Page 35 - FWG_Issue 10_2022

Motoring

Strategy and adventure were the key themes for this year’s solar
challenge, with the ultimate aim to cover the greatest distance. To
make the event more exciting, this year’s challenge incorporated
special stages, which were: a marathon stage (which started in
Kroonstad and finished in Gariep) that required teams to work on
their solar cars in a closed and secured area with limited workforce;
as well as half and full blind stages, where information relating to
the route was withheld until the night before the teams took to the
road. This forced them to strategise at the last minute without prior
preparation.

“The teams found these new developments to be quite daunting,
but exciting at the same time, as they required them to work
together to fix their solar cars, navigate the route, measure speed
limits, while also taking into consideration the need to cover as many
kilometres as possible. The Sasol Solar Challenge is the first-ever solar
event to incorporate such stages. This shows how much the event
has grown and continues to drive innovation both in the structure of
required to use the public roads, sharing space with trucks and the challenge itself and the technologies developed by the teams,”
regular traffic. At each stage, large crowds turned out to welcome commented Robert Walker, Owner and Director of the Sasol Solar
the participants and school children were given talks on how the Challenge.
technology was being utilised.
Prior to the start of the event, a team from the CSIR (Council for
There were a number of first entries this year – the Genuine JV Solar Scientific and Industrial Research) was involved in scrutineering the
Car built by the team of high school students, as well as entries from safety of the solar cars and performed electrical and battery safety
UNISA, the University of the Free State, Solar Flair built by a team tests. There was also a schools programme that ran alongside the
of private engineers based in Mpumalanga, and the current World event, which was conducted in partnership with Microbotics, a
Champions, a team of Belgian engineers that entered as the Agoria service provider that offers robotics, programming and electronic
Solar Team. modules for scholars.

Tshwane University of Technology’s Solar Car

Fourways Gardens • 33 • November 2022