BELGIUM WINS THE WORLD SOLAR CHALLENGE
The Belgian Agoria Solar Team, composed of students from KUL, won the world solar cars championship in Australia after a 3,000-kilometre journey.
The World Solar Challenge competition was launched in 1987. The idea is to start out in Darwin and drive to another Australian city, Adelaide. But the real challenge lies in successfully completing this 50-hour journey in a solar car. The 3,000-kilometre race crosses the continent from north to south. Participants travel by day through the Australian desert and must pass through nine checkpoints.
More than 40 teams from some 12 countries competed for the title, on board the fastest solar cars in the world. The Belgian Agoria Solar Team drove in shifts on board a single-seater solar car, the "BluePoint".
The Belgians were among the top three teams for several days. But things started to fall into place when the smallest car in the race, the "RED E" belonging to the team of University of Twente, was blown away by very high winds while in first place. Then the Dutch car, the "NunaX", caught fire after taking the lead. The Belgians finally reached first place.
The Belgian team had already taken part in this competition in 2017, but had finished third. In 2018, it won the Carrera Solar Atacama, the Latin-American version of the race, which took place in Chile. Winning the 2019 championship signals their revenge on the Australian course!