Solar panels

It’s fair to say that it will be some time before we’re driving purely solar-powered cars. However, a solar motor home could already make quite a lot of sense – larger dimensions allow for more efficient energy collection, and to recharge the batteries, it is enough to “dock” somewhere for the necessary time and set off again after topping up the juice.

This is roughly how the collective called Solar Team Eindhoven sees its vision. A team of 22 students from the Netherlands’ Technical University in Eindhoven presented what is probably the world’s first residential building that can run solely on energy collected from the sun. But how does this invention hold up in practice?

The project called Stella Vita is described by its creators as an “energy self-sufficient house on wheels” and has a teardrop shape for the least possible air resistance. This gives it a rather charming design, especially by the standards of the usually box-shaped motorhomes, but the main currency of the elongated streamlined silhouette is the largest possible area for solar panels.

They have an area of ​​a respectable 8.8 m2however, retractable modules are hidden under the roof, thanks to which the total area catching sunlight increases to a full 17.5 m2. They can fully charge the traction battery with a capacity of 60 kWh in 48 to 72 hours, depending on the weather, i.e. solar conditions. The range is then 600 km under “normal” conditions, but up to 720 km on a sunny day.

The practical side of the matter has not been forgotten either – the roof as such can be pushed upwards, which increases the headroom in the interior. It is entered through double-leaf doors that open opposite each other and are located on the side of the car. Inside we find a small kitchen with a refrigerator, and a chemical toilet is hidden in the stern. The living area is large enough for a full-sized double bed, which comfortably sleeps two adults.

The Solar Team Eindhoven collective does not provide too many technical details for the time being, but it does at least indicate a maximum speed of up to 120 km/h, which is also helped by the relatively low weight of 1700 kg – the chassis of the car is made of aluminum alloy, the body made of fiberglass is anchored to the support structure made of reinforced aluminum foam.

Just to give you a better idea, the dimensions of this remarkable streamlined motorhome are 7.2 meters in length, two meters in width (four meters when the roof panels are folded out) and a height of 1.8 meters.

The “solar team from Eindhoven” plans to test their invention in practice – they plan to take a test trip from their home city of Eindhoven to Punta de Tarifa, i.e. the cape that is the southernmost point not only of Spain, but also of continental Europe as such.

The daring trip is scheduled to start this September, with a distance of 2,350 km separating the two points. The journey will therefore test not only the real range and the efficiency of recharging at intermediate stops, but also the robustness of the structure.