European Solar Challenge: the sun at Zolder

The iLumen European Solar Challenge at Circuit Zolder in Belgium is still expected to go ahead on 18–20 September (see my list of teams here).

Above is my calculation of the theoretical solar power for this event, assuming no clouds, ignoring diffuse sky radiation, and taking solar panels as 100% efficient (more realistic values are 20–24% for silicon and 35% for GaAs).

We will see, during the race itself, how much sun there will be (on past trends, during September, the sun at Zolder shines for about 6 hours a day, and there is rain on one day in two).

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