The Tech Behind the Winning Solar Car A mix of satellite-grade solar cells, good batteries, a new motor, and a little luck John Boyd, 2009

The discovery… ‘The discovery of this car was firstly when Tokai University, mostly engineering students raced in the ‘Global Green Challenge’. The team came 1 st with their solar powered car ahead of Nuon Solar Team from the Netherlands and a team from the University of Michigan.’

Behind the car… The “Tokai Challenger” solar car is equipped with Sharp compound solar cells developed for outer space applications. The cells have an output of 1.8 kW and a cell conversion efficiency of 30%, the highest level in the world. ( “The car is plastered in 2,176 solar cells. The cells, manufactured by Sharp, consist of rare metals that are usually used in satellites.” ( The solar cells are called photovoltaic, “Photovoltaics are best known as a method for generating electric power by using solar cells to convert energy from the sun into electricity.” (

Photovoltaic The solar panels are widely used at this day and are used in construction in all types of form such as for houses, transport, power plants and many other ways. Optimum Orientation of Solar Panels For best performance: Solar trackers move the PV panels to follow the sun. Static mounted systems can be optimized by analysis of the Sun path. Panels are often set to latitude tilt, an angle equal to the latitude, but performance can be improved by adjusting the angle for summer and winter. ( Each compound cell is composed of three main layers: germanium at the bottom, indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) or gallium arsenide (GaAs) in the middle, and indium gallium phosphide (InGaP) on top. Just before the race began, Sharp announced the development of a new compound solar cell with a 35.8 percent conversion efficiency, the world's highest, according to the company. Sharp achieved this by replacing the bottom germanium layer with one of InGaAs, enabling it to absorb more of the light.( winning-solar-car/0)

What was used? A lithium-ion battery was used to generated solar panels to create the electricity. This was provided by Panasonic Corp. The battery employed more than 500 cells of the type used in notebook computers.

Solar Vs. Petrol MPG (miles per gallon)Solar, Toyota Prius Petrol, Toyota Camry Solara sport coupe Mileage estimates (mpg city/highway/combined) 51/48/5021/31 Both cars roughly the same price, showing that price doesn’t effect the performance the mechanics do.

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Bibliography John Boyd, 2009, retreived December 5 th 2009, tech/solar/the-tech-behind-the-winning-solar-car/0http://spectrum.ieee.org/green- tech/solar/the-tech-behind-the-winning-solar-car/0 ‘photovoltaic’, n.d, retrieved December 5 th 2009, Ariel Schwartz, 2009, retreived December 5th 2009, challenger-wins-1864-mile-global-green-challe challenger-wins-1864-mile-global-green-challe ‘Construction Completed on Tokai University’s Solar Car’, 2009, retreived December 5 th 2009,