An ambitious project: the Agoria Solar Team & the BluePoint solar car
Let us start with a bit of history.
In 1982, solar pioneers Hans Tholstrup and Larry Perkins embarked on a quest in which they would drive a self-built solar car, the "Quiet Achiever" in Australia from west to east. Inspired by this achievement and his pioneering vision, Hans urged others to explore the boundaries of solar transport. And so the World Solar Challenge was born.
For over 30 years, the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge has been welcoming the most creative minds from around the world to Australia to push the boundaries of technological innovation and travel inland in a vehicle powered solely by the sun's energy. The teams, which consist of students from more than 30 countries, intersect 3000 km from Darwin to Adelaide.
The evolution of the Belgian solar car.
We would like to take you to 2005, the first participation of the Belgian Solar Team with the Umicar One: this team finished tenth out of 22 participants!
The Umicar Infinity participated in the race in 2007 and even achieved second place!
In 2009 the Umicar Inspire was less lucky! The car was damaged by strong winds during the race and the team decided not to finish the race.
The fourth Belgian solar car, the Umicar Imagine, was built in 2011. This car had highly efficient solar cells and an integrated concentrator system. The car finished tenth out of 37 participants.
Follow-up was ensured by Indupol One. The car finished sixth and also won the Innovation Award. This solar car also participated in the first Abu Dhabi Solar Challenge, where it became third.
In 2014, it was the turn of the Punch One, designed by a group of 16 new students. Despite small technical problems and a time penalty, the team finished in fifth place. Under the ‘Inspiring Innovation’ motto, 21 engineering students started designing the seventh Belgian solar car in July 2016: the Punch 2.
The car finished third in Australia and won the Technical Innovation Award.
2019, the year of the BluePoint, built by the Agoria Solar Team!
The eighth solar car was designed by 20 civil and industrial engineering students at KU Leuven and is also the most aerodynamic car in Belgium.
It is therefore not unexpected that Agoria is the new main sponsor of the Belgian Solar Team: the Belgian technology federation was already involved in the past as the godfather of the project. This year, Agoria further expanded the collaboration to support the ambitious young team to build a car with a common goal: victory during the world championship in Australia.
The name "BluePoint" underlines the technological image of the new solar car. Like Agoria, its subsidiary BluePoint also guarantees innovation and sustainability.
These values are also central to Agoria's dynamic meeting & network locations, BluePoint Meet.Work.Tech. based in Antwerp, Brussels and Liège where cooperation and the use of technology concerning sustainability, are promoted.
Would you like to discover more about the possibilities of the conference & business centres of BluePoint?
Make an appointment to visit one of our sites in Antwerp, Brussels or Liège,
via marketing@bluepoint.be or +32 2 706 88 00.
