Project Summary

We are a solar car. And are powered by the sun. Therefore it is critical that we as a team have an understanding of the solar energy that our car is able to convert to electrical energy over the course of a race, as that does charge our battery pack and give us an extra boost in range. 

Goals

• Utilize the weather model to determine the amount of sunlight that is expected along the race route during the day 

• Get an accurate calculation of the expected energy intake from the solar array over a period of time 

Inputs

• Calculations for expected angle of sunlight at a given time in the day for a latitude/longitude point of the world

• Data from weather on the expected sun levels for a geographical point

• Solar array layout and cell efficiencies

Outputs

• Expected energy absorbed by the solar array that is added to the battery pack.

Notes

• Calculations were mostly completed by Carson Bay before his departure from the team and the incomplete code is available in Github for calculating the solar intake depending on time of day

• The above code can be used as a basis, however with the switch to challenger most of these calculations will not be very useful and will have to be retooled for MSXV