Adelaide, South Australia - Relying on power from the sun, a team of Durban-based engineering students has flown the South African flag high Down Under by driving more than 3000km across the Australian desert.
Although the University of KwaZulu-Natal team was beaten to the finish line, it was still able to claim 13th position out of 29 entrants in the main Challenger class of the World Solar Challenge at the weekend.
Designed at the Howard College campus, the university’s solar car Hulamin completed the 3022km journey from Darwin to Adelaide in just under 48 hours of actual driving time – spread out over five and a half days for rest breaks, control stops and a ban on driving between sunset and sunrise.
For the first time, there were two African entrants in the World Solar Challenge that began in 1987 and which has been held every two years since then. The other South African entry, from North West University, crossed the finish line half an hour before Hulamin and was placed 11th.
“The team is exhausted but happy to have finished two days before the cut-off,” said Professor Glen Bright, academic leader of the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s mechanical engineering faculty.
Albert van Jaarsveld, the university vice-chancellor and patron of the university’s solar car team, has sent his “hearty congratulations” to the team members.
Two private Dutch teams, Nuon and Twente, claimed first and second slots, with a Japanese team from Tokai University finishing third.
The University of KwaZulu-Natal managed to beat 16 other teams – including entrants from the United States’ prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the UK’s Cambridge University.
Students and lecturers from the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s mechanical engineering department designed a prototype solar car several years ago, but had never been able to participate because of a lack of funding. That dream was made possible this year with sponsorship from the Pietermaritzburg-based Hulamin aluminium manufacturing group.
The Mercury