ACCIONA Energía Congratulates Deakin University on their performance in the 2023 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge

• ASCEND (ACCIONA Solar Car Engineered by Deakin) is an innovative solar-powered car, designed and delivered by a diverse team of students and engineers at Deakin University, with the support of ACCIONA Energía.
• The vehicle is the result of years of research and development, involved over 1,000 students from various fields and backgrounds, offering them invaluable real-world experience.

The ASCEND team has successfully completed the 3,000km journey from Darwin to Adelaide as part of the 2023 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge race, which began on 22 October. The global challenge, which has been running since 1987, requires teams to create a car that can use solar energy to make the journey from the top to the bottom of Australia in the shortest amount of time.

The challenge demands teams to practise innovation, applied engineering and sustainable strategies to achieve their goal, which is important to ACCIONA Energía.

The ASCEND car was the only entrant from Victoria this year, and participated in the Cruiser class in which cars must be designed as a commercial use passenger vehicle. It was also the team’s first time entering the competition.

Two representatives from ACCIONA Energía attended the race, watching the team’s hard work and strength in problem solving together.

“We have witnessed first-hand what can be achieved with a winning combination of renewable energy, applied innovation, and most importantly, teamwork. All these values are core to us at ACCIONA and we couldn’t be prouder of the team,” said Caroline Bommes, General Manager Brand & Marketing.

Despite the team’s hard work and determination, bushfires and poor weather conditions resulted in all cars in the Cruiser class needing a recharge before a mandatory checkpoint, meaning they were out of the race. The ASCEND car still completed its journey to Adelaide non-competitively and was commended for their outstanding effort as a first-year entrant.

At the conclusion of the awards ceremony on Sunday, the ASCEND team walked away with two trophies – the Bridgestone E8 Commitment award for innovation and sustainability and the PR & Media award for promotion during the challenge.

ACCIONA Energía would like to again congratulate the ASCEND team on their outstanding performance.

You can watch recaps of the week on the ACCIONA Australia Facebook channel here, or learn more about the car by viewing this page.