Rocket Cars Are So 20th Century! Student-Built EV Smashes Solar Speed Record

Only a few weeks ago at the HMAS Albatross Navy base airstrip in Nowra, Australia, a student-designed and built solar car broke the record for the world's fastest solar-powered vehicle. The Sunswift IV--nick-named "IVy" by the 60-member University of New South Wales team--crushed the previous 48 mph record by posting a 54.7 mph run. 

Daniel Friedman, student project manager, was already confidently looking into the immediate future, "We think we can get it over 60 mph." During the three-day trial, the weather had been unforgiving in Nowra with morning clouds giving way to afternoon rains. One team member jokingly suggested they change the project name to "Cloudswift." Finally, on the third and final morning, after the racing team got a lucky break in the clouds, they made the record run at 10:30 am

The clouds never stayed away long enough to complete a faster run, and, at 1:30 pm a downpour stopped any further attempts. Friedman said the team was excited that the three-wheeled car performed so well. "We were expecting to get our peak sun at noon, so the fact we broke the record so early was a great result. The Guinness World Book of Records adjudicators were on hand, so it's all official." The car used about 1050 W (the amount of energy to power a toaster) to travel at the speed necessary for the record run. The previous record was set by General Motors Sunraycer in 1988, which travelled 48 mph on roughly 1500 Watts. This means the Sunswift IV, with 25% less power than the previous record holder, went 13% faster. Solar's come a long way since 1988. It's also important to note that the record was achieved without batteries--they had been removed to compete on the grounds of energy efficiency alone. All the collected solar power was converted directly into kinetic energy.

While students usually drive the finicky carbon-fiber solar car, for this crucial test they hired professional drivers Craig Davis of Tesla Europe and Barton Mawer of Mawer Engineering, who drove during the record attempt. Once the record had been verified by the Guinness judges and Mawer was out of the cockpit, he said the car handled reasonably well, "Although I think I gave the team a bit of a scare when I got up on two wheels on the turn."

Click to see more video of the record run. Breaking a world record is exciting, but the most impressive accomplishments took place months and years before the car made January's record run. The Sunswift project began over 14 years ago, and since then new groups of students have built four technologically improved versions of the car. Between 2000 and 2001, in a world first for Sunswift II, students began an ambitious plan to manufacture 7,000 high efficiency Buried Contact Solar Cells (BCSC) at 19.5% efficiency.

The entire project was completed in under four months and involved approximately 10,000 hours. The students managed the project themselves, fabricating, testing, and solving any engineering problems. The result was a cell efficiency greater than anything commercially available for the same cost. Another world first: they also developed a new method to construct solar panels with composite curves. Later, they built the car's brushless CSIRO 3 phase motor. A major innovation: placing the motor in one of the rear wheels of the car, eliminating almost all energy loss. Last year, as a timely innovation for the record breaking Sunswift IV, the team finished the design for SION - the "Sunswift IVy Observer Node," which logged and transmitted the telemetry data from the solar car to the control vehicle over WiFi. They also created "Sunsweeper," a handheld sweeper device used to test and trouble-shoot the solar cells, including whole strings of IVy's array, as well as individual solar cells and everything in between. The next big competition is the October 2011 World Solar Challenge. Returning and winning the 3000 km trans-Australian race may be the next fulfillment of their team's mission statement:

Solar powered cars are among the more widely recognized feats of technological excellence still able to instill a sense of awe and curiosity in the minds of onlookers. Reminding people that the technology exists for environmentally responsible transport is something that Sunswift takes very seriously.

Will EV racing (solar and battery) become the next blue state NASCAR?

Photo; Sunswift IV- Sunswift IVy Website Photo: David Friedman- Sunswift IVy Website Photo: Driver Barton Mawer- YouTube Screen-grab Photo: Solar array- Sunswift IVy Website Photo: UNSW team- Sunswift IVy Website