American Solar Challenge 2010 has started!

The American Solar Challenge is a competition to design, build, and drive solar-powered cars in a cross-country time/distance rally event. This year 12 teams compete in a 1100 mile drive from Broken Arrow, OK to Naperville, IL. The race requires four drivers from each team to take turns driving their cars hundreds of miles every day. Team members must consider sunlight and battery power to determine how fast and long they can go each day. Teams are allowed two hours each morning to charge their batteries, followed by nine hours of racing, with the day ending with two more hours of charging time. (See full report http://americansolarchallenge.org/events/asc2010/)

Although the solar car is a complex project involving the product development and different engineering aspects, the idea is pretty impressed that we can have transportation fueled by sun and there is no footprint. When cars are parking outside in the day, it gets charged by the sunlight. Once the breakthrough technology is developed, we can have a real green car!

NUsolar team members work on preparing their car for this month’s American Solar Challenge, a cross-country race from Oklahoma to Illinois.