The World Solar Challenge was born in 1982 when Hans Tholstrup and Larry Perkins decided to go from the west end of Australia to the east in a home-built solar car – Te Quiet Achiever. Now the race is held every two years and aims to inspire people to explore energy efficient vehicles and to make them more popular.
This year the race was won by the Dutch team NUON from the Delft University of Technology. Its solar-powered Nuna 7 vehicle arrived in Adelaide at 10:03 a.m. on the morning of the fifth day of the event, having led from the front for the full 3,021 km from Darwin, crossing Australia from north coast to south in a total of a little over 33 hours. That puts its average speed at an impressive 91 km/h (57 mph). Nuon Solar Team’s overall time was a little behind its 2005 pace, when it completed the trip in 29 hours and 11 minutes achieving an average speed of 102.8 km/h (63.9 mph).
For more interesting stories from The Solar Challange visit the race’s official website: http://www.worldsolarchallenge.org/
