Solar Challenge: Technology for future generations

The 2011 World Solar Challenge is about to commence on October 16 and people around the planet will be keeping an eye on the 37 teams from 21 countries as they traverse the sun-drenched outback of middle Australia to see who has built the world’s most energy efficient solar vehicle.

The competition – made famous by the 1990 movie “Race The Sun,” featuring American actress Halle Berry – is run between Darwin in the north of Australia to Adelaide in the south, a journey of over 3000km.

It features research teams from some of the world’s most famous universities and companies all looking to use the unique conditions of the course to test their work in a real-world environment.

While the goal of the event is to be the first team to arrive in Adelaide, the true objective of the competition is to promote research into solar-powered cars and, more generally, sustainability.

As such, one of the most exciting outcomes of the Solar Challenge is that the technologies used are likely to find their way into the production cars of tomorrow.

MyHeritage is a firm advocate of economic and environment sustainability to ensure that future generations – those that will most benefit from the genealogical work that we all do today – are able to continue to enjoy the quality of life that we, and previous generations, have enjoyed.

As such, we wish all the teams in the World Solar Challenge the best of luck and thank them for their untiring work in helping to make the planet a better place for us, our children and their children.