Volunteer team assembling rolling
chassis
Testing wiring inside the solar array
to ensure reliability of the solar
panel connections
securing electrical connections to
prevent vibration damage
Solar Spirit
The Solar Spirit team – TAFE SA in partnership with industry, aims to develop and build the fastest solar car for the 2011 World Solar Challenge. Solar Spirit is in the first phase of the prototyping process, following research and design development.
Solar Spirit is a new competitive vehicle that will demonstrate to the world that TAFE SA is able to deliver world class training and technology… with the support of industry - now!
The earlier TAFE SA solar car 'Kelly' will be run by high school students competing in the adventure class re-named SolarShop Kelly.
Kelly Overview
Kelly is a sleek two-seater solar sports car capable of reaching speeds up to 110 km/h. It can cross Australia solely on power generated from sunlight, whereas each of the conventional support cars following RAA Kelly use hunderds of dollars worth of petrol for the trip.
Car Specifications
| Size | (LxWxH) 6m x 2m x 0.9m |
| Mass | 290 Kg |
| Array Power | 1100 W |
| Motor Power | 2500 W |
| Top Speed | 110 Km/h |
| Solar cells | Modified BP Saturn |
| Array tracking | 27 eLabtronics Optimisers |
| Batteries | Worley Parsons Lithium-Polymer 3.7v – 54Ah |
| Wheel motor | NGM-SC-M150-08, 3 Phase DC Axial Flux, Brushless, Permanent Magnet |
| Motor controller | Tritium Ultra High Efficiency |
| Body | Carbon Fibre on Nomex Honeycomb |
| Brakes | Balanced Hydraulic, lightweight |
The process of how the solar
car works
How Solar Cars Work
This diagram gives a general idea how energy flows in a solar car. The sunlight hits the cells of the solar array, which produces an electrical current. The energy (current) can travel to the batteries for storage, go directly to the motor controller, or a combination of both. The energy sent to the controller is used to power the motor that turns the wheel and makes the car move.
Generally, if the car is in motion, the converted sunlight is delivered directly to the motor controller, but there are times when there is more energy coming from the array than the motor controller needs. When this happens, the extra energy gets stored in the batteries for later use.
When the solar array can't produce enough energy to drive the motor at the desired speed, the array's energy is supplemented with stored energy from the batteries.
Of course, when the car is not in motion, all the energy from the solar array is stored in the batteries.