DALLAS — The sun is creating punishing temperatures across Texas, but it’s also helping to fuel the state’s power grid -- and even cars.
A group of North Texas high school students is two days into a cross-country solar car race and is already making history.
The Greenville High School Iron Lions are piloting a solar car named Invictus that left the Texas Motor Speedway and is headed 1,400 miles to Palmdale, California. The car itself will log about 930 miles.
The car is the result of a 4-year-old design and building process.
“My first ever meeting for solar car, we actually laid the carbon fiber of our car down,” team captain Anika Escobar said. “Slowly and slowly, you start seeing all the pieces come together. We put all our mechanical aspects in, our electrical aspects in.”
Anika Escobar just graduated in May but has been driving some of the segments during the team race.
“It was an amazing feeling knowing that something that you started off doing your sophomore year, now it’s driving high speeds,” she said.
Their team hit another gear yesterday. With Escobar driving, the team hit 72 miles per hour, a record speed in high school, according to the Solar Car Challenge Competition.
“Normally you’re driving between 30 and 35,” faculty advisor Joel Pitts said.
Pitts said there have been huge improvements in solar tech in the decade they’ve had a team.
“Electric mobility and solar has jumped leaps and bounds in the last 10 years,” he said. “The students built their own solar panels from scratch for this car.”
On Monday, the team had a setback and needed repairs which slowed them down after a record-setting day Sunday.
The more than 20 teams competing are allowed to drive from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. When the time stops for the day, the car is put on a trailer and taken to a checkpoint at night. The team that has the most miles driven at the end of the week wins.
The $100,000 car is extremely light and low to the ground but passes a rigorous safety inspection before starting.
“You have to be focused and straight on the steering wheel because anything could happen because, you know, it’s a solar car that high school students built,” Escobar said.
Half the team isn’t old enough to drive. Pitts said just getting to this point was a goal, but regardless of the outcome this week, they have dreams of competing in the World Solar Challenge in Australia in 2025.
“They’ve done a fantastic job with it,” Pitt said.
“I love our team and I love our teamwork,” Escobar said.
(WFAA)