World Solar Challenge may need a dose of reality

Stan Beer
Tuesday, 23 October 2007 13:14

Opinion and Analysis

While some may make light of a bevvy of strange looking shiny vehicles worming their way down a 3,000 km highway through central Australia, there is nothing wacky about the 20th World Solar Challenge taking place this week from Darwin to Adelaide. With each passing year, the cars have become better, faster and more energy efficient to the point where observer bemusement has been replaced by thoughtful contemplation.

Serious money backing serious energy efficient technologies has made this annual event a global test bed for some of the most innovative ideas to be turned into zero carbon personal transportation the world is likely to see.

To clarify the aims of this race, no-one is saying that the sort of cars we use in real life will anytime soon be powered solely by the Sun. However, with the advancement of battery technology, there is a strong possibility that personal vehicles of the near future will be wholly electric and solar recharging both at home and on the go is going to be part of the equation.

The cars in the World Solar Challenge are not even concept cars; they're prototypes for testing the most efficient solar cell arrays, new types of battery systems for cars, including the latest Lithium ion packs, mechanisms for recharging batteries efficiently and the best way to deliver power to the wheels of cars.

Companies that make cars, as well as companies that make batteries and solar cells, all have interest in what happens at the World Solar Challenge.

If there is a criticism to be made of this now iconic event for green motoring then it may be that the focus is still primarily on the solar cells aspect of the race while the batteries have to date been largely ignored. Yet when it comes to the manufacture of real emission-free electric cars for commercial use it is the battery systems that will hold the key to the successful vehicles that eventually make it to the market.

Perhaps then it is time to widen the parameters of the race to include up and coming commercial electric vehicles such as the Tesla Roadster, the eBox, the Phoenix SUT and concept electric cars from established auto makers. Vehicles such as these could take part in their own class and be made to carry their own portable solar recharging stations or something like that.

Even ardent solar cell advocates concede that the primary role of photovoltaics in electric cars of the future will be to support the electrical storage systems of those cars. That being the case, let's get a little reality into the event and make room for real electric cars.