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Catalyst: Solar power

Image Catalyst: Solar power

TLF ID M000241

This is a solar-powered car designed and built in 1986-87 by an Australian team led by Ian Landon Smith. Constructed on a square tube frame, it has a very low body - it is just over 1 m high - a round nose and removable fibreglass cockpit cover and tinted windscreen. Body panels are made of fibreglass, mylar and kevlar, and are painted white. The car is powered by a Swiss-made electric motor.

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Educational details

Educational value
  • This solar-powered vehicle, named Solar Resource, was built to compete in the world's first transcontinental solar car race, the 1987 World Solar Challenge from Darwin to Adelaide (3,005 km). It achieved an average speed of 25.64 km per h, and came first in the private entry class and seventh overall. Ian Landon Smith donated it to the Powerhouse Museum in 1990.
  • Solar Resource was designed and built in 1986-87 in Sydney by a small team of engineers and designers led by Australian engineer and alternative energy expert Ian Landon Smith. It was a privately funded 'backyard' project. The car itself was built for around $75,000; however, $1 million was spent on its 760 gallium-arsenide solar cells - cells that are normally used on space satellites.
  • The team spent 18 months designing and building the car, and had to make each component three times before the final successful construction. Smith was inspired to build a solar-powered car after reading an article in an engineering magazine in 1985. He was well into designing it when he travelled to Switzerland in 1986 to see the Tour de Sol international solar-powered car competition, which led to several changes to Solar Resource, but did not alter the original concept of the car.
  • Solar car races spurred improvements in both solar-cell efficiency and electric-vehicle design. Since Solar Resource was built, its once state-of-the-art electro-mechanical control has been superseded by electronically controlled, more streamlined solar vehicles.
  • Petroleum has been an ideal fuel for motor transport. It is easy to pump into a car and has high energy density (a relatively small amount contains a lot of energy). However, it also pollutes the atmosphere and contributes to the greenhouse effect. Additionally, supplies of crude oil are running out. The 1974 oil crisis was the first indication that the continued use of oil as a cheap source of energy was ultimately unsustainable. The following year petrol prices doubled in Australia, and in 1976 the Australian Government introduced an antipollution engine-design rule. From the early 1980s a range of more energy-efficient less polluting cars began to appear on the market.
  • During the 1980s scientists carried out much research into alternative sustainable-energy sources such as solar power. The 1987 Pentax World Solar Challenge was part of that movement. It had 24 entries from seven countries, including 10 entries from Australia. Of the 24 starters, 11 finished the race. The winner was the General Motors entrant, Sunraycer, built in the USA.
Topics Cars Solar energy

Other details

Contributors
  • Author
  • Person: Ian Landon Smith
  • Description: Author
  • Contributor
  • Name: Powerhouse Museum
  • Organization: Powerhouse Museum
  • Description: Content provider
  • Address: NSW, AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/
  • Person: Ian Landon Smith
  • Description: Author
  • Publisher
  • Name: Powerhouse Museum
  • Organization: Powerhouse Museum
  • Description: Publisher
  • Address: NSW, AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/
  • Resource metadata contributed by
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organisation: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Address: AUSTRALIA
  • URL: www.esa.edu.au
Access profile
  • Generic
Learning Resource Type
  • Image
Rights
  • © Curriculum Corporation and Trustees of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences 2009 (except where otherwise indicated). You may view, display, print out, copy and modify this material for non-commercial educational purposes provided you retain all acknowledgements associated with the material.