Team set to soak up the sun for Australian challenge
DURBAN: The treacherous Australian Outback awaits a team of lecturers from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and students who will race 3 000km in a solar car from Darwin to Adelaide – the first entry from Africa into the World Solar Challenge.
The team unveiled its 230kg, 5m-long car yesterday named Hulamin, which will be shipped to Australia at the end of this month before the race in October.
The car is named after its main sponsor, and the project was led by engineering lecturers Kirsty Veale and Clint Bemont.
Veale explained that a team of 13 was travelling to Australia, and that four drivers would take turns getting behind the wheel from 8am to 5pm over several days.
Hulamin will have 6m² of silicon solar panels to harvest energy from the sun, and can travel at a speed of 130km/h.
It was also designed with a custom cruise control, which manages its speed and power use.
An array of sensors will transmit data to a following vehicle, which will transmit the optimal travelling speed back to Hulamin.
Nearly 50 teams from 25 countries will compete in the World Solar Challenge, and Bemont said that many had spent 10 times more on their cars than the team at UKZN had – but he was confident that theirs was an innovative design.
Hulamin was a far better version of the car which UKZN had entered into last year’s Sasol Solar Challenge, and the previous incarnation had managed to travel the longest distance of any South African team.
The solar-car project was touted by UKZN as representing “engineering for social impact”, and as a contribution by UKZN towards advancing sustainable and renewable technology.
Previous attempts by UKZN students to compete in the Australian event had been frustrated by a lack of sponsorship. For this year, Bemont said the entry would not have been possible without the help of aluminium manufacturing company, Hulamin.
UKZN vice-chancellor Albert van Jaarsveld, who had taken the solar vehicle for a spin, said competing in the World Solar Challenge was a “landmark event” for the country.
“It is a wonderful adventure, we are 100 percent behind you,” he said.
Come October, the team will be camping at the roadside along their 3 000km jour- ney, and Bemont laughed as he explained that a list had been compiled of all the animals, insects and plants to be wary of.
Veale said that while a core team of 13 people was travelling to Australia – including herself and Bemont – 20 people had worked on the project for more than three years.