The Michigan Times

Issue date: 11/9/09 Section: Local News

Media Credit: Submitted Photo The Infinium is the University of Michigan solar team's newest solar powered car. The car competed against dozens of other solar powered cars in Australia's World Solar Challenge, a 1,800 mile race, in which it placed third. It weighs less than 400 pounds. The car on the forefront of solar technology, boasting a 98 percent efficiency rating. [Click to enlarge]

With many already believing that Michigan’s automobile industry is dying, UM-Ann Arbor’s solar car team is proving that the state is still at the forefront of innovation in the automobile industry. This is no surprise to Steve Durbin, a senior aerospace engineer at UM-Ann Arbor and a member of the solar car team.

“Our cars often have improved technologies that big automakers pick up five or six years later,” said Durbin.

“We’ve been using Lithium batteries for 10 years,” said Michigan Team Manager Steven Hecthman. “But they are only now about to be used in production vehicles.”

With more and more people switching to clean energy and President Obama pushing a new solar energy initiative, the team’s already impressive list of accomplishments can only grow longer.

The team has won five of the nine North American Solar Challenge (NASC) races since 1990. The NASC is a race that pits different solar powered cars from the United States and Canada against one another in several timed trials. The race typically starts in the southern U.S. and ends in northern Canada.

The NASC takes place every other year, alternating with the World Solar Challenge, the most recent of which ended last Wednesday.

The WSC takes place in Australia. It starts in northern Australia’s Darwin and ends in Adelaide in the south – a 1,800 mile race. The bi-annual race, which was founded by the Danish-born adventurer Hans Tholstrup, is aimed at promoting solar powered cars and using competition to shorten the road to a world with clean energy.

Tokai University of Japan’s Tokai Challenger took first place, but UM-Ann Arbor’s solar team placed third, the highest they’ve ever placed, with their newest solar car, the Infinium.

The Infinium is five times more aerodynamic than a Corvette, and weighs only 400 pounds. The batteries have the ability to carry the car 300 miles in the dark, and the gallium arsenide solar panels that convert the sun’s rays into energy are strong enough to recharge the car even while it is being driven. A specially designed, cutting-edge electric motor encased in one of the car’s three wheels peaks at 98 percent efficiency. And all for only $1 million dollars – millions less than a major automaker would have spent.

Most impressively, the team is entirely student run.

“It’s sort of a republic,” said Durbin. “We vote to elect team leaders who make big decisions and put together the general timeline, but we all have a say in the design and technological aspects of it.”

As many as 200 students volunteer every year to design, build, and race the solar car, and students even handle the business and logistics involved in the operation. Those volunteers come from a University-wide range of disciplines, including the College of Engineering, the Stephen M. Ross School of Business and the College of Literature, Science and the Arts.

The future looks bright for this team, whose mission statement is “to be the best solar-car team in the world, leading in performance and innovation.” And, while they may not have won on a worldwide scale yet, with their innovation and advanced technology catching the attention of big automakers, the press, and even some movie-makers, UM-Ann Arbor’s solar team is on its way.

Jordan can be reached at jordanbe@umflint.edu.

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