‘Sikat’ goes around town

CAGAYANONS had the rare opportunity of seeing in flesh the solar-powered car developed by a group of faculty and students from the Mechanical Engineering and the Electronics and Communications Engineering departments of De La Salle University in Manila.

The solar-powered car named Sikat, invented by the group in partnership with the Philippine Solar Challenge Society Inc., was on display at SM City atrium on Saturday and Sunday. The car is currently on tour in select schools and universities in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

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A solar car runs on solar energy converted into electricity by photovoltaic cells. While solar cars are not yet a practical form of transportation today, they have been raced in competitions such as the World Solar Challenge, which promote the development of alternative energy technology such as solar cells.

Sikat was first unveiled December last year in Manila and took off from the De La Salle University on January 12 this year for a roadshow. It has so far visited schools and universities in Manila and Davao last month. On Friday, it had a short stop over at the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) in Iligan City and traveled for almost two hours to Cagayan de Oro on Saturday. The car will tour the schools on weekdays and will be displayed at various SM Malls during weekends.

After the Cagayan de Oro leg, Sikat will be in Cebu, Bacolod, Iloilo, Batangas, Pampanga and Ilocos Sur this month.

After the tour, Sikat will prepare to compete in the 2011 World Solar Challenge.
Prof. Jack Catalan, leader of the Sikat team, said the car was not developed for commercial use but to impart awareness on the people about the benefits and use of solar energy.

Sikat is the second solar-powered car developed by the De La Salle University. The first, named Sinag which the school also developed, competed with top honors in the World Solar Challenge in Darwin, Australia in 2007.

Both Sinag and Sikat have a body made out of carbon fiber in order to be as light as possible to achieve a higher running speed required in competitions.

Their top surface is covered with solar cells from Sunpower, the highest efficiency commercial solar cells in the world that are manufactured in Laguna and exported to other countries.

But compared to Sinag, Sikat is much more sleeker, faster and lighter, an improvement that clearly demonstrates the increasing capability of the Philippines to lead in solar technology. Sikat’s top surface weighs only 49 kilograms (kg) while its total weight is about 180 kg.

Sikat is designed as a single-seater race car with three wheels. Its power is from solar radiation converted to electricity via solar cells and stored using lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries. Almost all of its mechanical parts are made by the De La Salle team while its shell body is designed using SolidWorks, with the upper shell made of fiber glass lattice framework and the lower hull is formed using carbon fiber skin.

Below are some of the car’s features:

- Drive -- Front wheel drive using in-wheel motor, which is a direct transmission, in-wheel CSIRO Surface-Type brushless permanent magnet motor rated at 1.8kW with 97 percent efficiency controlled via a Tritium motor driver.

- Brakes -- Hydraulic brake system and regenerative braking for energy recovery. Hand brake is cable-type attached to the front wheel.

- Solar array -- The solar array consists of 386 Sunpower A300 C65 Silicon cells with a total area of 6m2. Cells are manufactured by SunPower Philippines Ltd with an efficiency rating of 21 percent.

- Batteries -- Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4); 598 cells connected in 46s13p layout; 3.2 V, 3.3 Ah each cell; total weight 49 kg. It is manufactured by K2 Energy Systems.

- Expected performance -- From direct solar power supply (through solar panels only), Sikat is expected to run at about 80 kph. If battery charged is utilized, the car can run up to 110 kph for a limited amount of time. Running from battery power alone and cruising at 80 kph on a flat road, it has a range of 400 km.

However, if the run includes daylight hours (with clear skies), the range can extend up to 933 km.

With the success of both Sinag and Sikat, the Filipinos’ ingenuity is definitely one thing that can put the Philippines in the world map.

According to the team from De La Salle, the message of Sinag was threefold: 1) That the Philippines is blessed with great potential for tapping renewable energy sources such as solar power; 2) That the Philippines produces some of the most efficient solar cells in the world; and 3) That as a nation working together as a team, Filipinos can succeed in a challenging international competition.

And for them, the message of Sikat is that of consistency and expertise.
They said that through Sikat, “We demonstrate our capability to lead in solar technology.”