Fifty students from the University of Applied Sciences Bochum worked hard for over a year to develop a solarracer for the future generation: The SolarWorld No.1!We met one of them at the ecomove, the trade fair and congress for sustainable mobilty in berlin, where the latest trends in green mobility has been shown and discussed.Enjoy our video!

After a couple of troublesome, exciting and adventurous days in Shanghai, the long road from there to Beijing awaits us. On it, a new record wants to be celebrated: 30 000 solar powered road kilometers! We already got the fireworks ready, when suddenly something interferes
with our plans...Watch the video to find out what went wrong and how Louis Palmer got some confucian wisdom

Fifty students from the University of Applied Sciences Bochum worked hard for over a year to develop a solarracer for the future generation: The SolarWorld No.1! At the World Solar Challenge in Australia the solarracer performed excellently. We interviewed Lars-Daniel Uhlhorn and Christoph Bönneken, two of the students who drove the SolarWorld No.1, just after they returned from Australia.
How did the SolarWorld No.1 Team perform at the World Solar Challenge? Lars-Daniel Uhlhorn: The team took 4th place in its class, with an average speed of approx. 73km/h.Christoph Bönneken: If you look at the competition from other international elite universities, with substantially more resources, the thankless fourth place immediately loses all of its bitter aftertaste. And the prize for “Best Challenge Class Design” is just the icing on the cake.
How long were you on the road for? And how did the SolarWorld No.1 acquit itself over this marathon distance?

Uhlhorn: Including a short enforced stop in Alice Springs, we were underway for six days. Finishing at exactly the right time, our car acquitted itself bravely. A small malfunction in the fairing at the beginning, and a tyre change on the front chassis, still couldn’t put our 4th place in danger. Bönneken: The total race time for the 3000km from Darwin to Adelaide was 41 hours, spread over five days. Tyre change right before the start

Who drove the SolarWorld No.1 at the World Solar Challenge? How big was your team in Australia overall?
Bönneken: In total, there were 48 team members, including students, professors and people affiliated with the FH, with us in Australia. Of these there were four drivers who shared the distance. The drivers were Christoph Bönneken, Lars Daniel Uhlhorn, Matthias Wilm and Christian Wulfert.
What difficulties did you have along the way?

Uhlhorn: There were various problems during preparation, both electrical and mechanical. For example, one of our rear brakes malfunctioned. In addition, the adjustment of our car to the climatic conditions in Australia represented a significant challenge. On the other hand, it took a lot of effort to handle the organization of such a large team. The most important thing, however, was to prepare the solar car so well that we were able to complete the distance of 3000km through Australia with as few problems as possible.Bönneken: The preparation and test drives prior to the starting gun were horrific. The completed car arrived in Australia, and didn’t work anymore. At least in terms of the electrics. It’s unbelievable, the impact that a bit of humidity can have. On one test drive the front wheel fairing, which is very important for the aerodynamics, broke. On top of that, one of the brakes was regularly blocked. Luckily we have a few very dedicated and capable people in the team, who managed to get all of these problems under control.SolarWorld No.1 on the final spurt
What were the most impressive experiences for you over the course of the race?

Uhlhorn: The most impressive thing was definitely the surroundings in which the race was conducted, as well as the fact that we had a team which functioned so well, and which managed to work together so well for the entire race, in order to get the optimum performance out of our car. Bönneken: It was great to observe how much more professional the team became over these few days. On the second day a simple overtaking maneuver turned into a really nervous, frustrating task, which resulted in a lot of things going wrong and a lot of energy being lost. Subsequent overtaking maneuvers proceeded substantially more smoothly, thanks to better planning.
How exactly is the SolarWorld No.1 powered, and what sort of performance does it exhibit?

Uhlhorn: Our car is powered by an electric motor, which is built into the front wheel rim, and which allows us an average speed of over 70km/h over 3000km, and a high speed of approx. 120km/h. The energy necessary for this is delivered by 6m2 solar cells, which are embedded in the body. Bönneken: SolarWorld No.1 has a so-called “In-Wheel-Motor”. This is a highly efficient electric motor, which is mounted inside the rim of the front wheel. The motor we used has a 94% degree of efficiency.
What is special about the SolarWorld No.1 compared to other solar racers?

