the roof of your garage) and use those to charge you electric car. Of course, I hope you have a night job.
That's the only place where these piece of *#(! solar cars work anyway, in the middle of the burning desert
@archon312 People built those cars. Unless you've built or bought one, why are you insulting their progress. People like you said that powered flight was impossible because steam engines were too heavy. What America desperately needs is for all the whiner, critics and crybabies to move to Mexico or somewhere so we can foster the old We Can Do It mentality instead of a bunch of cynical petroleum addicts.