ZERO-e project beats the rain in Spain!

Following the success of its maiden outing to Jerez for the Spanish round of the World Superbike championship over the first weekend of August, GBRacing's solar-powered ZERO-e project headed back into Europe for the rest of the 2020 season starting with Barcelona for the Pirelli Catalunya round.

Leaving the UK with the lithium batteries fully charged thanks to the late summer sunshine, the team headed across France and into northern Spain, enjoying fantastic weather all the way to the circuit.

After six days of trouble-free paddock living, with full cooking, showering and office facilities, the weather took a turn for the worse. With an overcast Thursday and Friday having already taken its toll, the blackened skies and torrential downpours of Saturday forced the team to make some difficult decisions — admit defeat and plug into the grid, or brave the circuit showers, eat only cold food and drinks and stop binge-watching Peep Show on Netflix.

Opting for the latter, and with the batteries now depleted to just 21%, the team awoke to bright blue skies on the Sunday and the control panel showing that the system was now charging at a sustainable rate.

Originally designed to provide support to the British Superbike paddock, where the maximum requirement for off-grid living is six days, the ZERO-e project has already surpassed expectations with 12 days off-grid in Jerez and 10 days so far into a trip that will see the truck stay in Europe until late October when it will return to the UK from the final round in Estoril, Portugal.

With team members now self isolating ahead of the next round at Magny-Cours, GBRacing is hopeful that the weather in the south of France — where the truck will be stored — remains bright and sunny. A wet weekend for the Pirelli French Round could mean the team is faced with another challenging few days.

More solar and battery capacity is planned as stage two of the ZERO-e development programme during the off-season to cope with shorter days towards the end of the season and to counter any poor weather.

With scope for further improvement, GBRacing is committed to making the ZERO-e project a viable system for sustainable, low-impact paddock living with no compromise to living conditions. Even binge-watching Netflix series...

We are very much open to conversations with our friends in the paddock who may want to join the ZERO-e programme — as a racing community we could all make a real difference if we harnessed natural energy and helped to reduce each circuit's demand for resources. It also means that long trips across Europe are easy, with no planning needed for power hook-ups, etc.