Sunbeam Rider
We want to produce low-cost solar power for homes. Low cost means we aim to cut photo-voltaic installation cost from $20,000 to $5,000. Our first product is a 72 volt electric car powered solely by the sun.
Team Concept
The cost of a pure silicon-based solar panel is about $60 per square foot. To make a house work on solar energy it would cost about $20,000. Most households are not ready to pay this quantity in order to go solar. We would like to develop a solar array that will cost $5,000 but produce as much electricity as the more expensive panels.
We would do this by cutting out 9/10ths of the panels and replacing them with flat mirrors whose orientation to the sun would be controlled by motors.
By using the mirrors, we are focusing the sun on the panel throughout the day. Our team has settled on building and marketing a low-cost solar cell system for generating electricity.
Our plan is to use long panels of flat mirrors. The orientation of each mirror to the sun will be changed to its best setting by use of a motor.
The basic arrangement for our array is as follows: A single solar panel will be placed at one end of the roof of the garage that houses our electric car. There will be flat glass mirror to focus sunlight onto the solar panel.
A light sensor will tell the microprocessor how much to move the mirror to shine sunlight on the solar panel.
Team Description
The members of our team are part of a program at our school, the Latino College Preparatory Academy, that is called Extreme Science. Extreme Science is open to students from all grades at the high school. So our team is made up of freshmen as well as seniors. In Extreme Science, we spend six weeks at a time working in a particular area of science or engineering. Right now, one group is building robots, another rockets. Another is learning to fly. Another is doing chemistry. We are working on solar energy. While we want to build and market a low cost solar array to meet home electrical needs, we are starting by building a combination of solar panels on an electric car and a low-cost solar array for the garage of the car. Between the two sets of solar panels, we hope to be able to completely charge the car with solar power alone. Our goal is to never have to plug the car into the regular power grid.
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