Australian students smash solar vehicle speed record

The top speed world record for a solar-powered vehicle has stood for a 22 years. But last week it was smashed by a group of students from the University of New South Wales.

The solar car they developed, called Subswift IVy, managed to reach speeds of 88km/h, that’s over 9km/h faster than the previous Guinness World Record set at 78.3km/h by the GM Sunyraycer. IVy uses silicon solar cells and usually charges a 25kg battery for power. As this was a top-speed record attempt, though, the battery was removed and the car was pushed as fast as it could go at the HMAS Albatross navy base airstrip.

In total some 40 students were involved in the creation of IVy. The final design is capable of producing 1,200 watts of power and has been known to travel as fast as 103km/h. But for the world record attempt 88km/h was enough, and it was done at 10:32am–long before the sun is at it’s highest around midday.

Project manager Daniel Friedman commented:

We were expecting to get our peak sun at noon, so the fact we broke the record so early was a great result. We hope the news will spur a lot more interest in solar energy and the debate about renewable energy technology.

Matthew’s Opinion

Although these solar-only vehicles are specially designed to be super-light and super-efficient, that doesn’t mean the technology cannot be applied to standard road cars.

Producing 1,200 watts of power could go a long way towards powering the devices we are all used to in our cars. Of course it depends on the weather where you live, but coating the roof of your car with solar panels could have an impact on your fuel use ultimately saving you money.

While to focus for road vehicles at the moment seems to be hybrid and electric vehicles, as solar panel become more efficient they will turn into viable power or recharge options for the batteries all cars will eventually carry.

Source - Geek