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American Solar Challenge Completed: Blue Went
s20451 writes: "The American Solar Challenge solar car race wrapped up yesterday in Claremont, California, with the University of Michigan winning.
According to this article in the Globe and Mail, two Canadian teams finished in the top five: Waterloo and Queen's, finishing third and fourth, respectively. Go Canada!"
I worked with one of the teams on the design. A large portion of the cash went toward the solar array.. somewhere over $150,000. The battery arrays (top-end lithium polymer at 108V) also cost $100,000 or so. Layup on the 8-layer carbon composite shell was quite expensive. The framing was done out of cromoly steel tubing because we decided Titanium would be too expensive and hard to work with. The motor and controller were somewhere in the tens of thousands as well. All the electronics were designed and built in-house. Half a dozen microcontrollers using a dual-indipendent serial bus for redundency, etc... all designed in-house. We even milled the PCBs. =-) Our car had a remote tracking system. A wireless modem sending full telemetry at all times. Pretty cool. =-) Oh yeah... the paint job would run a cool $5000 too =-) pretty cool too look at. If we were to bill-out the labor for the car, it would run about $2 million+ I think. heh Too bad we didn't place... *sigh*
One would think that the intelligent players would already be expanding their business beyond the dead dinosaur fuel industry into alternative fuels. There's no reason the big fuel makers can't also dominate the production of alternative energy as well. If anything, they're the ones who have the know-how and the backing to implement such a massive widescale infrastructure upgrade. Alternative cars will NOT be feasible for Joe Average Consumer until there is a fueling station on everything block like there is today with gasoline and it takes less than 5 minutes to refuel. That means no sitting overnight while you tricklecharge your 60HP Rice Rocketmobile and that means not having to drive 30 miles away to fuel up your eco-geek car because they're the only ones that sell Absurdoline on your metropolitan area.
...people would realize that this post was no where near insightful.
We read a post where people are spending lots of money to expand this and other forms of clean energy. The winning car was $1M with grants from major oil companies and car componies! Thats a lot of money for a car that will only take a one way trip and will never break 2k miles.
And then he writes as if speaking to a world ignorant to this he wishes people would relize we could expand on this and other forms of clean energy... And gets moderated up for it?
Many other well informed posts actually discuss the practicality and requirements of this and other clean technologies. They are informative, insightful and educational. In the interest of real science Read them, this is mearly a fool looking for a paradise.
~^~~^~^^~~^
Who are we kidding? As long as oil companies have the power and money that they do, alternative power sources will never come into their own. Think what would happen if suddenly a new technology became available and oil wasn't necessary anymore. Many *major* companies would find themselves in economic turmoil and that isn't something that those companies are ready to have happen just yet.
No matter how much better solar power, battery power, or natural gas power is, it's just not going to become prominent until some of the big players are good and ready for it to happen.
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The fact is that fossil fuels and our current internal combustion engines are so inefficient that the big oil companies know that they'll be able to keep selling us lots of their product.
If we're talking solar or battery power, what kind of hold do they have on the consumer? Certainly not the perpetual one they do now, with our incredible dependence on gasoline and oil. Once the battery car is bought, or the house is outfitted with solar panels, the major corporation's job is over.
There's not even a remotely similar chance for recurring revenue in more efficient energy sources. And when you're all about making money, that's the bottom line.
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And if you're a regular slashdot reader then you're well aware of the shortage of electricity in the US, that's probably their main reason for objecting to the Kyoto protocol.
There is a good story on CBS about power companies in California holding back power to raise prices.(I submitted it but it was rejected)
Trolling is a art,
And I suppose you don't notice Dick Cheney's hand up Bush's ass.
Bush is the goatse.cx guy?
:)Trolling is a art,
I bet most of that went into top-of-the-line solar cells.
The good thing about races like this is that effort is put into designing the very best cells possible, and a side effect is (eventually, we hope) better solar cells available to the community market.
A major advance was made (the so called 'green cells' in Australia for the Australian solar challenge a few years ago).
A good resource on PV cells (notice my Australian bias!) is http://acre.murdoch.edu.au/refiles/pv/text.html.
What does "Blue Went" mean?
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Mod up a post Rob doesn't like and you'll never mod again
And an incredible infusion of cash.
I'm not knocking the accomplishment (congratulations, by the way), but Michegan's effort was fueled as much by hard work as it was by cash. That car cost over CAD$2 Million (about $1 Million US).
At this time, in shameless self-promotion, I turn your attention to the University of Waterloo (my school), which finished 3rd, in it's first-ever foray into the Open Class (no restrictions on components). Our car cost roughly CAD$250,000 (or a little over US$100,000). I'm immensely proud of the effort that the people put in, and I'm moved to volunteer my time next year.
Unless there have been some massive changes in solar array technology, the average solar car's pulling about as much power as standard hair dryer, as that's about all they have to work with.
The speed differences come from motor technology (axial flux motors, developed by um....can't remember his name...a guy from NTU, in australia), which eleminates transmission losses, and from better weight reduction, and more importantly, aerodynamics.
