University of Calgary Solar Team off to the races

Courtesy University of Calgary

June 4th, 2010

After taking the Schulich Axiom on a week-long tour of Alberta, the University of Calgary Solar Team is ready to put its latest solar car to the ultimate test. The team left today for the 2010 American Solar Challenge (ASC), a race from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Chicago, Illinois. Fifty U of C students -- the majority from the Schulich School of Engineering -- spent nearly two years planning, designing and building a third-generation solar car.

The U of C and the University of Waterloo are the only two Canadian teams in the ASC. They will compete against 14 American teams, two teams from Germany and one from Taiwan.

"It's taken a lot of hard work and dedication to get to this point and we're thrilled with the performance of the car so far," said Brandon Heenan, project co-chair of the U of C Solar Team. "The Schulich Axiom has a higher cruising speed than the last solar car, Schulich 1. The Axiom's cruising speed will be about 90 kilometres per hour on a sunny day. That's the speed at which it can operate on power from the solar cells without tapping into the energy stored in the battery."

Members of the race crew were "white hatted" before they left Calgary towing the Schulich Axiom in a trailer. The race begins June 20 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, taking teams on a challenging 1,000-km course through the Midwest. Each day, they will stop at checkpoints in Missouri and Kansas before crossing the finish line June 26 in Naperville, Illinois, just outside Chicago.

The U of C team placed sixth overall in the 2008 North American Solar Challenge when it raced its last car, Schulich 1, from Dallas to Calgary. The Schulich Axiom has a radically new design: it's lighter, more energy efficient and easier to handle than Schulich 1 and it cost $100,000 less. The Schulich Axiom has nearly 2,000 solar cells and has reached speeds of more than 120 km/h.

"The team has made remarkable improvements over the previous solar cars and the engineering crew used what they learned in the classroom to manage real-world engineering challenges related to energy and the environment," said Elizabeth Cannon, dean of the Schulich School of Engineering and president-elect of the University of Calgary. "It's clear the U of C Solar Team is aiming to come out on top in this race and we're proud to have them representing our university, our city and western Canada."

The U of C Solar Team was recently announced a finalist in the 2010 Emerald Awards that recognize environmental initiatives undertaken in Alberta. The team plans to compete in the Global Green Challenge, formerly known as the World Solar Challenge, in Australia in 2011.

Get regular updates straight from the American Solar Challenge route on the team's blog: http://calgarysolarteam.blogspot.com/.