Automakers look to U-M solar car team for innovations, green ideas
By DAVID JESSE FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER
Once an engineering novelty, the University of Michigan champion solar car that raced across the Australian Outback last week has become its own serious arm of research for an auto industry looking for any way to become greener.
U-M placed third Thursday in the World Solar Challenge, the first American car to finish. A team from Japan won.
The Detroit Three have partnered with the student team, offering manufactured parts, access to testing grounds and advice. In return, the companies get to see the technical systems on the million-dollar U-M car, named Quantum, and access the collective engineering brainpower of 100 young minds trained on a singular purpose.
One student developed an iPhone app that gauges the car’s speed. The industry is particularly interested in battery life and implications of solar recharging. A large question remains about the role of the nation’s electric power grids, in need of rebuilding, and whether solar energy might one day provide reliable power for cars.
“The team works closely with industry in Detroit and with the university. The technologies in the car are things we expect to see on the road in the next decade, such as a super-lightweight carbon-fiber body, a high-performance battery, and a motor that’s 98% efficient,” said Chris Hilger, a senior from Northville and the team’s business director.
MARCIN SZCZEPANSKI/University of Michigan School of Engineering
After five days on the road, the University of Michigan solar car team celebrates a third-place finish in the World Solar Challenge in Australia.
U-M solar car team’s ideas on roads
100 young minds captivate industry
By DAVID JESSE FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER
Blocked on the road in the heart of the Australian Outback by out-of-control brush fires, the solar car team from the University of Michigan didn’t panic.
They tilted the deck of their car to a perfect angle to soak in as many rays as possible in hopes of fully charging the batteries before getting the go-ahead to continue the World Solar Challenge race.
They waited along with two other teams — one from Japan and one from Netherlands — that had broken away from the pack. The trio set up camps along the roadside to wait and charge batteries on the cars, each worth $1 million or more.
It’s not likely Woodward Avenue will soon see a similar scene of solar cars soaking in the sun, but the collective creativity of the 100 young minds that make up the U-M solar car team is closely watched by auto companies and also is turning up in cars that mainstream consumers currently drive.
Battery life, aerodynamics, and even an iPhone app that gauges telemetry and speed, all are coming under happy scrutiny by the auto industry.
“It’s considered for us a huge input that allows us to advance our project strategy and electrification strategy,” Mark Fields, Ford executive vice president and president of the Americas, said in a video interview on the solar car team’s website.
It’s all part of the big push by auto companies to turn out better electric cars aided by green-friendly energy sources, students on the team, auto company executives and outside observers told the Free Press.
Several companies — Ford, General Motors and Chrysler — are among the team’s sponsors.
The companies have provided the U-M student team with manufactured parts and also let the students use testing grounds to make sure everything is working. The arrangements allow the companies to be the first to see the latest ideas.
A solar car works by gathering the energy from the sun through silicon solar cells and then storing it in lithium ion batteries that power the electric car.
That’s much the same technology that U-M Professor Brian Gilchrist has in his Chevy Volt, with one difference — his Volt gets power from a plug that draws electricity from power plants likely fueled by coal, nuclear energy or natural gas. Quantum, U-M’s solar car, gets it from the sun.
The auto companies and the solar car team are looking for the best possible batteries. They want the most energy-efficient drivetrain. They scavenge for energy anywhere they can.
“It’s not just those areas,” said Gilchrist, who teaches in the electric engineering and computer science department and has advised the solar car team. “It’s things like aerodynamics. That’s very important. It’s also how to minimize the load of the HVAC (heating and cooling), system.”
Heating and cooling can be a big drag on a car’s energy requirements. Figuring out how to do that more efficiently helps save energy that can be used to make the car go faster or longer in between plug-ins.
Gilchrist and others agree mass production of a solar car is a ways down the road. The complete technology is still expensive. Quantum cost more than $1 million to construct.
But he can see a day coming when a small solar panel might be mounted somewhere on a car to complement some other form of energy. For example, a small solar cell could run the HVAC system, he said.
The auto companies are also picking up on other technology the solar car team is developing.
A U-M student developed an iPhone app that monitored the telemetry of the car and allowed them to set the speed of the car, said Chris Hilger, a 22-year-old senior from Northville and the business director for the team. That’s helpful in making improvements to the technology down the road, he said.
“This is the ultimate electric vehicle, on the leading edge of where the auto industry is going,” he said.
The app is one example of the innovation coming out of the team, said David Cole, the chairman emeritus of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor.
“This is just a tremendous group of students. Everyone tried to hire them. They are going to be the ones who are really going to lead the innovation in the coming years.”
Photos by MARCIN SZCZEPANSKI/University of Michigan College of Engineering
University of Michigan students charge the batteries of their solar car, Quantum, last week on the third day of the World Solar Challenge in Australia. The race had been interrupted by brush fires in the middle of the Outback. The U-M team used the time to let Quantum’s batteries soak up rays.
U-M’s head strategist San-tosh Kumar gets soaked with champagne during the celebrations at the finish line at Victoria Square in Adelaide.
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