Taiyo Yuden Club Team's solar car "Aten-1" running in the downpour
Rei Fushiki of Taiyo Yuden, who was awarded with the technology prize, after the race
The finals of the 2008 World Solar Car Rally/Japan Inter-college Solar & FC car Championship (JISFC), which took place in Ogata-mura, Akita Prefecture, entered its third day July 28, 2008 (See related article).
The sky was dark from the early morning on the final day. And the weather was unsettled, with occasional downpours. The event site was still dark after 8 am, when the races started. The weather was totally unfavorable for solar cars, but the races were started on schedule.
The speed of Ashiya University's solar car, which was far ahead of others until the previous day, running at the maximum speed of 75km/h, slowed down to the average speed of 36.6km/h (25km/lap), less than half the speed it attained over the past two days.
On the other hand, Taiyo Yuden's solar car, which is mounted with die-sensitized solar cells, reached the speed of 11.5km/h, almost the same as the speed of 12.5km/h it attained on the previous day. The characteristics of sensitized solar cells, which are less effected by cloudy weather, were proven by the results.
The race was scheduled to take eight hours, but was shortened to three hours because of the extremely heavy rain. The die-sensitized solar cells functioned until the end of the race, even in the heavy rain. There were no issues with cars stopping running in the middle of the race.
Rei Fushiki, the team leader, who belongs to the technology planning division at Taiyo Yuden R&D Institute said, "We could not exert our full potential. We wanted to run a little longer."
The Taiyo Yuden team was awarded the "technology prize" for participating in the rally using a new technology incorporating die-sensitized solar cells.
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