The Nuon Solar Team follows in the footsteps of the Alpha Centauri Team that won the World Solar Challenge in 2001 and the Nuon Solar Team that won the race in 2003 and 2005.
The first Nuna team was set up in 2000 by Ramon Martinez and Tim de Lange, both students of Mechanical Engineering at the Technical University of Delft. For the first time in history a Dutch team participated in the Challenge. The small team won the challenge and also broke all existing records. The average speed along the 3010-km long course was 91.8 km/h.
The Alpha Centauri Team was followed by the first Nuon Solar Team. They wanted to surpass the records set in 2001 by their predecessors with the completely new Nuna 2.
In 2003 the Dutch team again defended the title and smashed the record speed. With an average speed of 91 km/h they were the first team to come tantalyzingly close to the psychologically important 100 km/h.
The adventures in Australia would still not come to a close�
In may 2004 the team participated in the Phaethon race in Greece. Afterwards they crossed 6000km through Europe during the Adiante-tour. After departing from Athens they arrived in Porto, Portugal for the start of the European Cup Soccer. This tour was begun to bring the importance of sustainable energy to the attention of the European population.
In July of 2004 the new Nuon Solar Team was formed that would produce the record-smashing Nuna 3 vehicle.
In August of 2004 the new Nuon Solar Team undertook their first challenge, the Scandinavian Promotional Tour. Together with representatives of the European Space Agency (ESA) the new team left for Norway, Sweden and traveled well north of the arctic circle.
For the 2005 World Solar Challenge the group, by now consisting of 11 students, took on the challenge of defending their record-setting win. They achieved this they built Nuna 3. On all fronts this vehicle proved to be an improvement on the Nuna 2 vehicle, defending the team�s unparalleled rich and successful history.
With an average speed of 103 km/u the team made good on all expectations and again smashed all records. The students of Nuna 3 even beat their own record, managing to drive 858 kilometers in a regulation 9 hour day.
For 2007, the new Nuon Solar Team is busy developing what will hopefully prove to be another record breaking vehicle.