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Their new solar car – “Resolution” – rewrites the rulebook for green vehicles, boasts the university. The prototype built by engineers at the University of Cambridge was unveiled in a road-test last Friday at the Millbrook Race Track, near Bedford.
A key aspect of the design is a set of moving solar panels – these maximise power by tracking the path of the sun across the sky,
“Resolution is different because she overcomes one of the main limitations that affect most solar cars,” said Keno Mario-Ghae, team manager for Cambridge University Eco-Racing, based at the University’s Department of Engineering. “Traditionally, the entire structure of a solar car has been based on a trade-off between aerodynamic performance and solar performance. That’s how they’ve been designed for the past 10 years, and that’s why they all tend to look the same.”
“We turned the concept on its head. Our reasoning is that solar performance needs to adapt to the movement of the sun, but the car needs a fixed shape to be at its most aerodynamic. To make the car as fast and powerful as possible, we needed to find a way to separate the two ideas out, rather than find a compromise between them.”
Check out the video below:
httpv://youtu.be/oAXeNf9L0cs
“Efficiency is where our real strength lies and this is how we will be hoping to compete with the bigger teams entering the Challenge this time around,” Mario-Ghae added. “A huge amount of careful planning has gone into this project. It has involved research not just in terms of engineering and aerodynamics, but into the materials we use, the modelling behind the design, and the optimisation of the solar cells that power the car.”
“The cumulative effect is, we think, a radical, race-winning design that also incorporates elements that could be used more widely in a low-carbon future. No British team has won this race before, but there is no reason why we can’t be the first to do it.”
