To the future in a solar car. Solar car - from a toy to a real alternative Solar car

It has been known for a long time that photo panels can be installed on car roofs. But few people think that a full-fledged solar-powered car has already been created, which runs only on solar energy. Moreover, these are not isolated examples of amateur inventors, but completely modern developments of large companies.

Moreover, there is even a special championship in which only solar-powered cars have the right to compete. It's called the World Solar Challenge and takes place in Australia. According to the regulations, participants must overcome the 3000 km separating Darwin from Adelaide (that is, cross the entire Australia from north to south), without using any additional energy sources. This championship is held every two years, in 2013. 40 teams from more than 20 participating countries competed in it. The victory was then won by the Dutch Nuon, its car maintained an average speed of 90 km/h, despite bad weather conditions.

Features of solar cars

Thus, solar-powered cars are no longer a myth, but an ordinary reality. True, the name “car” is not entirely correct; in fact, it is an electric car, because it is equipped with an electric motor. Photo panels are placed on the roof of the car, which supply the motor with energy. There are also powerful batteries needed to store energy. Moreover, as a rule, manufacturers provide a combined option for charging battery packs. That is, if necessary, they can be recharged from a special electrical network. This is done to increase the reliability and service life of the solar car.

The benefits of the widespread use of such solar electric vehicles are obvious. This includes the absence of environmental pollution, ease of use, and independence from gas stations. However, there are a number of problems. First of all, the efficiency of modern solar cells is not high enough (and the cost of high-performance prototypes is too high). In addition, this is the need to reduce the weight of the car as much as possible without reducing its strength, that is, the use of fairly expensive composite materials.

Nevertheless, engineers continue to actively work in this direction, since the promise of solar vehicles is beyond doubt. This means that an effective, but not too expensive, solar battery and durable but lightweight compositions for the housing are needed (after all, the weight of the electric motor and batteries cannot be lowered below a certain level).

What types of solar cars are there?

Solar-powered cars stand out from the norm. Their design most often resembles some kind of fantastic devices of the future, and not completely real, working machines. This is explained not so much by the imagination of the developers, but by practical necessity. After all, for such a car to fully operate, you need quite a lot of solar panels, so the coverage area has to be increased.

Stella - family solar car from the Netherlands

In Holland (Eindhoven Technical University) they created a concept that can easily claim the title of “the world's first solar-powered family car.” The prototype is called Stella and seats four people. Moreover, it not only accommodates, but also allows them to fit quite comfortably in the cabin. Moreover, the car also has a quite spacious trunk. The Stella body is made of carbon fiber and aluminum, so the concept weighs only 380 kg with a length of 4.5 m and a width of 1.65.

Flexible high-performance panels are installed on the roof of the car, and control is carried out using a “smart steering wheel” and a touch screen (instead of the usual buttons). Stella's maximum speed is 110 km/h, and in the dark, with fully charged batteries, it can travel 600 km. By the way, in 2013 Stella participated quite successfully in the World Solar Challenge.

Racing technology for the masses

Venturi has launched the Astrolab solar car. Moreover, this is not just a concept development, it is a full-fledged commercial model that anyone can purchase. It is designed for two passengers. The technical characteristics of the car, created on the basis of Formula 1 racing cars, are quite sufficient for comfortable everyday driving.

The power of the asynchronous motor is 16 kW, the maximum speed is 110-120 km/h, the weight of the car itself is only 300 kg. Astrolab is equipped with 7 kW/h batteries and a total weight of 110 kg.

Three engineers from Munich have been developing an affordable solar-powered electric car for three years. The Germans raised funds for engineering and design work through a crowdfunding campaign, collecting more than 600 thousand euros in a few months for the construction of the first running prototype and its testing. The result is an electric car called the Sion, equipped with solar panels.

In total, 330 photocells were placed on the compact body, protected from mechanical stress and adverse environmental conditions by a thin polycarbonate coating. The solar panels themselves are capable of providing the Sion with a range of 30 kilometers. Sono Motors planned to produce a “solar” electric car with two battery options - with a capacity of 14.4 and 30 kWh.

In the first case, the power reserve was about 100 kilometers, and in the second - already 250 kilometers. However, it was decided to abandon the “junior” version - customer pre-orders were received only for the “senior” model. Using the system fast charging Electric car batteries can be charged to 80% from a wall outlet in just 40 minutes. However, the battery can also be charged using solar panels - in just eight hours.

