Jakarta Globe, Roser Toll, November 17, 2012
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| A member of Chilean team "Atenea II " competes with a solar car during the first stage of the Atacama Solar Challenge — a solar car race in Atacama Desert, northern Chile — in Calama, some 1500 km north of Santiago, on November 15, 2012. Fifteen teams from four countries are participating in the three-day 1300 km race. (AFP Photo/Martin Bernetti) |
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Calama,
Chile. Fifteen solar panel vehicles, some that look like small space ships,
raced across Chile’s Atacama desert Friday as part of a contest to build
low-cost environmentally-friendly cars.
Teams from
countries like Argentina, Chile, India and Venezuela have crafted aerodynamic
racers to speed across 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) of the world’s driest
desert in the second edition of the Atacama Solar Challenge.
The race,
which began Thursday and ends Monday, pits teams from universities that build
their cars on a tight budget in the slog across northern Chile.
Some of the
vehicles powered exclusively by the sun’s rays, while others are solar- and
pedal-powered hybrids.
The
solar-powered vehicles are mostly flat rectangular contraptions lined with
solar panels to absorb solar energy, which is stored in batteries, and with a
cubicle to house the driver. The hybrids look like neighborhood go-carts with
solar panels glued on.
The race
started Thursday at the Humberstone saltpeter, about 800 kilometers (500 miles)
north of Chile’s capital, Santiago. The site, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is
a ghost town that has been abandoned since saltpeter mining was halted ended
there in the mid 20th century.
This year,
a team from oil-rich Venezuela made their debut in the competition that
celebrates an alternative to fossil fuels.
“In a
country with a mono-economy based on oil, with an infinite potential of
hydraulic energy, and without an energy problem, it is a miracle to build a car
like this,” said the Venezuelan team captain Carlos Mata.
“The import
laws in Venezuela meant we could not get all the necessary materials, so we had
to adapt what we had. It was a huge effort,” he explained.
But his
team persisted, eager to participate in an event organizers say is aimed at
encouraging research into alternative sources of energy.
The solar
vehicles shared the same northern Chilean highway with trucks, buses and cars,
but are a long way from replacing them, said Leonardo Saguas, captain of the
Antakar team from Chile’s Universidad de La Serena.
Yet Saguas,
whose team built last year’s winning car, said he can envision a day when Chile
is mass producing solar cars.
“We have plenty
of resources, we just need to develop them,” he said.
Gabriel
Martinez, proud team captain from the University of Concepcion, spent a year
perfecting his vehicle.
“It has 244
solar cells” which capture the sun’s energy and convert it to electricity stored
in batteries, he bragged, adding that the vehicle “weighs 300 kilograms and its
peak power is 950 watts.”
“This race
is awesome. It applies all the engineering and technology we learn into a
sport. I love it,” he gushed.
Luciano
Chiang, professor at Chile’s Catholic University, supervises the Solar
Mecatronica team, one of five competing from Chilean universities.
“The market
for [solar] panels belongs 90 percent to China, which no one can compete with
on price,” Chiang said.
“Yet Chile
is the country with the most potential solar energy in the world,” he said. “It
is the same paradox as with batteries. We buy them from China, but they are
made of lithium that surely comes from Chile,” the world’s leading source of
the mineral.
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