{"id":606694,"date":"2026-08-27T23:46:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T23:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/606694\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T23:46:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T23:46:21","slug":"irelands-first-solar-racing-car-set-for-24-hour-endurance-challenge-in-belgium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/606694\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s first solar racing car set for 24-hour endurance challenge in Belgium"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ireland\u2019s first-ever solar-powered racing car, designed by a team of students, is to compete in the world\u2019s only 24-hour endurance race for solar vehicles next month.<\/p>\n<p>Designed and hand-built over four years of research, prototyping and aerodynamic testing, the custom-engineered vehicle relies entirely on solar energy and clean battery storage to run.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">More than 40 multidisciplinary students at Dublin City University (DCU), spanning mechanical and electrical engineering, software engineering and business operations, contributed to the project.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">On Thursday, the vehicle underwent track validation and high-speed testing at Mondello Park in Co Kildare.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">Ireland\u2019s solar racing car<\/p>\n<p>            CLIMATE &amp; SUSTAINABILITY <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/news\/sustainability\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">HUB<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The solar-powered racing car is equipped with custom solar array architecture, lightweight composite materials and telemetry systems. The 6m \u201cbullet\u201d model was designed for maximum power conversion and minimal drag.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cIt\u2019s been incredible to see the work done over the past four years and to see all the effort pay off,&#8221; said Rian Gill, team principal and lead engineer at DCU Solar Racing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">&#8220;Countless hours over the past four years have resulted in this pinnacle of Irish engineering, thanks to the support of our partners, university and the students behind the project.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Following its test drive on Thursday, the DCU Solar Racing team will officially unveil the car to the public on Wednesday, September 9, at the Helix, DCU.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The student team will also represent Ireland on the international stage at the iLumen European Solar Challenge (iESC) at Circuit Zolder in Belgium later in September.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">Team to take on international challenge\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The 24-hour endurance challenge tests vehicles on speed, energy management and battery efficiency, and will see the team compete against international university engineering teams.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Jennifer Bruton, executive dean of the DCU Faculty of Engineering and Computing, said the project showcased &#8220;practical, future-focused, boundary-pushing talent emerging&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">&#8220;Beyond competing in international motorsport, these students are proving that sustainable transport solutions are achievable today through dedication, teamwork, multidisciplinary hands-on application, and vision.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s first-ever solar-powered racing car, designed by a team of students, is to compete in the world\u2019s only&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1153,8856,61,60,6395,43],"class_list":["post-606694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-sustainability","tag-electric-vehicles","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-motoring","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}