Eindhoven University of Technology shows solar camper that can drive 730 kilometers per day – IT Pro – News

The Solar Team Eindhoven has presented the Stella Vita, an electric motorhome with multiple solar panels that should be able to drive 730 kilometers per day without charging stations. These solar panels also provide energy for cooking and showering, for example.

From 22 students of Eindhoven University of Technology call Stella Vita a ‘solar house on wheels’. The vehicle has a curved monocyrstalline8.8 square meter silicon solar panel on the roof that provides energy. When the car is parked, two smaller solar panels can slide out on the sides. This means that the Stella Vita has a total solar panel surface area of ​​17.5 m² and a total of 1086 solar cells.

According to the team, those solar panels, together with the efficient droplet design, should ensure that the car can drive 730 kilometers a day ‘on a sunny day’. At night there must be a range of six hundred kilometers, when the 60 kWh lithium-ion battery cannot be recharged with the solar panels.

The team wants to prove the ranges mentioned in practice by driving three thousand kilometers from 19 September to the southernmost point of Spain in Tarifa, from Eindhoven. The team wants to visit certain events, companies and universities to show the project. Thirteen stops are planned, including Brussels, Paris, Le Mans and Madrid. Interested parties can through a site follow the route. This site is currently unavailable.

The drivers can sleep in the car itself during this journey; it concerns a camper with, among other things, a bed, shower, television and kitchen. The facilities are powered by solar energy; occupants can also charge devices with the solar energy. The roof of the Stella Vita can also be raised to create more headroom within the motorhome.

The Stella Vita can accommodate two passengers and the car can drive at a maximum speed of 120 km/h. The solar camper has four doors, is 7.2 meters long, 2.2 meters wide and 1.83 meters high. When unfolded, the camper is 4.4 meters wide and 2.54 meters high. Stella Vita weighs 1700kg. Against NU.nl the team says that the car can be connected to a charging station, ‘but then there must be no sun for two weeks if that is to happen’.

Photos: Bart van Overbeeke

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