NU Solar Car On Display At Adler Planetarium

May 28, 2008

As the Northwestern University Solar Car Team gears up for another race this summer, one of its retired cars is providing an opportunity for scientific education and discovery.

‘Nergy, the solar electric car engineered by the team to compete in the 2001 American Solar Challenge, is now on display at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago.

Michael Awadalla, a McCormick School of Engineering student who serves as the team’s research and development chair, said the team was looking for a place to take the car — the second of five built in the team’s 10-year history — and the planetarium seemed a good fit, since the team had taken cars down there in the past for public events.

“We’re really excited,” Awadalla says. “It’s in line with our three goals of competing, educating, and supporting alternative energy. It shows that solar energy is powerful enough to power a car, and it shows how to be conservative when building a vehicle, since the car is lightweight, has stiff suspension, and has low-rolling resistance tires.”

The ‘Nergy car took 26th place seven years ago in the American Solar Challenge, a 10-day 2,300-mile race from Chicago to Los Angeles along Route 66. The team built the car in seven months with $75,000 after spending a year on the design. The car’s 498 silicon solar cells generated an average of 700 watts, which powered the car at an average speed of 25 miles per hour.

Since then, the team has used the car for demonstrations at area schools, and the car was on display for a time in the Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center. Julian Jackson, Adler Planetarium’s director of experience and design, said when the team approached the organization about displaying a car, it seemed like a good fit.

“Adler is committed to an increased focus on earth science as well as space science, and I think the solar car gives practical applications for the sun’s energy here on Earth,” he says. “We can trace the high-energy photons that start in the sun and explain how they come to Earth, how they are used, why they are important and why it should matter. The car is a good example of how to capture the energy of the sun in a practical way.”

The car will be on display for at least a year, and Jackson said they tried to make the exhibit as accessible for children as possible. “The information around the solar car explains solar cells in a way that an 8-year-old could be able to understand,” he says.

Throughout the past decade, the Solar Car Team has had mixed luck with their cars — a mechanical defect prevented the first car from competing in 1999, and a suspension failure knocked out the 2003 car. But the team placed 5th at the 2005 Formula Sun Race, and Awadalla says that the latest car is the most lightweight yet and uses the latest advances in battery technology.

That car will be one of more than 25 participating in this year’s American Solar Challenge, which takes place July 13 -23, beginning in Plano, TX and ending in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The challenge requires four or five drivers from each team to drive their cars hundreds of miles every day, and team members must consider sunlight and battery power to determine how fast and long they can go each day.

For more information on the event, visit the American Solar Challenge web site

For more information on the team, visit the NU Solar Car Team web site

-- Emily Ayshford