Iranian students prepare car for solar race

Tensions between Washington and Tehran will not prevent a group of Iranian students from taking part in the American Solar Challenge solar race for the first time this July.

Ahead of the 8-day, 1,700-mile (2,700-kilometer) race across Texas and Minnesota, the student-made Havin-2 (Havin-2) solar car, or Brilliant Sun, rode a section of a conventional road in northern Iran on April 30 surrounded by petrol cars.

Using an imported engine and photovoltaic panels, the team developed and built a Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) control system that combined inverters, chargers and solar cells.

The only woman on the Qazvin Azad University team, 20-year-old Farkhondeh Naziri, who is in charge of the electronics project, said the solar panel optimisation system was developed based on data from the future route of the competition. “We first created a model of a real track and studied the weather conditions on it. After that, we tried to calculate the angles of the sun’s rays for eight days, she said.



The dimensions of the 220-kilogram solar car are 4.5 m in length, 1.8 m in width and 1.1 meters in height along with the lighting of the driver's cabin. On the surface of the vehicle installed solar cells with a total area of about 6 m2. The lithium-ion battery is capable of storing enough energy to drive for about 4 hours at a speed of 90-150 km / h.

The predecessor of the current model Havin-1 participated in the World Solar Challenge in 2011, where he took 17th place. The team is sponsored by an Iranian bank and battery manufacturer, who have allocated $150,000 to build the machine.

Khavin-2 team leader Professor Beitollah Akbari believes their project will promote clean energy in a country where generous government subsidies encourage mass use of cars.

Iran has recently been forced to cut energy and transport subsidies to bring energy prices in line with global trends. Transport expert Masoud Mohajer believes that in these conditions, solar energy can become an attractive object for investors, given that the country has more than 300 sunny days every year. “As Iran cuts energy and fuel subsidies, solar power, which is available across the country, could be a good alternative,” he said.

Facepla.net by Phys.org



Source: facepla.net