After their success with the Top Dutch Solar Racing team, former team members Alje Zwijghuizen and Calvin Beijering now want to race on hydrogen.
They want to set up a team that will participate in the Shell Eco-marathon in 2025 with a self-built hydrogen car. This is an annual competition in which participants cover a fixed distance and use as little hydrogen as possible. The location for 2025 is not yet known.
The Top Dutch Solar Racing team made its debut in 2019 during the World Cup for solar cars in Australia. The group finished fourth overall and also received a trophy for good engineering. The team that participated in the Solar Challenge Morocco in 2021 again took fourth place. In October, another student team will participate in the World Solar Race in Australia.
Hydrogen is indispensable for the future
According to Zwijghuizen and Beijering, the new hydrogen racing team will have the same kind of structure as the solar team. “The student team will consist of 20-25 students from different disciplines, ranging from communication to technology.” According to the two, hydrogen is indispensable for the future. Zwijghuizen: ,,The North of the Netherlands is the first region in Europe to receive a subsidy to transform into a ‘hydrogen valley’. Groningen has also recently been profiled as the hydrogen capital of Europe.”
According to Zwijghuizen, now is therefore the perfect time to set up a hydrogen racing team. “Twente, Arnhem and Delft are already racing against each other in the Shell Eco-marathon, we can do that in the North too.”