Across the Sahara on solar power
All photos: STE / Bart van Overbeeke
A team of Dutch students has just crossed the Sahara desert in a car powered solely by the sun.
The Stella Terra, built by students at Eindhoven University of Technology, covered over 1,000 km from Morocco’s northern coast to the Sahara, on and off-road without having to stop to charge.
On smooth roads, in ideal conditions the team reckons their car could cover 710 km, or 610km if it’s cloudy. If the terrain gets tricky then that range drops to around 550 km, which is still impressive. It’s all down to the incredible efficiency of the car’s solar converter, which worked even better than the team anticipated. The purpose-built converter was 97 per cent efficient at turning the sun’s rays into electricity, compared to the 15-20 per cent results of commercial solar setups. Even the very best units on sale now only manage 45 per cent efficiency. This means the Stella Terra can run with a relatively small battery, which is constantly topped up, and that keeps the weight down to a remarkable 1,200kg.
"It was an incredible trip with a positive ending. Stella Terra's efficiency was hard to predict,” explains team manager Wisse Bos. “That's why we weren't sure if we would make it on solar power. During the ride, Stella Terra turned out to use 30 percent less energy than expected. We were able to drive the entire trip on the sun's energy and did not depend on charging stations.”
The Stella Terra is reckoned to be about ten years’ ahead of today’s electric vehicles, but the idea of being able to take a Detour almost anywhere on free energy sounds worth waiting for.
Griff Gough-Walters drove a tiny Hyundai i10 2,500 miles from London to North Africa in four days, and then a month later, did the return journey in three.