Orange apoya el Solar Challenge de Marruecos
Between 25 and 29 October, the Solar Challenge Morocco 2021 was held in Morocco, an activity covering a 2,500-kilometre journey between the cities of Agadir and Merzouga. One of the major investors in this event was the telephone company Orange, with its subsidiary in Morocco. This operator has highlighted the innovation of the participants in the inventions they have proposed in solar technology. In addition, it has provided mobile phone battery charging points, nicknamed "Eco Tower" so that mobile phones can be charged without emitting carbon, as these constructions have plugs and pedals for battery recharging. Orange is not new to supporting this event, as last year it also participated in its funding and used the same charging towers to reduce the carbon footprint.
The event was initiated by the Institute for Solar Energy and New Energy Research (Iresen), which is celebrating the event by inviting Moroccan students and students from abroad from higher education institutions. The event consists of five days in which the vehicles will be tested on the roads of Morocco and the best of them will be chosen.
This competition has an Australian version, called the World Solar Challenge in Australia, which is much bigger than the Moroccan version and involves many more people, but due to COVID-19 restrictions, it has not been possible to hold it this season.
This year seven teams are taking part in the Maghreb country, three of them Dutch from the cities of Delft, Groningen and Twente, others from Germany and the United Kingdom, and of course from Morocco itself. Each day the participants will drive around 500 km on mountain roads close to the Sahara Desert.
One of the teams taking part in the race, the Vattenfall Solar Team, has unveiled its car, called Nuna11, which is a three-wheeled car with a solar panel built into the roof that can cover thousands of kilometres without using any petrol. The team itself describes the car as "Picasso's solar car". The machine has two wheels on the right side, and one on the left, which gives the car a lot of strength. The engine has been designed by the participating students themselves and is homemade. Team member Jasper Insinger said: "With the Nuna11, we can now accelerate faster, climb hills better and be very competitive in city traffic. It is the ideal race car for Morocco".
Morocco has, over the past few years, made some incredible environmentalist bets. A few days ago, the technology magazine MIT Technology Review recognised its work on climate change awareness, naming it the first country in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa) to use renewable energy. The Alawi country's goal is to achieve 100 per cent renewable energy for all uses by 2050, and today they use 42 per cent renewable energy. Thanks to the country's conditions, one of the energy sources they use the most is solar energy, as the sun is present almost every day for most of the year. The government has taken advantage of this by creating several solar complexes to collect solar and thermosolar energy, such as the Noor Ouarzazate, one of the largest in the region, which provides clean energy to more than one million homes and produces around 580 megawatts.