Competitors in the Biennial World Solar Challenge departed Darwin this morning, taking on the 3,000-kilometre race to Adelaide in cars powered entirely by solar energy. The event brings together nearly 40 teams from across the world, mostly of university students in science and engineering disciplines. ABC reporter, Joseph Hathaway-Wilson is following the race.
00:00Good to see it's a sunny day there mate, that's a plus.
00:05What have you seen so far this morning?
00:09Absolutely, it's a relief for us and even more of a relief for them.
00:13We're in Nunamar at the moment, 40 kilometres outside of Darwin,
00:16but some of the teams that are leading this charge
00:18have almost double that length ahead of us already.
00:21Teams took off from Darwin at around 8am local time this morning.
00:25They left from outside the front of Parliament House
00:27and soon barrelled into the vast territory bushland.
00:30They were greeted by a large crowd of vans along the side of the road.
00:34Lots of flag waving, a couple of patriotic chants,
00:37keeping in mind that competitors have come from all over the world to compete in this event.
00:41Now there are no shortage of spectators out here alongside the highway either.
00:45Plenty of locals have set up camping chairs
00:47and were keen to wave and to cheer on the solar cars as they came by.
00:52I think we've just got one coming by now.
00:55Look at that.
00:57Ooh, some speed to it.
00:59Yeah.
01:01Straight out of the future.
01:02Yeah.
01:03But yeah, that might get a little bit more scarce as we go further on into the bush.
01:07Not sure how many people we'll be seeing alongside the Stuart Highway,
01:10but hopefully we'll get more of the same when we get into Catherine, Tennant Creek
01:13and a couple of those regional town centres.
01:15Yeah, it is quite bizarre watching something like that just travel on that desert landscape down the highway.
01:19What is happening in terms of the science and the innovation there?
01:25Yeah, well, it's fascinating.
01:26So this event is primarily for testing the engineering skills of these young solar scientists
01:31and these solar engineers who are trying to use the minimum amount of resources to harness the maximum benefit.
01:37Now that can involve harnessing the power of the sun.
01:39It involves aerodynamics.
01:40As you saw, there's plenty of funky shapes and sizes hitting the road this morning.
01:44But it also involves a couple of funky and fresh features that you wouldn't expect to see in some of these solar vehicles.
01:50Things like self-made GPS systems or AI chatbot companions that have been implemented in the cars,
01:55air ventilation systems built into the seating, all sorts of fresh stuff.
01:59On the flip side, there are a couple of big companies who are using this event as an opportunity to test some of their latest developments in the solar space.
02:06We've seen perovskite solar cells being used in some of these cars, said to be more efficient in enhancing the power of the sun
02:12than standard solar cells currently on the market.
02:14The tyres being used are made from, I think it's 55% recycled tyres, and they're starting to make their way onto the market as well.
02:20So it's exciting because of the competition, but also exciting from a science and engineering perspective as well.
02:26It is indeed, and as we said, a nice sunny day there, which is a plus. How's the race looking so far?
02:33Well, it's the Dutch who are well in the lead this morning.
02:36There's three teams from the Netherlands who, last time I checked, were in first, second and third place.
02:40Brunel, 20 and top Dutch, they're leading the way.
02:43In fourth place are the reigning champions, the Belgian team in Optus.
02:47And then coming in fifth, we've got our very own Western Sydney solar team.
02:50That's the leading Aussie team so far.
02:52Of course, plenty of time and a couple of days left to go as well.
02:56So we'll see how it fares from here.
02:57It's amazing. Good on you. Thanks for joining us this morning.
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