On May 21, the 14th Solar Cup competition took place at the Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia (ISSP UL). The event was opened by the Director of ISSP UL, Andris Anspoks. He welcomed the contestants and wished everyone a true spirit of competition and victory for the best team. The final instructions were given to the participants by the competition judges, Pēteris Lesničenoks and Ainārs Knoks. Due to the cloudy weather, the event took place indoors. After the competition part, the team members had an opportunity to listen to informative lectures: Elektrum Energy Efficiency Center expert Anrijs Tukulis introduced the audience to the company's plans for decarbonization and the use of hydrogen, ISSP UL researcher Raitis Gržibovskis informed about the news in the field of organic solar batteries, and ISSP UL researcher Ainārs Knoks gave a lecture on aluminum waste recycling for hydrogen production.
Thirteen teams of students from Ilūkste, Jūrmala, Naukšēni, Rīga, Strenči, and Jelgava took part in the competition. Each team had two to three members. The competition’s winner was determined by summing up the points received for the preparation phase tasks (blueprints of the vehicle, vehicle design), points received for the knowledge test that the participant took on the day of the competition, and the results of the competition. The winners of the overall rating were youngsters from the Jūrmala Children and Youth Interest Center with the "Sun Team". All participants received prizes prepared by the supporters of the competition. The event was organized by ISSP UL with the support of the CAMART2 project. The cooperation partners of the competition this year were ISSP UL, ISSP UL Foundation, Latvenergo, and Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway grant AliCE-WHy.
Solar Cup is a competition that aims to promote children’s (grades 5-12) interest in science and alternative energy sources. It started 14 years ago to show young people that science is exciting, that it finds solutions to energy and environmental problems, and that every study can contribute to a significant breakthrough in the future.
The implementers of the project "Aluminum in a circular economy - from waste through hydrogen energy to alumina - AliCE-WHy (EEA-RESEARCH-92)" thank the Baltic Research Program (financially supported by the European Economic Area (EEA) grants) for the support.
