Try to put yourself in the following situation - you are driving to a nearby city. The indicator for the fuel tank is blinking critically low. Without noticing, you are doing some calculations in your head. You caluculate the slopes, the strech and continued fuel consumtion in order to get the answer if you are going to make it to the gas station.
The same calculation goes for driving a solar car. The headwind is one factor, slopes, solar irradiance and energy consumtion is others. The energy consumtion should not exceed energy production for a longer time if the the calculation is going to add up. More speed means more energy consumption. The driver can balance the energy consumtion with the speed.
Thanks to our sponsor SolarGIS we are able to have weather updates and can predict if the weather is to our advantage or not. By reading the typology of the landscape we can foresee upcoming energy deviations.
The Energy Team calculates and sets the driving strategy - just in time. The Energy Team consists of students from the program Sustaniable Energy System in Malardalen University with their mentor from the faculty.