Vattenfall has signed a four-year sponsorship deal with a Dutch solar car racing team from Delft University of Technology.
The team, which had been sponsored previously by Vattenfall’s subsidiary Nuon since 2001, will now race under the moniker Vattenfall Solar Team.
The first race with the new name will be the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge in October in Australia, which the team has won seven times previously out of nine attempts.
Bridgestone is a 3000km-long race from Darwin to Adelaide and is the world championships for solar cars.
Vattenfall president and chief executive Magnus Hall said: “This is a special sponsorship deal that fits well with our goal of making fossil free living possible within one generation.
“This team represents the next generation and demonstrates how far you can get with technical know-how and innovation.”
The new Vattenfall Solar Team was presented on Tuesday in the Dutch city of Delft, comprising 16 students who will build the latest car called NunaX.
Team leader Maud Diepeveen said: “It’s a name that fits with the vision of the new team. In mathematics, X represents the unknown variable: we don’t yet know how we will achieve our goal.
“The path to get there is still a mystery. Even so, we believe it is possible for us to be crowned world solar racing champion for the eighth time in Australia – and to achieve a life without fossil fuels within one generation.”
The Delft team has also won the last three Sasol Solar Challenge races in South Africa.
Both the Sasol Solar Challenge and Bridgestone events are held every two years.
Nuon has recently changed its name to Vattenfall in the Netherlands.