STELLAR teams from across the world will be blazing a trail to Abu Dhabi early next year, as they look to shine in the UAE’s first solar car challenge.
The Abu Dhabi Solar Challenge (ADSC), the first competition of its kind in the country, will be held from the 16th to the 19th January next year.
Encompassing the entire country, the 1,200km ADSC will start and finish in Abu Dhabi and will coincide with Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week and conclude at the opening ceremony of the World Future Energy Summit.
The challenge is sponsored by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and will be hosted by Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company Masdar.
Sanctioned by the International Solarcar Federation (ISF) and jointly organised by Global EEE and Professional Sports Group, the challenge will attract more than 20 of the top university solar car teams from Australia, Europe, America and Asia.
The teams will travel from across the world to compete in the cross-country event similar to the World Solar Challenge in Australia and the American Solar Challenge in the USA.
“As the region’s renewable energy pioneer, committed to clean technology innovation, the UAE is proud to welcome the solar car challenge to the emirates,” said HE Dr Sultan Al Jaber, UAE minister of state and chairman of Masdar.
“This competition drives both human capacity development and ingenuity that can further advance energy efficiency technologies within the transportation sector. We hope that this display of friendly competition from global universities will inspire local youth to pursue degrees in science-based fields.”
Designed and built by university students, the competing solar cars are complex machines that bring together the latest technologies from the renewable energy, aerospace and automotive industries.
The Petroleum Institute has brought together engineering and electrical engineering students to create a team for the ADSC, and will be the first ever from the Emirates to compete in an event of its kind.
The official challenge route and preliminary list of teams will be announced this summer and will be open to the public.
