History of the World Solar Challenge
Born in Denmark in 1944, Hans Tholstrup became a household name when he became the first person to circumnavigate Australia in a 16 foot open boat. This led to a crossing of the Atlantic in a 20 foot powerboat. Due to assistance required in the pack-ice off Greenland Hans reached New York, but not unassisted.
Hans was the first to cross Australia from East to West solo in a 4WD, and on a motorcycle. During the first north to south crossing of Australia he strapped a car to a rubber raft when crossing Bass Strait between the mainland and Tasmania. Hans also crossed the centre of Australia in a large truck, and later a bus, to prove that there was a short cut of 1500km across Australia if a road existed. Later on another motorcycle trip Hans gained for BMW the Around the World record of 28 days.
Hans streak for adventure was stirred again when he learned that no one had successfully flown around the world solo without aids or a navigator. He travelled to the US where he gained his pilots license in ten days while preparing the aircraft that also became the smallest plane to be flown around the world. His solo trip took three months.
Car rallies around the world saw Hans busy wasting fuel until the fuel crisis in the late seventies. A new life began when he found out how far rather than how fast you could go on a litre of petrol. This led to winning economy runs in cars and the establishment of the world’s first economy run for trucks which proved that drivers are responsible for 30% of the fuel used in the transport of goods.
Another idea, sponsored by BP, was the crossing of Australia on just solar power. Larry Perkins helped Hans to drive the world’s first solar car, the "Quiet Achiever", the 4052 kilometres between Sydney and Perth in 20 days. This ultimate energy savings crossing was ten days faster than the crossing by the first petrol driven car.
Hans was determined to build on these developments and continue to drive on the strength of sunshine. With man’s first walk on the moon still fresh in people’s memory, the time was ripe for solar invention. He felt that a race was the answer and thus the energy R&D event, the World Solar Challenge, was born.
The first World Solar Challenge was staged in 1987, with a field of 23 fantastic cars led by the GM Sunraycer which completed the trip with an average speed of 67kmph. The cars in 1990 were a great improvement on 1987. Many competitors returned with the strength of experience, and new entries had another three years of R&D to create and refine their vehicles.
The 1990 winner was the Biel team from a Swiss Engineering School. The town of Biel was responsible for donating one dollar each towards the success of the entry. With a school winning such a prestigious event the World Solar Challenge became known as "Brain Sport".
1993 saw the 1987 GM Sunraycer record broken. Honda took the honours over Biel, and travelled 803 kilometres in one day. Yet again the entire field was impressive, and a sign of the event growing from strength to strength.
The Technical Reports of the first three events are thoroughly comprehensive. Due to the availability of these technical reports the event grew to the extent that a minimum speed of 40 kmph could be introduced in 1996. Honda repeated their performance in this event with another stunning win, and a record average speed of 89.76 kmph.
The World Solar Challenge is a race to motivate research and development into harnessing solar energy for future transport needs. Competitors, driven by a motivation to win the greatest solar race in the world, can also rest easy in the knowledge that they are contributing towards a vital search for sustainable transport alternatives for future generations. The space age cars which travel at incredible speeds between Darwin and Adelaide on the sun’s radiation and human’s ingenuity alone give people an appreciation of a cleaner, better future using solar energy.