Students Cruise on Sunlight to the World Solar Challenge 

It only took a group of students from the Netherlands six months to build a vehicle that looks like it’s been beamed back in time from the future. The 22 students from Eindhoven University of Technology came together from across multiple disciplines to create an innovative new car that runs off of solar power. 

Aptly named “Stella,” after the Latin word for “star,” the vehicle is equipped with solar cells that gather the sun’s energy and then deploy it throughout the car to power the engine. If it gathers extra energy, it's transferred back to the power grid.

The team of students, donning the collective name, “Solar Team Eindhoven,” used carbon and aluminum to create the body of the car. While spacious enough to comfortably fit four passengers, it also has a sleek, aerodynamic design that helps to maximize the car’s efficiency.

Stella also has a custom steering wheel that can tell the driver if he/she is going too fast or too slow. The wheel either expands or contracts, alerting the driver if their speed is at one extreme or the other. Currently, the top speed of the vehicle is unavailable, but the team did report that it has a range of about 372 miles before it needs to “refuel.”

Solar Team Eindhoven is conducting their final tests on Stella before they enter it into the 2013 World Solar Challenge located in Australia. This challenge is a friendly competition where teams race 3000 kilometers from Darwin to Adelaide.

The solar-powered vehicles in the competition are only allowed 5kW hours of stored energy. The rest must be gathered from the sun along the journey. Once the race begins, they can travel as far as possible until 5pm where the teams must stop and make camp for the night. 

During the voyage there will be seven mandatory checkpoints where team managers can gather information on the weather or their position. During these checkpoints the team can also perform very minor maintenance checks on their vehicles, such as checking tire pressure. 

Stella will compete against other solar-powered vehicles in the “Cruiser” class, which is focused on efficiency more so than speed. Other classes include the “Challenger” class and “Adventure” class, which are designed for smaller vehicles and for returning competitors, respectively.

After the competition is over, Stella will travel to different schools in order to promote STEM education.