With overwhelming force, TU Delft's solar team won the 14th World Solar Challenge in Australia. After five days of racing, the solar car nuna9 crossed the finish line in Adelaide at quarter to seven Dutch time on October 12, 2017. The team took four days and more than six hours to complete the 3,000-kilometer race.
MPPT units
MGEelectronics from Leeuwarden, one of the technostarters of our business cluster, made another important contribution to this Delft victory. Through their 8 built-in MPPT units (Maximum Power Point Trackers), the solar cells extract the maximum possible energy from the sun. Something that is of course crucial in such a race. The winning ‘family car’ of TU Eindhoven is also equipped with material from MGElectronics. So far, MGElectronics has contributed technology to every Dutch victory in World Solar Challenge in recent years.
Challenge
It is the ninth time the team has competed in the race. Six times before it won, twice the team took second place. The organization of the World Solar Challenge tightens the rules of the race every edition. This gives the participants maximum challenge, but also reduces the average speed. In Australia, for example, Nuna9 achieved an average speed of about 81 to 82 km per hour. Never before did the Nuon Solar Team take so long to complete the solar race. Two years ago, the Delft team beat competitor Twente by 8 minutes: a minimal difference in a 3,000-kilometer race. Back then, the average speed was 91.75 km per hour.
read here more about the victory of the TU Delft.