With just days left before the Global Green Challenge commences to decide who’s got the best solar-powered vehicle, the University of New South Wales thinks that its Sunswift IV has got everything it needs to emerge as the winner.
The car, better known as IVy, was built over an 18-month period by about 60 team members who spent more than 10,000 hours putting the car on the road. IVy has a little steering wheel with acceleration and hand-operated brake paddles stuffed on it.
Measuring 5m in length and less than a meter tall, the car can reach a speed of 90kph while consuming just 1.3KW of power from the onboard solar panels, which is about 0.5KW less than what a four-slice toaster consumes.
The car also carries a battery that can power the vehicle for five hours without sunlight. The designers state that the car isn’t comfortable by any means since all the systems that weren’t necessary for the car to run were removed to lower its weight and power consumption.
A computer system matches the amount of power generated by the solar panels against data on the topography of roads on the route, wind speeds and the weather and the result then allows the system to generate the best speed that the car requires.
The car, better known as IVy, was built over an 18-month period by about 60 team members who spent more than 10,000 hours putting the car on the road. IVy has a little steering wheel with acceleration and hand-operated brake paddles stuffed on it.
Measuring 5m in length and less than a meter tall, the car can reach a speed of 90kph while consuming just 1.3KW of power from the onboard solar panels, which is about 0.5KW less than what a four-slice toaster consumes.
The car also carries a battery that can power the vehicle for five hours without sunlight. The designers state that the car isn’t comfortable by any means since all the systems that weren’t necessary for the car to run were removed to lower its weight and power consumption.
A computer system matches the amount of power generated by the solar panels against data on the topography of roads on the route, wind speeds and the weather and the result then allows the system to generate the best speed that the car requires.
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