On the central panel there is an unusual cabin filter based on... moss. According to the developers, moss filters up to 20% of small dust particles and at the same time maintains the required level of humidity in the cabin. There is also a 10-inch touch screen. Sion will be sold in Europe from 2019 at a price of only 16 thousand euros, but the price does not include the battery: you need to pay another 4,000 for it, or rent it.

In the last decade, such an inexhaustible source of energy as sunlight has increasingly attracted the attention of the world community. The use of solar energy for transport is a promising direction in the development of transport technologies.
The solar transport group includes all land, water and air vehicles that use solar energy for movement. Such machines are usually equipped with solar panels, the photocells of which convert visible sunlight, infrared and ultraviolet radiation into

electrical energy, which is subsequently used to power their electric motors.

Despite the fact that the use of solar panels as energy elements for vehicles is quite promising, there are a group of factors that negatively affect the speed of development and implementation of solar technologies in the global infrastructure. While the use of solar panels provides high efficiency for electric vehicles in clear, sunny weather, in the evening and at night, as well as on gloomy days, the use of these photovoltaic cells is completely impractical. Coming out of this, in most modern types of electric transport it is more advisable to use solar panels exclusively as additional batteries for electric motors, along with standard batteries.

Although sunlight is completely free to use, creating solar panel cells is quite expensive. In addition, 90 percent of solar panels are made from silicon, which makes their production environmentally unsafe. This factor is one of the main reasons for slowing down the rapid development of solar transport technologies in the world.

The service life of solar modules is about 30 years. Manufacturers of traditional solar panels typically provide a 10-year warranty on their products. However, the problem with the effective use of these elements in electric vehicles is that most photovoltaic panels are designed for permanent installation and are not able to withstand vibrations. In addition, solar panels are quite large and significantly increase the weight of the vehicle structure.

The efficiency of most solar cells is 10%, and only a few - 15%. Therefore, solar cars will be able to compete with gasoline cars only after the release of more advanced and less expensive solar batteries with an efficiency of at least 50%.

The operating principle of solar cells used in solar vehicles is to produce direct current when sunlight hits their silicon wafers. When constructing an array of solar cells, dozens of such wafers are used, since a single silicon wafer is not capable of producing significant currents. It is logical that the total power of solar panels depends on the total number of silicon wafers used in it and the surface area they create. The performance of solar panels directly depends on the intensity of solar radiation and the angle of placement of solar modules.

The electrical energy generated by solar panels is accumulated during the daytime in additional batteries installed in the vehicle, and is subsequently used to move the vehicle.
The use of photovoltaic cells can significantly increase the range of electric vehicles without recharging its traction batteries from the mains.

Types of Solar Vehicles

Solar cars (solar-powered electric vehicles)

Solar cars use photovoltaic cells to convert solar energy into electricity, which then powers an electric motor. Typically, solar cars run on sunlight during the day and use energy from standard batteries at night.

The design of solar cars is different from traditional ones. Almost their entire outer body is covered with solar panels. Since solar panels are quite large, manufacturers of these vehicles are doing everything possible to improve aerodynamics and reduce the overall weight of solar vehicles. Most practical solar car models are designed to carry one or two passengers.

The first model of a solar car, developed by William Koob, was presented at an international exhibition in Chicago back in 1955. The creator of this vehicle assured everyone that a bright future awaits solar cars, and soon all the world's highways will be saturated with them. It seemed that Koob would have been right, but for some reason everything did not work out as expected... Funding for the solar car development project was closed under the influence of the large automobile company Ford. And only in the 80s, when the world community became really concerned about the state of the environment, did the idea of ​​producing solar cars return again.

The first production solar car, Venturi Astrolab, was released in 2006. The model was equipped with an asynchronous electric motor with a power of 16 kW and a torque of 50 Nm, a 7 kWh nickel-metal hybrid battery and a 600 W solar panel battery.

Solar panels

As mentioned earlier, solar panels can be made up of dozens of photovoltaic cells that can convert sunlight into electricity. Individual solar cells form modules, which when placed together form a solar panel array. Large arrays of solar panels are capable of producing more than 2 kW of electricity.

