The South African Solar Challenge 2010 kicks off in Pretoria next week.
The ten-day race between solar-powered cars travelling more than 4 000 km across the country is scheduled to finish in Pretoria, on October 2.
The 2010 event has attracted racing teams from Germany, Japan, Iran and South Africa, including the German School in Johannesburg, and the University of Johannesburg.
The event, the second of its kind, is organized by the Advanced Energy Foundation and the Innovation Hub.
Teams have to build their own cars, design their own engineering systems and race their vehicles through some of the most demanding terrain that solar cars have ever seen.
The SA Solar Challenge has international backing from the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), as well as the Department of Science and Technology, International Solarcar Federation (ISF), Motorsport South Africa and the National Energy Efficiency Agency.
Following the start of the SA Solar Challenge at the Innovation Hub in Pretoria on September 23, the race heads towards Cape Town on the N1, with overnight stops in Bloemfontein and Beaufort West. The competitors then turn east, racing through George and Grahamstown and mountainous Kokstad, on to Durban and Richards Bay. The final few days see the cars traverse Mpumalanga before racing for the finish-line in Pretoria.
The primary aim of the SA Solar Challenge is to promote science and technology in Southern Africa and demonstrate the potential of renewable energy sources to the motoring and other industries.
The inaugural SA Solar Challenge in 2008 was won by the team from Tokai University, in Japan. They are also the favourites for the 2010 event.
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