Rhodes University alumni are a many varied grouping, presenting a fascinating mix of the best skills and ideas in all walks of life. One such alumni is Winstone Jordaan, who obtained a BSc (Hons) degree from Rhodes in the 1980's.
Jordaan is Chairperson of the Advanced Energy Foundation (AEF) and is described as an all round innovator and entrepreneur. He will be returning to Grahamstown this Friday as the AEF will be again be at the helm when South Africa's second Solar Challenge kicks off.
The 4 200 kilometre event starts in Pretoria, travel the N1 freeway to Cape Town, then switch to the N2 to travel east to Durban. From Durban the more interesting back roads will be explored as the participants make their way back to Pretoria.
The clue indicating that this race stands apart from others is in its name. The South African Solar Challenge 2010 is described as an epic, two-week race in solar-powered cars, which have to be built, and the engineering systems designed, by the teams themselves. The race then takes these vehicles through some of the most demanding terrain ever traveled by solar cars. It's not merely for the fun of it either.
The Solar Challenge is designed to drive and provide education in innovation and business, and to promote renewable energy technologies, integration of technical and scientific expertise across disciplines, educational excellence in the science, maths and engineering fields and hands-on experience for students and engineers. The environmental and safety aspects are also strongly emphasised.
So what is a solar powered car? As the name suggests it is a vehicle powered by the sun's energy. A solar array is used to collect this energy and store it in the car batteries, where power trackers convert it to the proper system voltage. The energy is then available for use by the motor.
Jordaan has worked in industry for over 20 years, developing IT systems in areas such as banking, mining and general industrial and engineering. He believes that the wealth of South Africa can only be unlocked by innovators and entrepreneurs, with the skills and the bravery to explore their ideas and rally support from the people around them. In his biography, on the SA Innovation Summit website, he states that over the last eight years he has been moving back to his “core passion, which is to understand future trends in Energy and Mobility, and to find ways to be a pioneer and evangelist in the area of energy efficiency and sustainable utilisation.”