Uhlhorn: Our car has a beautiful design, and features a very comfortable seat position for the driver. It is the car which bears the most similarity to today’s popular mass produced cars. Bönneken: SolarWorld No.1 is the only solar vehicle in the world which comes close to our normal everyday cars in terms of its operation, seat position and external dimensions, and therefore remains competitive with the typical ultra-flat, futuristic solar vehicles. This was also reflected in winning the "Best Challenge Class Design Award“.
How long did you need to develop the solar racer? What difficulties had to be resolved along the way?

Uhlhorn: The development took approx. two years, and the difficulties lay mainly in the construction and production of our racer, as most of us started to develop the car as laymen, and many work processes, techniques etc. first had to be learnt. Additionally, there was a massive change in the rules one year before the challenge, so that our original design had to be completely discarded, and an entirely new shell developed.
SolarWorld No.1 at the finish
What conclusions will you take from the race for mobile solar technology?

Uhlhorn: I will take with me the realization that you can move a lot of car quickly with little energy.Bönneken: My personal conclusion is that with too much technology, you also create a lot of problems. The demands we placed on our vehicle were high. If you want to build a solar powered racing car, you should have a good think about which functions you really need, and then realize these with high-quality technology. Anything luxurious guzzles up too many resources in the implementation, and is also additional weight.
To what extent can solar energy become the automotive technology of the future?

Uhlhorn: This technology will not be suited to commercial implementation in the foreseeable future, as it is not effective enough. Furthermore, it is too expensive to be a real alternative. In addition, our region is not ideal in terms of sun. Bönneken: There will never be solar vehicles suitable for everyday use which obtain all their energy from their own solar cells. At our latitudes, the sun delivers 1kW/m2. SolarWorld No.1 has 6m² of solar cells. Even at a 100% degree of efficiency, that would only be 6kW. That is only just enough for vehicles which weigh 300kg, including the driver. The engines of today’s small cars deliver approx. 50 kW.
Will the FH Bochum take part in the World Solar Challenge again next year?Uhlhorn: At the moment it’s impossible to say how our project will continue to develop, but I hope that we can compete with a further improved car at the WSC in two years, to be able to once again amaze the audience.Bönneken: The Panasonic World Solar Challenge takes place every two years. Whether we start again next time has not yet been decided. First, we have to explore which team members want to continue to commit, and how many new members we can attract. For next year, however, we plan to take part in the North American Solar Challenge as well as in a race in South Africa.To learn more about the SolarWorld No. 1, read also our blog "Pole Position for Solar Power"!

Horsepower, revolutions per minute, top speeds – these are things that count when developing racecars. CO2 emissions are a lesser matter – unfortunately! Albeit a car can be bursting with energy and still be eco-friendly – such as the SolarWorld No.1 solar racecar!Fifty students of the University of Applied Sciences Bochum have invested huge amounts of labor, sweat and pioneering spirit to develop the solar racecar in cooperation with the solar power company Solar World. Their goal: winning the World Solar Challenge (WSC) in Australia.The unofficial world championship for solar-run racecars will take place for the ninth time from 21 to 28 October 2007. Over a total of 3000 kilometers the race will follow the sun across the outback of the fifth continent – from Darwin on the northern coast of Australia, southward along the Stuart highway, past Alice Springs and Coober Pedy with its opal mines, to the harbor city Adelaide. Whoever wants to win this extreme race must simply think of everything: Parameters such as the elevation profile of the race course, wind velocity, state of charge of the batteries, and solar radiation must all be measured and analyzed constantly, in order to elicit the optimum performance of the racers. For this purpose the teams use escort vehicles that evaluate the data and communicate the necessary information to the racecar driver. For the SolarWorld No.1 four students who were tested for driving skills and analytical competence have been chosen to take turns in driving the course. Competence in this case means to drive safely and as resourcefully energy-wise as possible,” stresses Stefan Spychalski, press relations officer of the SolarCar project.SolarWorld No.1 in Darwin

