"THIS is a live laboratory," says battery scientist David Rand. He's here in Darwin, capital of Australia's Northern Territory, and the lab he's talking about is this year's World Solar Challenge. In it, the fastest solar-powered cars race from Darwin to the sleepy city of Adelaide in the south, hitting speeds of more than 100 kilometres per hour.
Cars making it to the end will have travelled 3000 kilometres through the red deserts into the woodlands of South Australia (see diagram). The designs, particularly a more realistic type of car taking part for the first time this year, will one day make an impact far beyond this one race.
Rand, from the CSIRO in Melbourne, is scrutinising car battery packs to make sure they comply with the rules. He has been to every race since it began in 1987. It has been a great testing ground in that ...
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