DETROIT JEWIS H NEWS

So l ar Sur e

S
LU

All

113 umping gasoline
into a car can be a
less-than-pleasant
experience in the 20
degree weather we
have all come to
know and love.
Thanks to the Department of En-
ergy (DOE), George Washington
University, and many other
schools and corporations, we may
not have to stand out in the cold
much longer.
Every two years, DOE and var-
ious other sponsors (including
General Motors) organize a solar
powered car race across the Unit-
ed States. That means no gaso-
line allowed. The only power
source entrants are allowed to
use is that which is free and
abundant: light from the sun.
The last race, Sunrayce '93, ran
from Arlington, Texas, to Min-
neapolis, Minnesota.
Solar Power is not all that
strange or new. Remember the
last time you were at the check
out counter at Kmart? They have
a marvelous selection of inex-
pensive solar powered calcula-
tors, right by the registers.
Along the very top of these cal-
culators are a row of solar cells.
Usually the cells are made out
of silicon, a common element
found in the earth. When the sil-
icon is treated in just the right
manner, it will produce a small
amount of electricity when ex-
posed to light. If you chain 5 or 6
of these together, you have
enough electricity to replace the
battery in a calculator.
For those who may have to use
a calculator in limited light, cal-
culator manufacturers put a bat-
tery in there as well. That way,
when there is not enough light to
produce electricity, the battery
can be used. When there is an
abundance of electricity, the bat-
tery gets recharged.
The solar car works in much
the same way. Chain about 2000
high quality solar cells togeth-
er, and there's enough power to
run a 6- or 8-horsepower engine.
An onboard computer helps de-
signers decide how much power
goes to recharging the reserve
batteries and how much power

Marc Goldberg, of West
Bloomfield, is a junior at
George Washington University.

MARC GOLDBERG SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

The power
ofthe sun
fuels an
experimental
solar car.

goes to the engine. As it gets dark
or cloudy, more power is routed
to the engine by using the bat-
teries.
The batteries used are the
same type that you find under the
hood of your car, but while a reg-
ular car may only have one, there
are 7 batteries under this hood.
Using only the batteries, the car
is able to go as fast as 42 miles
per hour. If the batteries and the
solar cells are used at the same
time (which is, after all, the point
of the whole car), the car can go
just as fast as a regular car.
In the race, efficiency is the
name of the game. By making
the chassis of the car out of cor-
rugated paper sandwiched be-
tween carbon fiber we save a
tremendous amount of weight.
The outer shell of the car also is
made of a composite material:
kevlar. That's the same materi-
al used in bulletproof vests. The
entire car, not including driver
and batteries weighs about 460
pounds. That's pretty remark-
able when you stop to consider
the weight of an ordinary engine
block.
Thanks to low weight and high
efficiency, GW's car, Sunforce I,
took 4th place of 48 cars in the
race. (The University of Michigan
took first place.) Production on
our next car is well under way,
and we plan to do even better
than before.
To build a solar car you need
to start from scratch. As far as
I know, there aren't any solar-car
kits available. The students are
responsible for every aspect of the
car: research, design, materials
procurement, fund-raising and
public relations, and the actual
construction of the car. While we

Above: Many students
prepare for this team
effort.

Right: The car can go as
fast as 42 miles per hour
with just batteries.

started the research
and (re)design pro-
cess for the current
1995 car back in
February, we
learned a great deal
from Sunforce I, and
implemented a
number of changes
that will help to in-
crease overall effi-
ciency.
Some of the
changes we made
are improvements. Right after
Sunrayce '93, we opened up our
toolboxes and started making
modifications to the car. If we
could make our car run even one
mile an hour faster, we were go-
ing to do it. Why all the effort af-
ter the race was over? Another
race, called the World Solar Chal-
lenge, was awaiting us. This
competition is open to anyone
who has a solar car and wants to
race. We packed our bags and

took the car to the Australian out-
back.
GW and about 40 other uni-
versities and corporations gath-
ered in Darwin, Australia, to race
1500 miles across the desert.
Among them were Honda, the
University of Biel (a Swiss engi-
neering university), University
of Michigan and Nissan. We
were especially eager to race be-
cause we wanted another shot at
racing against U of M.

Before we even start-
ed the race, our worst
fears had be realized.
The car was damaged
in shipping from the
States to Australia. A
forklift operator poked
through the container
the car was in and tore
a hole bigger than a
bowling ball through
the car. After a few
minutes of outrage, the
team managed to put
on its best face, and
tried to fix the car as
best they could. With
only two weeks until
race time, the situation
looked hopeless.
Thanks to the North-
ern Territory Universi-
ty, who gave us a
makeshift shop and
valuable space to work in, the car
was restored to working conch-
tion. The cost to the car was an
estimated 20 percent drop in ef-
ficiency. When the forklift oper-
ator pierced the box, he caused it
to collapse on the car, destroying
some of the precious solar cells.
In order to repair the car, we
had to replace the broken cells
with less efficient cells and add a
significant amount of weight to

