Solar-powered car ready for 5 000km challenge

The solar car, which has been named Photon was unveiled on Monday, 3 September at NMMU in Port Elizabeth by Tom du Plessis, director for production at Volkswagen. Photon will be competing against a number of international teams from countries such as Japan and the Netherlands. Volkswagen made a substantial financial and technical contribution towards establishment of the project, which has culminated in the VWSA-NMMU Solar Car team participating in this bi-annual event.

Local and international students

"Volkswagen is excited to be involved in such a unique project with the NMMU engineering students. Renewable energy will play a significant role in the future of the automotive industry and by embarking on such a project, the students will gain valuable knowledge that they can bring into the engineering field," said Du Plessis.

Volkswagen has also provided the team with three vehicles - Crafter, T5 Kombi and Caddy - which will be used as support vehicles during the two week race that will cover over 5 000km.

"Our team consists of both local and international students from multiple faculties studying at NMMU. They have all voluntarily participated in this exciting project since its inception in May last year," said Clive Hands, project leader of the VWSA-NMMU Solar Car team.

"The solar car has been designed to be a light as possible utilising composite technology in both the monocoque and the body shell to minimise rolling resistance. The CFD techniques have enabled the design of the body shell to be aerodynamic to ensure that drag is reduced to a minimum. All sub-systems have been designed and manufactured to reduce energy consumption as much as possible. The car will travel the width and breadth of South Africa with its 6m² solar deck producing power not more than it takes to run a hair-dryer," concluded Hands.

Laptop batteries to supply power

International exchange student, Arne Kloeblen heads the electrical side of the team. "The panels we used for powering the car are 6m² of monocrystalline silicon, similar to those used for regular photovoltaic installations. They cover most of the top of the car and have been custom built to fit onto the car.

"A battery pack of lithium ion cells usually used for laptops or power tools has been integrated to supply enough power in case the heat from the sun does not provide sufficient energy to maintain the desired travel speed. In this instance, tunnels, inclines and bad weather are less influential. The drive is a highly efficient brushless DC motor that is able to use the supplied power to the max," Kloeblen said.