Green Lightning & Green Thunder – Top Dutch Solar Racing

Most solar racing teams belong to one university. Top Dutch Solar Racing from Groningen is different: since 2017 it has brought together students from several universities and colleges in the north of the Netherlands. Within two years the first team of 26 students built their first car, Green Lightning.

Green Lightning raced in the 2019 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge. Its shape was unusual for the time: it was one of the first solar cars with a monohull or “bullet” body, a single streamlined shape instead of the common catamaran layout. Composite leaf springs saved weight and kept the car stable. Without a driver it weighed only 144.5 kg. One of the innovations first tested on a demonstrator: steering the wheels with wires.

When the 2021 race in Australia was cancelled because of COVID-19, the second team took Green Spirit to the Moroccan Solar Challenge. It started from pole position and finished fourth after a race through the Atlas Mountains. Green Spirit used two coreless radial-flux motors, a full composite leaf-spring suspension and a custom LiFePO4 battery.

The third car, Green Thunder, went back to Australia in 2023. Before the race a gust damaged some of its solar modules, but the team kept going and finished 6th. Its most interesting feature for us: tandem perovskite solar cells, the technology we wrote about in 35.5%: Perovskite-Silicon Tandem Cells Set a New World Record. The fourth car, Green Falcon, raced in 2025.

Other Dutch solar racers on our site: Nuna 7, Nuna 3 and the family cars Stella Lux and Stella Vie.

Technical data

Photos

• Top photo: Wikikowsky / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• The 2019 team at the finish line in Adelaide. Photo: Wikikowsky / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• Team 2023 with Green Thunder in Australia. Photo: PietAppel / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• Green Spirit during the Moroccan Solar Challenge. Photo: PietAppel / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sources

• Wikipedia: Top Dutch Solar Racing