09-03-2023

Solar Team Twente innovates on winning design Solar Challenge Morocco

Solar Team Twente innovates on winning design Solar Challenge Morocco

Solar Team Twente presented its new solar car, with which it will compete in the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge this October. The normally green heart of Twente, the Royal Grolsch, colored red for a few hours Wednesday afternoon. In the presence of the team’s partners, the tenth solar car was presented: RED X.

Innovating on winning design

At first glance, RED X resembles its predecessor RED Horizon. Indeed, what immediately stands out is that the shape, the “monohull” or “bullet shape,” is almost identical. Nevertheless, the team has made some changes to the new solar car. Lead Engineer Jessica Bos: “Last year we built a monohull for the first time and it actually turned out very well. Especially in terms of aerodynamics, there are a lot of advantages to be gained from this, so we chose to continue optimizing with it. And since the previous team had designed a very good monohull, the differences are in the smaller details this year. But make no mistake, because a lot of gains can be made there too.” The team does not yet want to explain the exact changes. “Of course, we shouldn’t make our competition any wiser than necessary either,” adds Technical Team Manager Tim Woertman with a wink.

Plenty of challenges

During the presentation, the room was taken through some of the design challenges the solar team will face during their first six months. A number of technical team members explained how compromises in design had to be worked on despite conflicting interests. For example, one of the sub-teams attaches importance to maximizing the surface area of the solar panel. After all, this generates a lot of revenue and thus energy to run the solar car on. In contrast, however, other team members are concerned with aerodynamic design to ensure that the shape is as efficient as possible and no unnecessary energy is lost, a large panel size actually makes it more difficult for them to achieve their goal. In RED X, all of these dilemmas were carefully considered and factored into the design.

ELS

International Women’s Day also featured ELS, the abbreviation for the sub-team that deals primarily with the electronic systems in the car. They, too, face design challenges. In the past, smart systems have been devised for this, all of which – quite appropriately – also bear a woman’s name. For example, they know Daphne, Vivianne and also Jasmine. The last lady, the self-developed motor controller, played a major role in the victory during Solar Challenge Morocco. A motor controller is a standard part of a passenger car and ensures that the current flows properly through the motor. The electric motor provides the rotating power that moves the car forward at the correct speed. Again this year, all systems will be further developed to achieve strategic advantages during the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge.

Innovation team

Despite having innovated quite a bit in such a short period of time for Solar Team Twente’s newest solar car, the team has even grander plans. “On an aerodynamic level, but especially in electronics, there are big opportunities where we can make gains. There are so many great ideas to take up, but unfortunately they don’t fit within the year and a half we have to devote to designing and building the solar car. In addition, the risk is too great to really bet on major innovations, because you don’t know in advance whether something will work,” said Team Leader Kirsten Bouwman. Therefore, the team is currently busy recruiting new students for a 2023-2024 innovation team.

RED X

What the name RED X means to the team was also explained by Bouwman: “This is, of course, the tenth edition of Solar Team Twente, the tenth time that a team of motivated students is committed to innovating in the field of sustainable mobility. X also symbolizes the four disciplines within our team that, despite all the challenges, come together to form a centerpiece. Everything presented today by the team is with our goal in mind. To finish Solar Team Twente’s tenth solar car in the tenth month of the year, as number one. With RED X we are going to do it.”

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