Clever Dutch team built their own sun panels

NUON Solar Team from Delft University in the Netherlands are the only team at this year’s Sasol Solar Challenge using a solar panel they built themselves.

The other solar cars use panels made by the world’s two main manufacturers: Gochermann and SunCat Solar.

“Because of this, no one is better than the other, which is why we started trying to make our own,” said team spokesperson Sarah Bennink Bolt.

“One of the main reasons we tried to build it is because everything just keeps improving (on the cars), except the solar panel.”

Bennink Bolt explained that the solar panels or arrays, which cover the roofs, or lids, of the solar cars are made from three different layers. These layers are then laminated in a particular way to hold them together.

“The solar cells, which are the squares or rectangles you see, are what translates the UV light into energy,” she said.

The layer of solar cells were placed between a back layer to secure it and a top layer made from glass or plastic. This reflected a lot of light, making the panels less efficient. The team redesigned the top layer and laminate, with the help of companies DSM and Soltech.

Their new design used “light trapping” technology in which a film of uniquely shaped corner cubes prevented light from reflecting off the array, redirecting it from the cell surface and back onto the panel.

It also guided light more effectively to the solar cells in the morning and evenings when the sun was at a lower angle.

“We found a way of improv- ing the laminate. We’ve been researching it for the past two to three years and this is the first time we’re using it. It’s very exciting,” she said, adding that it was a delicate process.

Rainbows of light could be seen on the car’s solar array at a certain angle. Bennink Bolt said the way the cubic structure of the top layer broke up light caused it to form unique prisms.