Meet the “Nuna 5” – the fifth generation of solar racing car built by a team from Delft university to enter the World Solar Challenge.

What is the challenge you ask? It’s a 3000km race across Australia (from Darwin to Adelaide) using a car powered entirely by sunlight.  Cars must maintain a minimum average speed of 50 KM/H between checkpoints, run standard road tyres and have no more than 6 square meters of solar panels. The rules don’t say much about the drivers apart from specifying a minimum weight, but looking at that car I doubt I’d fit…

There’s some technology in the cars too – the Nuna 5 weighs less than 160KG and uses Gallium-Arsenide solar panels rated at 34% efficiency (that’s pretty bleeding edge, the panels you buy to put on your roof are nearer 25%)

The Dutch team have a title to defend, having won the previous 4 races against competition from Honda, GM and other big names. We’ll see how they do when the race commences in October.

[via Wired]

With Glastonbury around the corner this fantastic futuristic concept tent is being touted by Orange (yes, the mobile phone people) as the next “must have” for festivals. Which it would be, if it existed, and that’s coming from somebody who doesn’t even like camping.

To start with the outer shell is made of a photovoltaic material (solar cells to you and me), to recharge all your toys.

Next up is an internal heating element in the groundsheet to keep out the Glastonbury chill (presumably the tent would have a mains plug – solar cells aren’t going to power a heater for long!)

They also think camping for the modern age should include wireless internet (which is fine, but where does it come from – satellite?) and a charging station using contactless charging technology (we’ve seen demos of this before and been impressed)

Oh, and possibly the coolest thing of all – you can, in FantasyGlasto, send the tent an SMS from your mobile phone to make it glow so you can always find your stuff on a crowded campsite.

Meanwhile, back in the real world you can find more information on what Orange is actually doing for Glastonbury at www.orange.co.uk/glastonbury

[via TechRadar]

Wearing a baseball cap at night wouldn’t be my first thought, but this one has a twist: It includes a couple of LED torch lights under the peak.

Using solar power to charge the batteries during daytime, the included LEDs will provide light for 4 hours on high beam or over a day in the low-power mode.

The electronics are stormproof and the light is angled down so you don’t blind the people around you. If you use head mounted lights a lot, this seems like a useful alternative to the conventional “elastic band around the head” approach they usually take.

They’re available for £29.99 from www.solarlightcap.co.uk in a range of colours and styles.