The placement of solar panels in solar vehicles can be:

• horizontal. This is the most common type of solar panel arrangement in solar vehicles. As a rule, they are integrated into these vehicles in the form of a free canopy.
• vertical. This arrangement of an array of photovoltaic elements is much less common than a horizontal one. Typically, placement of such a plan is typical for vehicles that, in addition to solar energy, use wind energy to ensure their operation.
• with adjustable tilt.
• integrated over the entire external surface of the vehicle. In some types of cars, manufacturers cover every inch of the outer body structure with photovoltaic cells, with some photovoltaic cells always exposed to the sun and others in the shade.
• remote

A typical solar car can travel about 400 km on the energy generated throughout the day by a solar panel. The record holder for the fastest solar car is the Sunswift IV, which was developed by a group of students at the University of New South Wales. This solar car can accelerate to 88.8 km/h. The record speed of the Sunswift IV project was recorded and entered into the Guinness Book of Records on January 7, 2011, and the student creators themselves were awarded a certificate confirming the uniqueness of their development. The power of the solar panel installed on the car was 1200 W, which is equal to the power consumption of a conventional hair dryer.

The Sunswift IV has broken the speed record previously set by General Motors' Sunraycer.

Solar buses

Solar are electric buses whose engines are largely powered by solar panels mounted on the roof. The use of solar panels in buses can reduce energy consumption and extend life cycle their traction batteries.

Solar buses have nothing in common with conventional buses, in which solar cells are used to provide additional power to transport accessories (heating systems, air conditioning, etc.). This additional equipment for buses is the most common today.

Solar bikes and motorcycles

Few people know that the first vehicles to be equipped with solar cells were electric bicycles, and in most developments, three-wheeled bicycle designs were used. Solar photocells were installed in these vehicles in the form of a hinged, fairly large roof, a small panel in the rear, luggage compartment, in a trailer attached to a tricycle, or along the entire outer surface of the streamlined roof (the latter configuration is typical only for closed models). A little later, a model of a solar bicycle was created with a portable folding solar panel, with which it was possible to charge traction batteries while parked.

Solar bicycles are hybrid electric models that use solar panel cells along with traditional bicycle electrical equipment. Solar batteries, which convert light flux into electricity, provide recharging of traction batteries both while driving and when parked. A similar solar charging system is used in solar motorcycles.

The first fully solar bicycle, capable of moving solely using the sun's rays, was developed in 2006 by Canadian Peter Sandler. The invention was called E-V Sunny Bicycle. In this model, solar panels were integrated into the wheels. The energy generated by solar panels allowed the bicycle to accelerate to 30 km/h.

The use of solar cells in railway and water transport

Currently, a number of countries are practicing the installation of solar panel systems along certain electrified sections of the railway. Tunnels made of solar panels provide electricity for trains rushing past even at super speeds. Such solar installations are capable of producing thousands of megawatt-hours of electricity. A similar tunnel of solar panels, 3.4 km long, is successfully operating, for example, between Paris and Amsterdam.

The trains themselves are also equipped with solar panels. A prime example is the locomotive running in India called the Queen of the Himalayas between Kalka and Shimla stations. This train is equipped with 100 W solar panels, allowing it to travel on a single charge for about two days.

Until recently, solar boats were limited to rivers and canals, but in 2007, the Sun 21 solar boat made its first experimental long-term voyage. She crossed the Atlantic Ocean in just 29 days, earning her a Guinness World Record for completing the world's fastest transatlantic crossing using solar power alone. The solar boat was equipped with solar panels, the energy of which allowed it to move at a stable speed of 10-12 km/h around the clock.

In May 2012, the solar boat Turanor PlanetSolar completed its round-the-world voyage. The solar ship, 30 meters long and 15.2 meters wide, left the port of Monaco in September 2010. This is the first trip around the world made entirely on solar power. Turanor PlanetSolar is the largest water vehicle ever built.

Air vehicles

Engineers around the world are working to create air vehicles equipped with solar panels. Today, solar and hybrid airships are the most common among solar air transport.
Of particular interest is the development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Solar energy could allow them to remain in the air for even several months. Such air vehicles could solve some problems similar to satellite ones.

The first successful experimental 48-hour flight of a solar drone took place in September 2007.

In 2010, the solar plane made a 26-hour test flight in Switzerland, which began at 7 a.m. on July 8 and ended at 9 a.m. next day. The plane first rose to an altitude of about 8500 meters, and during the evening dropped to an altitude of 1500 meters, where it remained overnight. Just 15 days later, on July 23, 2010, the British defense company QinetiQ organized an experimental flight of its model of the Zephyr-6 solar ultra-light unmanned aerial vehicle. This flight became a record - an unmanned aerial vehicle, weighing 30 kg, spent more than two weeks (336 hours) in the air, flying in the skies of Arizona.

