Tour de Sol
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The Tour de Sol in
After a few years other organisers carried out similar rallies, e.g. the American Tour de Sol. In 1988 the Tour de Sol also held the first race for solar powered boats on July 1 at Estavayer-le-Lac.
The Tour de Sol initially stipulated direct solar power from onboard
The legal form of the Tour de Sol was a foundation. It ceased in 2002. Solar engineer Josef Jenni is credited as the inventor of the event and Urs Muntwyler developed and led it for most of its years.
Courses
The course of the first Tour de Sol was relatively flat and direct, in later years the courses were circuitous and included mountain passes.
- 1985: Romanshorn - Geneva
- 1986: Freiburg (Germany) - Suhr
- 1987: Biel - Arosa
- 1988: Zürich - Etoy
- 1989: Rheinfelden - Locarno
- 1990: Schaffhausen - Münsingen
- 1990: Tour de Sol Alpine (on snow): Lenzerheide-Valbella (dito in 1991)
- 1991: Suhr - Beatenberg (total altitude gain 5000 m)
- 1991: Tour de Sol Alpine (on roads): Laax - St. Moritz
- 1992: Pforzheim (Germany) - Saas Fee
- 1993: Luzern - Adelboden
Regulations
The detailed regulations for the vehicles were described in a 24-page handbook. The main specifications for the vehicles were for the size of the solar cells and the accumulator battery. The racing category allowed a panel up to 6 m2 or 480 Watts peak and a battery capacity of up to 4.8 kWh. These vehicles were checked by the police and got temporary licences for the duration of the event. For vehicles with a regular road licence other specifications applied.
Two-wheelers
The vehicles mostly had three or four wheels but from the beginning a few bicycles with solar trailers participated. This later led to the development of Swiss production electric bicycles and motorcycles.
References
- Tour de Sol Publications including regluations, mainly German language in Helveticat, Swiss National Library
- German-language podcast of an interview with Josef Jenni in 2008. [1]
- In 2015 Swiss Radio celebrated the Tour de Sol 30th anniversary with two programs. [2]
- Short video of some Tour de Sol 1985 vehicles [3]
- YouTube also has this and numerous other videos. [4]
- (American) Tour de Sol Reports [5]