Solar challenge comes to Te Papa

29 November 2011

Proudly sharing in a round-the-world green challenge, a team of engineers and scientists from Bochum University of Applied Science stopped in at Te Papa with their solar powered car.

Team leader Tim Skerra says their flying-visit is part of their New Zealand tour, which is part of a challenge to circum navigate the globe, driving a Solar Powered Car.

“So our team in Germany has been working on this car and these solar technologies, and we were challenged in 2010 by an Austrian man to see if we could go around the world with our solar powered car… and here we are!”

The team will be heading from Wellington to Picton via Cook Strait Ferry and then heading for Christchurch and then onto Bluff.

“Yes this is a global driving challenge, but we're also looking forward to seeing the South Island,” says Tim Skerra.

The car – dubbed SolarWorld GT – has a top speed of between 100 and 120 km/h, but runs at its optimum (energy usage vs speed) at 50 km/h.