Solar energy for spacecraft

Solar energy is often used to power satellites and spacecraft operating within the solar system, since it can serve as an energy source for quite a long period of time without excess fuel mass.

Satellites have on board several radio transmitters that need to operate in constant mode. Solar energy is generally not used to adjust the position of the satellite, however, it is used to support the fuel supply process.

© Sergey Voltaire 2013
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In the middle of the last century, at one of the General Motors automobile exhibitions, the first solar-powered car was presented for the first time, the driving force of which was an electric motor powered by a selenium battery powered by the sun. Its length was only about half a meter, and a little more than ten batteries were located on the roof of the vehicle.

The designer of the car was company engineer William Cobb, whose research at that time was heavily funded by the company, promising a big leap in the development of solar-powered cars. However, the research was soon curtailed, and its results were forgotten for almost thirty years.

Electric car today: a breakthrough into the future

And only in the early nineties of the last century, when the efficiency of the solar panel rose to 15%, did a boom in the invention of solar mobiles by individual inventors begin, which subsequently included large auto concerns. Quite recently, Spektrolab, a division of Boeing, developed panels with an efficiency of about 36%, which was a real breakthrough in the use of solar energy.

Today, the production of electric vehicles using a solar battery is the focus of the latest technical inventions and discoveries in materials science. After all, the low efficiency of the panels must be compensated by low mechanical losses and the low weight of the equipment itself.

Therefore, these models use the latest inventions in the field of transmissions, they are equipped with tires with the lowest rolling resistance and the lightest high-strength composite materials are used for their bodies. In addition, solar electric cars serve as concepts for testing the latest achievements in the automotive industry.

Thus, lightweight brushless DC electric motors with poles made of rare-earth magnetic materials have been developed specifically for electric vehicles. And on a number of vehicles, in order to completely eliminate mechanical losses in the transmission, they began to install so-called wheel motors, when the electric motor is located directly in each wheel of the car. Tire companies such as Michelin, Dunlop and several others are developing tires specifically for electric vehicles, which currently have a rolling resistance coefficient of 0.007. Similar high-level energy-saving tires, using developments for electric vehicles, are being developed for conventional production models.

A great help for automakers was the invention of solar batteries so thin that they can be equipped not only with the roof, but also with any surface of the car, thereby increasing the total area of ​​absorption of light energy. Recently, when designing the power supply for production models, solar panels have begun to be used to power microclimate systems, multimedia systems, and car battery recharging systems in parking lots. The aerodynamic drag coefficient of electric vehicles has reached the minimum possible value (0.1).

New sport - solar car rally

As a result of the boom in the development of solar-powered cars, a new sport, brainsport, has emerged, in which solar car rallies are held annually in Australia with a range of about 3,000 km between the cities of Darwin and Adelaide. These competitions attract thousands of spectators, and millions watch them on television. These competitions are not deprived of attention by large automobile concerns, who understand that this type of energy is the future.

The result of more than fifty years of progress has been a number of electric vehicle designs powered by panels that convert solar energy into electrical energy.

So, in 1996, at the Australian rally, Honda's Dream car covered 3010 kilometers at a speed of 90 km/h and a maximum speed of 135 km/h.

In the same year, General Motors introduced the Sunracer car, which accelerates to 100 km/h in 9 seconds and has a top speed of 130 km/h. It was equipped with an advanced, at that time, high-efficiency electric motor and could travel about 100 kilometers using conventional lead batteries.

In one of the Australian competitions, the brainchild of students from the University of Michigan took third place. The Momentum car reached a speed of 105 km/h while carrying a driver and panels of more than 3,000 solar panels. The engine power was 2 kW and the weight was 290 kilograms including the driver. The equipment has three wheels with a width of only 65 millimeters to reduce rolling resistance.

The winners of the Australian rally in 2001 and 2003 were a team of drivers from Holland driving Nuna3 cars, who completed the distance in twenty-nine hours and eleven minutes at an average speed of 102.75 km/h. The theoretical maximum speed of this car is 170 km/h.

Development of new projects

The French company Venturi has two solar-powered car projects that are almost ready for production: Ecletic and Astrolab. Ecletic has a roof, a solar panel located on it and an electric motor with a power of 22 hp, which allows it to travel at a speed of 50 km/h for about 50 kilometers. A more advanced copy of Astrolab is capable of covering 110 kilometers and in some areas having a speed of 120 km/h.