And well, as we all know, SUVs are lacking a bit in that whole 'aerodynamics' area.
What you want isn't a solar car, but another one of GM's little competitions --
http://www.futuretruck.org/
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
Absolutely; yes, they are. Look at their website, link included in many posts here.
"Old man yells at systemd"
I went to Waterloo, and their solar car project is one of the babies of the university. I'm very proud to hear of both Waterloo and Queen's doin' the top 5! I did a 94% in highschool, and Waterloo kicked the crap out of me (Electrical engineering.) It's rumoured that the U of Waterloo's engineering program is one of the top 5 egineering programs (electrical, computer, systems) in north america .. I definately know it's the hardest in Canada.
:)
So go Canada!
"Old man yells at systemd"
Is the really a test of engineering acumen, or more of a test of who has the most money to throw at the problem?
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
Not to be pedantic, but this doens't make a whole lot of sense. The heat of the engine comes from wasted energy. I agree that a solar powered car wouldn't be able to be as wasteful as a combustion engine, but that really isn't a design goal.
-no broken link
Here's a vignette from one of her updates:
Apparently, they were the loudest gang out there. Go Team! Now it's prep time for the World Solar Challenge.
I'm sick of you damn crazy hippies complaining all the damn time.
If you hate the oil companies, stop using their products.
It *is* possible to live without them. I believe about 60% of the planet does.
And if you don't want to live in the stone age, do your best to avoid the most obvious oil company products: plastics and gasoline. Use an electric car. Don't use a straw or a plastic lid when you eat fast food. Don't buy polyester clothes (yeah, you're not a pimp anyway). Heat your house with solar panels (which a good friend of mine has been doing since 1989 or so). Stop using certain paints and other coatings on your car/house/toenails. Power your house with energy from a company that uses hydroelectric or nuclear (deregulation can be ok if you're outside California), etc.
If the linux revolution has shown us *anything* it should be that we CAN AVOID THE CORPORATE BEHEMOTHS!
Congrats to the #1 rookie team!
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Microsoft is not the answer, Microsoft is the question. The answer is "no".
Club membership requirements for them probably looked like this: they either bring and share beer/chicks, or be really good at cleaning up after Ph.D. students.
Ha! There are no chicks near North Campus (which is where the solar team works)... I guess the undergrads would have to import them from Central Campus.... Perhaps they can use a solar-powered transit system to shuttle the girls to north campus though...
Then there's the official Midnight Sun site.
Paul
Chicago to California is a decent road trip
On another note
On sunny days, and on flat stretches of highway, the cars hit speeds as high as 110 kilometres an hour.
which is starting to be respectable.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
World Solar Challenge is the probably the longest solar car race. It started about 13 years ago. It is scheduled for Nov or Oct this year.
That's great ! I was wondering when the new models would finally become affordable.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
isn't everything in the world solar powered?
if it wasn't for the sun, nothing would ever have been alive (dinosaurs), resulting in no fuels such as oil and gas...
indy 500 is just an indirect solar car race.
www.Beyond7.com Insane modern art water sculpture.
The winning car averaged 40 MPH during the race. maybe it didn't weigh two tons, or have xtra-large cupholders, but it's still pretty impressive for a "car" powered entirely by 8 square meters of solar cells.
I am insulted, for those interested however here it is:
UWaterloo.ca
Midnight sun (the car)
GO WATERLOO!
I like meat helmets.
You're not from Ontario, are you? Hydro is in the minority, and with the nukes being shut down, the bulk of Onatrio electricity comes from the 'thermal' generators, i.e. oil, coal and natural gas. When Toronto has air quality alerts, it's from the local smog, not sepage from the States. I think only Quebec generates the majority of its electricity from Hydro, but it's been a while since I worked in the industry, so things may have changed.
www.lucernesys.comHorizon: Calendar-based personal finance
I'm aware of the dams in Northern Ontario, but the reason the nukes were built in the first place was that the dams were tapped out. And, I wasn't implying that the generators were causing the air pollution, I think that in heavily populated areas, the majority of the air pollution comes from vehicles.
www.lucernesys.comHorizon: Calendar-based personal finance
But mummy, mr bush said burning oil wont harm the world as long as our economy is good
I live in Canada and have only seen one application for solar cells here - they're used by one of the cities to power lights that let drivers know about school zones.
A few years ago in Edmonton the EPCOR building installed solar cells on its roof; the power replaces the conventional power supply to the top few floors of the building.
Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
Congrats to the open class and overall winner team, the University of Michigan.
Nobody on here has yet mentioned the stock class where significant monetary and technology limits were placed on the cars. So, I must of course congratulate the University of Arionza, who won the stock class by more than 20 hours.
Bear Down, Arizona!
Pretty cool, now if they can only get it so that you could power an SUV...
Buy Hex-Rated Stuff, fight the DMCA!
Actually, Bush is spending more money to "burn more coal". That is an actual quote.
...people would relize we could expand on this and other forms of clean energy instead of spending money to burn coal.