Solar power products manufacturer Solar-World Africa has announced its participation as a sponsor of the eight-day countrywide Sasol Solar Challenge, which aims to demonstrate the performance of solar-powered vehicles. The race, which started in Pretoria, is scheduled to end in Cape Town on October 4.

SolarWorld Africa has supplied electricity to a 5.8 m × 1.8m Sasol caravan, which is furnished with computers, printers and other office equipment, to serve as the race office over the 5 400 km race.

“We are delighted to advance solar mobil- ity in South Africa by powering the adminis-tration and communication system for this exciting initiative. “It aligns with our vision of building a reliable, enviro friendly energy supply worldwide,” says SolarWorld Africa MD Gregor Küpper.

SolarWorld Africa also sponsors the Solar-World No 1 solar car that has been developed by the University of Applied Science Bochum SolarCar Team. Further, it sponsored the SolarWorld GT, the first-ever solar car to circumnavigate the globe in 414 days.

To make the challenge fair for all, the maxi-mum solar panel size stipulated in the rules is 9 m², which supplies 1 980 W, or nearly 2 kW, of energy to each car. The winners will be deter-mined using various criteria that include average time and distance, average energy consumption and the average battery use of the teams’ cars.

Küpper adds that, through SolarWorld Africa’s sponsorship of the Sasol Solar Chal- lenge in South Africa, it has started discus-sions on various other initiatives, which holds potential for collaboration, knowledge transfer and innovation in global solar mobility.

“Through initiatives like this race, there is enormous potential for incremental and disruptive innovation. As a recognised and respected leading global player, it is important for SolarWorld to help speed up the pace of local technological development and educate consumers for greater market absorption of solar power,” he says.