Solar car nears readiness

CSULB students prepare Solar Wave for race

After about two years of preparation, Cal State Long Beach's Solar Wave car is expected to be operational by the end of this month, said mechanical engineering student Tim Burns, who has worked on the project for about 1 1/2 years.

"We're done with the frame; the car's wired up, and we're just doing some minor tweaking now," Burns said. "The Solar Wave should be rolling by Friday."

The car was almost ready in April, when it was showcased during Kaleidoscope's Earth Day weekend of events, Burns said. "We just needed to make some minor modifications," he explained. "At the latest, the car should be ready by the end of the month."

Burns and about 20 other CSULB students are rushing to complete the Solar Wave in time for the week-long Sunrays 1995 race this summer, June 20-29, from Indiana to Colorado. The Solar Wave will be the only car designed by a university in the race.

All the cars in the race will be at least partially solar powered, so they will only race during daylight hours, Burns said.

The Solar Wave is powered both with solar and battery cells.

"The solar cells charge the batteries that drive the car," Burns explained.

Built from the ground up from scratch, the Solar Wave was designed to average between 45 and 50 mph, and should top at 60 mph, Burns said.

"During the race, the cars will probably race for about five hours a day and then charge for a few hours," Burns explained. "A telemetry device will tell us how far the car can go in a day."

Other CSULB students involved in the Solar Wave project are from the business and art departments, as well as the electrical, mechanical and computer engineering programs.

"It's really a schoolwide project," Barns said. "We work pretty closely together in our core group of about 15 students. We're very excited about the race but it's been very stressful these past few weeks, trying to get the car rolling."

The total cost of the Solar Wave project was estimated at $65,000 to $70,000 by mechanical engineering Professor Reza Toossi, an adviser to the project.

Electric-powered cars are increasing as the state's 1988 deadline for auto makers to include the production of zero-emission cars nears.

About $250 million has been invested in electric-powered vehicle start-up companies, creating more than 1,200 high-tech jobs, Southern California Edison reported in March.

Edison predicts that an expected increase of vehicles charging their batteries overnight will eventually result in an estimated $12- a-year savings for its average customer. However, customers will have to pitch in for development costs, which Edison estimates will initially only be "pennies" a month.

"That's a pretty small toll to pay to get on the road to a brighter future," Edison officials stated.

Virginia McCrum contributed to this story