In the middle of an October night I found myself in an office in the Dreamhall in Delft, cheering for a Nuon Solar Team I hardly knew at the time, feeling excited at the thought of ‘us’ winning. Around me were new faces, some a bit familiar, some still unknown, yet everyone felt the same anticipation. We had quite a good time, talking about former teams, their strengths and weaknesses, the fun things of Delft. Then, at around 3:30 a.m. the room exploded – we had just won the World Solar Challenge with an historically small difference to the number two; just eight minutes! As a business student from Rotterdam, I would never have expected to be there; on the TU Delft campus, being part of one of the greatest student projects in the Netherlands. But here I am; team leader of the tenth Nuon Solar Team, well on our way towards South Africa. There is so much I have learned this year and even more to learn still! Through this and upcoming blogs we would like to give you a little insight into the life of a member of the Nuon Solar Team, so that you, too, can learn from our experiences. I will focus on the human side of our project, since that is my domain as team leader. The group of people that have participated in former teams – our alumni – have very comparable traits. Their overall competitiveness being the foremost one, which is apparent in everything we do! From the lightest screws to the best training, to the most critical mindset. Their support is great that way and it forces teams to evolve into something better, we will not go for second best. On the flip side, this method of thinking is not for everyone. Some do not like the directness or eagerness of our (former) team members. What about me then? I enjoy this type of accountability a lot, it has very sharp edges however. I had to learn to be harder versus hard criticism, something I never experienced that way. Then again, I was searching for an environment like that, somewhere to learn and improve and I found it here in Delft. Nothing is given here, you will have to work insane hours and under pressure, which makes me so much more appreciative of the effort we put in this project. That appreciation is echoed by our fans, who give us so much energy. On every fair, conference and event we meet people who are even more enthusiastic than we could ever be. That is the energy that will get you through the long week of work. The things I described make the Nuon Solar Team what it is; fast learning, competitiveness, support and appreciation for each (former) team member and never-ending energy from fans and team alike. That is what made me love solar racing. -Sjoerd Stevens, teamleader Nuon Solar Team
