Sustainable mobility is one of the most important areas of development: Solar cars can cover long distances without any charging breaks. Students at the Belgian Agoria Solar Teams from Leuven managed to set records with a KSG circuit board. In the blog article, team captain Mathieu Peeters explains how KSG set new records with an Iceberg®-PCB made an important contribution to the development of the solar car.
Mr. Peeters, if someone had told you a few years ago that you and your team would one day set a world record, how would you have reacted?
Mr. Peeters: I probably wouldn't have believed it. To have broken the record for the most kilometers driven (1051 km) with a Solar car in 12 hours is a great feeling. We have grown even closer together as a team. We have proven that our solar car is ready for big races. However, this was only possible with good preparation. The technical aspects in particular had to be perfect, pilot changes had to be on the fly and the weather conditions had to be good. This interaction brought us the first record.
Congratulations on this top performance! What experiences have you had as Head of Energy in the Agoria Solar team during this time?
Mr. Peeters: Personally, as an engineering student, I was looking for an interesting and challenging project, and topics such as renewable energy have always appealed to me. Then there was the teamwork. Building a car almost entirely by yourself with 30 other students requires a lot of coordination and cooperation. It was all very instructive.
Interview: Mathieu Peeters - Head of Energy & Electrical Engineer Agoria Solar
Mathieu Peeters, as Head of the Energy and High Voltage Department of the Agoria Solar Team is certain that one of the greatest challenges of our lifetime will be the transition to a carbon-neutral world. "Solar energy, batteries and electric motors will be a very important part of this," says Mathieu Peeters. He is looking forward to continuing to gain practical experience with the team and to expand the boundaries of what will be possible in the future!
If you look back on your preparations for the competition so far - what measures need to be considered when building a solar car?
Mr. PeetersFirstly, the team has to trust each other and work well together. The planning has to be right so that the car is ready at the time of the race. We drive a lot of test kilometers, we design new systems ourselves, we are always on the lookout for cutting-edge technology. We need sponsoring partners for this. We have to contact and convince them. All this and many other factors have to be taken into account if the construction of a solar car is to be crowned with success.
Team Agoria Solar
Agoria Solar was founded in 2004 by 31 students from Leuven in Belgium. The aim of the project is to to demonstrate which The project shows the great potential of renewable energies and top European technologies. Students and pupils are also inspired to take responsibility for the planning and implementation of such a project themselves. The solar cars developed will also take part in competitions.
That sounds like a lot of work. How many km/h can one of your team's solar cars achieve on the track?
Mr. Peeters: On sunny days, the car can reach speeds of up to 65 km/h. An additional battery gives the car even more speed. If the weather doesn't cooperate, the car can cover an additional distance of almost 700 km.
Agoria Solar recently took second place in South Africa in the "Sasol Solar Challenge" - how long were you looking forward to this day and what challenges did you have to overcome?
Mr. PeetersWe've been looking forward to this for a long time. After many breakdowns during the preparation phase and technical defects in the battery, we still managed to take second place in the race in South Africa. There was an accident on the very first day of the eight-day race: an unexpected bump in the road caused the solar car to skid and the side scraped along the ground. Although we were able to repair the damage, we lost many valuable kilometers as a result. Last night, the solar panel was damaged by the actions of an inexperienced team member from an opposing team. The damage could not be repaired and we had to start the last stage with a solar panel that was not functioning optimally. Despite all the setbacks, we are happy to have achieved second place.
Are there already new visions and plans for Agoria Solar?
Mr. Peeters: With the experience we have gained in recent races, we will build our tenth racing car next year and take part in the long-awaited World Championship in Australia, which has been repeatedly postponed due to Corona. The preparations for this will start soon.
Finally, and of course of particular interest to us: How did you become aware of KSG?
Mr. Peeters: We have a Formula Electric team in Leuven with whom we exchange ideas from time to time. And this is where KSG came into play as an expert in high-current and thermal management: in order for us to win the race, it was a must for us to have a powerful and reliable circuit board manufactured according to our wishes. Especially when it came to the sensitive battery technology, it was important for us to use KSG's expertise for design support.
Details of the printed circuit board
Mr. Hackl, what were the individual steps in the personal consultation with the Agoria Solar team?
Mr. Hackl: My technical support team and I started by providing general advice on all our high current and thermal management technologies. In order to design a customized circuit board, we compared the strengths and specific properties that were best suited for the conditions and for the construction of a solar car. After this exchange, the decision was made in favor of our Iceberg® technology. We then started with the accompanying consultation on the layout design.
"On the one hand, our Iceberg® technology offers the necessary conductor cross-section for connecting the cell tabs and the high currents with the 400 µm thick areas and, on the other hand, the 100 µm thick conductor track structures provide the necessary voltage tap for monitoring the individual cells."
English 
German