A solar-powered car developed by a team of teachers and students at the University of South Australia was recently unveiled. Acceleration to 100 km/h for the Trev model is 10 seconds, with a top speed of 150 km/h. A range of over 150 kilometers is provided by a lithium battery weighing 44 kilograms, recharged from a solar panel. The car has 2 seats and a fairly large trunk. The equipment weighs 270 kilograms, is equipped with an efficient electric drive with low level noise and structurally can be used on public roads. The Sun Mobile is positioned by the developers as urban transport of the near future.

The cost of such a vehicle exceeds half a million dollars, and some examples reach a cost of 2 million, like the Dream from the Honda Corporation. Therefore, mass production of cars using panels that take energy from the sun will most likely not come soon. In the meantime, such models can find an owner with appropriate capital. True, a certain manufacturing company from Venezuela announced the imminent release of solar-powered passenger cars and small trucks costing no more than $6,000, but things have not yet gone further than promises.

Advantages and disadvantages of an electric car

No matter how this direction of transport development develops, solar-powered cars have many positive qualities that can spell doom for vehicles with internal combustion engines:

• unlimited running power using energy accumulated during daylight hours;
• lack of a network of gas stations;
• long working life of the solar panel;
• complete absence of harmful emissions;
• free energy.

In the meantime, these advantages become, on the contrary, disadvantages of solar mobiles, which do not allow them to become a widespread mode of transport.

Solar-powered cars are present in the program of almost every major automobile concern. In addition, these same concerns finance developments in this area by small design bureaus and teams of educational institutions. According to experts, a serial electric car will be able to appear only when the solar battery reaches an efficiency of 50%. Then solar-powered cars will be able to successfully compete with cars driven by internal combustion engines.

The whole world is experiencing a fuel crisis: oil reserves are melting every day, and the amount of its consumption, on the contrary, is growing. An environmental disaster is approaching the world: every day cars emit huge amounts of exhaust gases into the environment. Scientists are trying to solve all these problems with one very interesting, and most importantly useful development - a car powered by solar batteries. And this is not science fiction, but a very real idea that has been successfully implemented for many years.

Solar-powered cars were known back in 1982. Inventor Hans Tolstrup crossed Australia in such a car, but its speed was only 20 km/h. And after 14 years, the speed of solar cars increased to 135 km/h. This is exactly the figure shown by the speedometer of the “sunny” car “Dream”, which won the IV International Rally. Agree, this is an excellent indicator for a car that runs solely on solar radiation, but this “Dream” cost $2 million.

Developments in solar electric vehicles

A solar electric car, as the name suggests, uses solar energy to operate. One of the main links involved in this process are photoconverters; they are responsible for the accumulation of solar energy. Thus, such a car turns from an enemy of the environment into its ally, because environmentally friendly sunlight acts as an energy source.

Of course, it is still too early to talk about the widespread use of solar electric vehicles. The main problem that remains to be solved is the low efficiency of the solar cells used. Today this figure is 12%. In order to make solar cars more accessible it is necessary:

1. Reduce the cost of photoconverters significantly.
2. Increase useful output to at least 40%.
3. Reduce the weight of the car, which will reduce the amount of energy consumed.

But progress does not stand still, and scientists are working every day on new developments for solar vehicles. First of all, the improvements affected the solar-powered engine. So, the latest models of “solar” cars use lightweight brushless DC motors, the efficiency of which is 98%. Low-speed engines are also used, which are built directly into the drive wheels, which prevents energy loss during transmission.

New developments also affected wheels. Nowadays, solar vehicles use tires with a minimum coefficient of rolling resistance. Michelin is considered the leader in the production of such tires. Among other things, the energy of solar panels is used to power the radio, navigator, air conditioning and other car devices that serve for comfortable and safe driving.

The improvements also affected appearance"solar car" After all, at first glance you won’t even immediately understand that in front of you is an ordinary car. But this is not explained by the imagination of designers who are developing a solar-powered car, but by necessity. After all, for such a car to travel several tens of kilometers, a considerable amount of energy will be required, which can only be provided by a large-area solar battery. So it turns out that solar cars look not like an ordinary vehicle, but like a spaceship from some science fiction action movie. So if you love everything creative, then the sunmobile will definitely suit your taste.

The most memorable representatives of the solar car class

The Ecletic solar-powered car is one of the developments of the French company Venturi. A distinctive feature of this car is its power of 22 hp. It is worth noting that for most solar vehicles this figure does not exceed 1 hp. with a solar battery area of ​​2 square meters. Ecletic operates exclusively without the use of fuel.

