The car is a project of students from Groep T in Leuven, an international engineering college. Teams from Groep T have taken part in five solar challenges so far, and a new team is currently working on preparations for the next one in Australia in 2013. The team is sponsored by metals company Umicore, which supplies the germanium used in solar cells.

The World Solar Challenge takes place every two years and involves driving a solarpowered car from Darwin to Adelaide across the outback, a distance of more than 3,000 km. The race was won by a team from Tokai University in Japan.

The Solar Tour started in Brussels and moved on this week to Leuven, Antwerp and Bruges, spending this coming weekend at Ostend and De Panne.

www.solarteam.be