TEHRAN (ISNA)- Iranian solar car dubbed Havin-2 broke the record in American Solar Challenge, Circuit of the Americans competition, in Texas, the US.
Havin-2, as the only Iranian representative, could pass behind Circuit of the Americans in 4.56 minutes, a record for a solar car.
The US Michigan University team came second with 5.5 minutes. The US MIT failed to advance.
31 teams from the world’s prestigious universities are competing in circuit of the Americas in Texas.
The eight-day, 1,700-mile race will take the car from Austin to Minnesota
Car can reach a speed of 100 mph using solar panels to generate energy.
Farkhondeh Naziri, 20, in charge of electronics on the project, from Qazvin Azad University near Tehran, said the team plan to optimize the car’s absorption of solar energy based on the route it takes.
“We first do a simulation of the actual race course and study the weather conditions there. Then we try to calculate what the sun’s angles would be during the eight-days,” she said.
The 485lb (220 kg) vehicle is 15ft (4.5m) long, 6ft (1.8m) wide and 4ft (1.1 m) tall, with a cockpit-like canopy for the driver.
With photovoltaic cells covering some 65 square feet (6 square meters) of its surface, the car’s lithium-Ion batteries can drive it up to four hours.
Located 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the capital, Qazvin has 300 days of sunshine a year. Good roads stretch for miles across a largely barren desert landscape.
To ensure a level playing field in the United States, all teams will rely on 516 photovoltaic panels, or solar cells, made in America and patched together in Germany.
The skill and key to winning is understanding the course and detecting the angles of the sun’s rays during a day’s racing, starting at 9:00 am and ending at 6pm local time, with each team using four drivers.