For example, without recharging, such a car can travel 50 km at an average speed of 50 km/h. In addition to solar energy, Ecletic can use wind energy, which is enough for only 15 km. But in cloudy weather, you can charge the car from a regular outlet; it will take only 5 hours.

Astrolab

The Astrolab solar car manufacturer is also owned by Venturi. This model turned out to be more advanced than the Ecletic. Its maximum speed is 120 km/h, and it can travel up to 110 km. The area of ​​photovoltaic cells was 3.6 square meters. And the price of the car didn’t let us down either - 92 thousand euros, which is exactly how much you will have to pay for this miracle of modern automotive engineering.

The developers managed to achieve such high technical characteristics thanks to the shape of the car. It is designed similar to the cars participating in Formula 1. And an ultra-light carbon monocoque is used as additional protection. The designer of Astrolab was the famous Sasha Lakic, who compared the new model with a wing placed on wheels.

Solar World GT

The development of a solar-powered electric vehicle, the Solar World GT, is not yet complete. According to the Swiss company Green GT, the electric supercar will have the following technical characteristics:

• acceleration to 100 km in just 4 seconds;
• maximum speed will be 275 km/h;
• The power of the electric power plant will reach 350-400 hp.

But all these numbers are just plans for now, and we’ll find out how everything will actually happen only after Solar World GT is presented to the general public.

Installing a solar battery on your car

If you want to join solar energy, but cannot yet afford a real solar car, you can take advantage of an idea that is strengthening its position every day - installing a solar panel on the roof of the car. Moreover, it is used not only by craftsmen, but also by giants of the global automotive industry, such as Toyota, BMW and others. Of course, the accumulated energy will not be enough for you to move freely around the city, but you will be able to power your navigation system or air conditioner using solar energy.

A few years ago, Toyota announced the installation of solar panels on the “top” version of the Prius hybrid car. It’s just the presence of this option that provoked a sharp increase in the cost of this car. Still, photocells are becoming more expensive every day, and the process of storing accumulated energy itself is quite complex. The Mercedes Benz LKS 2012 is no less popular, on the roof of which the developers also installed a solar battery.

A car solar battery is designed to maintain power for devices that consume electricity, as well as to maintain battery charge during long-term parking. The power of such batteries ranges from 40 to 70 W. In addition to the battery, you will need a special controller. It is necessary to regulate charge and discharge, since when weather conditions change, as well as the change of day and night, different operating modes of the photocells used can be observed.

Race Darwin - Adelaide - testing the capabilities of solar cars

If you are even a little familiar with solar powered cars, then you have certainly heard about the most famous races that are held every 2 years in Australia. Only cars that use solar energy participate in them. They were started by Hans Tholstrup, whom we told you about at the beginning of the article. The Darwin - Adelaide race encourages all activists who care about the fate of our environment to develop new improvements for solar cars.
The race organizers have fairly strict requirements for all participants:

1. the capacity of the batteries used should not exceed 5 kW/h;
2. traffic on the highway strictly according to the schedule from 8 am to 5 pm.
3. the driver must not weigh less than 80 kg, otherwise additional ballast is attached to the electric vehicle;
4. the team must consist of 2-4 drivers.

In 2011, 37 teams took part in the race, but only 7 of them were able to complete the distance. The first to finish was the solar-powered car of the Japanese team. The Dutch were in second place, and the Americans were in third. The winner of the Tokai Challenger 2 race (pic. Tokai Challenger 2) took 32 hours and 45 minutes to complete the race course. The average speed of the sunmobile was 91.5 km/h, and the maximum speed was 160 km/h. As we see, progress is obvious.

And in 2013, students from the Technical University of Eindhoven from the Netherlands won. Their four-seater solar-powered car, called Stella, reaches speeds of up to 110 km/h, and the solar energy accumulated by silicon panels is enough for 600 kilometers, provided there is no sunlight. Stella weighs 380 kg with a length of 4.5 meters and a width of 1.65 meters. The solar car's structure is made of aluminum and carbon fiber.

Solar-powered cars are slowly but surely entering our lives. Several decades will pass, and the sunmobile will cease to be something distant and inaccessible. From a unique development it will turn into a mass means of transportation. And even though today many people regard the “solar” car as a fantastic toy for the rich, the time will definitely come when everything will change. After all, as history shows, many of those things that caused misunderstanding and wariness among people have today become an integral part of our lives.

The article was prepared by Abdullina Regina

The following video shows another example of a solar-powered car: