Nuon Solar Team Wins Solar Challenge

Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands has won the 2013 World Solar Challenge, making a 1,864 mile/3,000 km trip across the Australian outback in just over 33 hours, achieving an average speed of 90.71 km/h.

The Nuon Solar Team  finished the race on Oct. 13, two hours ahead of the previous winner, the team from Japan’s Tokai University. The Tokai car ran out of power under heavy cloud cover and had to stop and recharge.

The team competed against 40 other groups from 23 countries. The Nuna7 vehicle’s shell was made using DSM’s Daron resins optimized for use with TeXtreme carbon fiber. The team used DSM’s Somos stereolithography materials for prototyping during the development phase of the vehicle. Nuon also used a lightweight version of Semprius’ high concentration solar photovoltaic modules (NCPV) to power the vehicle. The modules were less than 7 cm thick, and were able to deliver 30 watts per kilogram.

Source: Yahoo News