Solarvest Borneo Sdn Bhd (Solarvest Borneo), a subsidiary of the clean energy expert, Solarvest Holdings Berhad (Solarvest), together with Centre for Technology Excellence Sarawak (CENTEXS) and Swinburne University of Technology, Sarawak Campus (Swinburne) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly develop a revolutionary hydrogen and electric prototype race car.
The collaboration aims to compete in the Shell Eco-marathon Asia in 2024. Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg witnessed the MoU signing between the three parties during the 27th World Congress on Innovation and Technology (WCIT) and the 6th International Digital Economy Conference Sarawak (IDECS) 2023 event held at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) recently.
The collaboration is a part of Solarvest’s five-year strategic roadmap to transform into a regenerative clean energy expert. Solarvest said in a statement that the project will see students from Swinburne University’s engineering faculty and CENTEXS involved in the design and build of the prototype race car, giving Sarawakian students invaluable experience and the opportunity to hone their engineering and competency skills, while playing a role in Malaysia’s growing sustainable mobility sector.
The project, coordinated by CENTEXS and Solarvest, is supervised by Joseph Koh, who was the first Malaysian to participate in the eco-marathon event back in 2009. It added that the collaboration is an initial effort that can lead to new innovations in partnership with the world-leading vehicle industry, bringing the proven and testbed technologies for commercialisation in the market.
The prototype race car will be powered by a combination of hydrogen fuel cells and electric batteries. This will allow the car to achieve high performance and efficiency while also reducing its environmental impact.