Maximum demands are on the team’s shoulders – but the designers and developers of the SolarWorld No.1 are used to that! The students have been working on the solar racecar for over a year. The result is a noble, one-million-euro racing car made of carbon fiber that remains unequaled in efficiency and technical elaborateness. The wind resistance, for example, beats that of every conventional car with no problem – the exact parameter remains a secret, however, until the start of the World Solar Challenge.The focal point of the SolarWorld No.1 is the 6-square-meter configuration of solar cells that provide for a top speed of 120 km/h. The cells come from the solar company Solar World, one of the leading specialists for solar power technology and components with subsidiaries in Germany, Sweden, Spain, Asia, Africa and the USA. In selecting the cells, it had to be taken into consideration that the space needed for the cells is limited by regulations. “We had to find cells that would generate a high degree of efficiency in a very limited space”, explains Michael Schmidt of Solar World. To this end gallium cells were used, such as are used in the space station ISS. “These cells have the benefit that they are slightly flexible and can fit better into the curved shapes of the SolarWorld No.1,” reveals Schmidt.In view of these high-tech solutions, the Bochum students have the best chances of winning a top place, after having placed well with their forerunner model “Hans Go!” in past years. “A place among the top five should be possible,” estimates Stefan Spychalski. Project director Prof. Dr. Friedbert Pautzke is also of this opinion, and he wants to prove again this year “that German engineering is competitive in the international arena!”
The Club of Pioneers wishes the team luck for a clean race, and we’ll be watching that race taking place Down Under – stay tuned!Whoever would like to know more about Solar World should visit our reports from the “Garden of Ideas” on 3 October in Washington, D.C. On the occasion of the Day of German Unification we will present regenerative energy sources from the new German federal states – and will bring you the newest technology developments in video blogs!Pictures: FH Bochum

At the dawn of every pioneering adventure there is a dream. The Swiss Louis Palmer had such a dream in 1986, when he was only 14 years old: To travel around the world without destroying it – that was his greatest wish. With the help of the solar cell manufacturer Q-Cells in Saxony-Anhalt this dream has become reality. Louis Palmer took off at the beginning of July to travel around the globe – in a 100% environmentally compatible manner – exclusively via the power of the sun! The electric vehicle that is transporting him over 40,000 kilometers and through 40 different countries is blue, nicely curved, and is jam-packed with solar energy. A total of six square meters of solar cells provides Palmer’s self-built “solar taxi” with energy – reliable, cost-efficient and above all: no CO2 emission!Louis Palmer has already journeyed from Lucerne through Germany, the Balkans, Turkey and Syria to Dubai. Even in the torrid heat of the Arabian Peninsula the solar taxi runs like a “Swiss clock”, as he likes to say. But something totally different caused a problem so far: The solar taxi was stuck in Jordan for three weeks because Saudi Arabia wouldn’t give Palmer a visa – the Saudi authorities simply didn’t know how to process such an unusual automobile. The matter was finally taken to the king himself, who then granted permission!Strong outer force is needed to stop the solar taxi. It covers long distances with 20 HP and a maximum of 90 km/h with no difficulty. The high-energy battery composed of saline solution, ceramic and nickel stores electricity for a limited range. But on days when Lois Palmer wants to travel longer distances, he can simply plug into a solar power grid fed by a solar power plant on a rooftop in Berne, Switzerland. It's like paying money into a bank account and withdrawing the money somewhere else. In this way one can get solar power for 15,000 kilometers annually with the solar taxi.The solar cells for Palmer’s vehicle came from “Q-Cells”, the largest independent producer of solar cells in the world. Since its establishment in 1999 the company is riding a huge wave of success. Through the development, manufacture and sale of high-capacity solar cells made of monocrystalline and multicrystalline silicon the company earned revenues of almost 540 million euros last year. The company in Saxony-Anhalt is pleased to support Louis Palmer in his solar powered earth-circling journey. “When the company came into being six years ago, such an undertaking was not more than a futuristic dream”, states Anton Milner, CEO of Q-Cells. “We are very proud that our cells are now conveying his solar taxi around the globe.”Louis Palmer is carrying his mission around the world – everywhere he goes he wants to visit inventers, pioneers, politicians and others who want to stop global warming – from the Czech auto club to the solar boat people on the Dubai Creek. In his online diary he reports daily about how the struggle against climate change is being accomplished in the different countries, and he participates actively in that struggle by demonstrating his solar taxi, lecturing, and visiting schools in order to inspire tomorrow’s generation to sustainable living.One very nice thing about his adventure is the way people get excited about his solar taxi and appreciate his “environmental mission”. “In Syria they sent me a police escort with flashing blue lights and sirens”, describes Palmer. “They just wanted to be sure that nothing happens to my solar taxi.” We join in that wish – for the next stations on his solar taxi journey will take him through the streets of India!Whoever would like to know more about the company Q-Cells and the solar taxi can look forward to the event “Gardens of Ideas” on 3rd of October in Washington D.C. On the occasion of the Day of German Unification, the German Embassy will present the most innovative ecological technologies from the new German federal states. The Club of Pioneers will be there, too, of course – so stay tuned!Pictures: Louis Palmer