Members of the Solar Pack team celebrate in front of a solar tree on Centennial Campus. The Solar Pack team worked to create a solar powered car to combat widespread pollution." />
Contributed by Bryon Spells
Members of the Solar Pack team celebrate in front of a solar tree on Centennial Campus. The Solar Pack team worked to create a solar powered car to combat widespread pollution.
As a child, Bryon Spells, the founder of SolarPack, drew unfinished sketches of cars that he thought might one day solve the problem of pollution, which he saw as the world’s largest issue. Now, over 10 years later, he is working with a team of students at NC State on building a solar-powered car to race about 1,800 miles across Australia.
Spells, a junior studying mechanical engineering, founded SolarPack, a student organization and a nonprofit, last November. The group plans to have a solar-powered car built this year in time to race in the World Solar Challenge in October. Though SolarPack members are building a car for the race, the group also aspires to build a practical, street-legal, solar-powered car one day.
“I started SolarPack to contribute to a better future by improving the environmental condition,” Spells said. “And I started it as a student group because there are a lot of university resources that can help us achieve that goal.”
The group also decided to begin entering competitions as a way to prototype a solar-powered car in a specific and practical environment. This year, SolarPack plans on entering the World Solar Challenge in the Cruiser Class, which requires that all vehicles entered have four wheels and be able to fit at least a driver and one passenger.
“Our long term goal is to be able to build a car for commercial use, so the development is not just for us, it’s to help out the community,” Weronika Nowak said, a sophomore studying electrical and computer engineering.
Spells said that his team has designs for a four-passenger car that will weigh no more than 880 pounds and will accelerate from zero to 60 mph in about eight seconds. The group also set a goal of 75 mph as the maximum speed for the car.
“All student organizations have good intentions and want to make a difference, but I think that SolarPack is one that thinks on a large scale and has big ambitions,” Spells said. “Building a solar car, or any car, is not an easy task and I think it’s incredible that a group of students is taking on that challenge.”
According to Nowak, who joined SolarPack in January, the group has a range of diverse talents and skills. Members range from freshmen to PhD students and the organization as a whole splits itself into four teams to allow each student the opportunity to use his or her skills in the most efficient and effective way possible.
Though SolarPack focuses heavily on engineering, with three different teams dedicated to different parts of the vehicle, the group also has a business team with the goal of acquiring corporate sponsorships or donations of materials that can be used to build the car.
“It’s difficult to get businesses to take a chance on something that right now is only an idea,” Nowak said. “Building the car is a huge deal in and of itself, but on top of that we have to figure out how exactly to get that done which is also challenging.”
While the business team focuses on gaining funds and materials for the car and then distributing them to the engineering teams, the engineering teams focus on designing, testing and building the vehicle itself. The three engineering teams include the “Electrical Team,” the “Power Train Team” and the “Chassis Team.”
The Electrical Team is responsible for the solar array, battery and control area network that helps power all electronics and allows the circuitry to communicate with each other. The Power Train Team focuses on the motor and anything else that transmits power. Meanwhile, the Chassis Team works on the structure of the vehicle by making sure that it is safe and will support all of the weight. Moreover, it ensures that it can withstand certain amounts of force, that it is aerodynamic and that it has proper suspension so the driver can effectively maneuver turns and drive over bumps.
Though each team has students skilled in particular areas, assuring that all of the parts will come together and create a working and practical vehicle is still a difficult task.
“Students take engineering classes and understand how these things work, but you’re not taught how to build a car so we do a lot of researching, reading and learning,” Nowak said.
The group also has an adviser, NC State Professor Ewan Pritchard, who Spells said is an “integral part to the team.” Pritchard has a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and is the associate director for the FREEDM Systems Center as well as the Advanced Transportation Energy Center (ATEC), which both focus on researching and developing ways to overcome obstacles in electric car usage.
“He helps us stay progressive as a team and healthy as team members,” Spells said. “He has seen team dynamics fail before so he keeps our heads on straight, and we appreciate his time and knowledge.”
Though SolarPack does have specialized teams that allow students to employ their own strengths and skills, Spells said that it is important, although difficult, to keep all members motivated and make everyone feel like an integral part of the team.
“We’ve been fortunate enough to have a very diverse team, but sometimes freshmen can feel like they don’t know anything when they are working with graduate and Ph.D. students,” Spells said, “so helping them realize that it’s all just fundamental principles you have to learn how to apply and guiding them to show them that they can do it, is definitely important.”
Though SolarPack is a relatively new club at NC State, the group has big ambitions and is on track to begin building its first solar-powered vehicle in April according to Nowak. The final obstacle that the club has to overcome before competing in the World Solar Challenge is raising funds.
“There are a lot of people excited about it, but being a new team, we don’t have a broad reach and we’re trying to amplify that reach and so we can take one giant step closer to building a practical solar vehicle for society,” Spells said.
So far, SolarPack has raised about $4,000 from university funding and its Generosity Campaign. The team is also pursuing research grants and making connections with corporations.
“We are trying to form relationships with corporations and obtain some materials that would reduce our costs by showing that the corporations can get something out of this partnership too — by finding an application for their product and empowering students to do something great,” Spells said.
With seven months left until the World Solar Challenge, SolarPack still has many more hours of research, fundraising, testing, designing and building to do, but with the drive to make a difference in society, the members remain dedicated to their goal and positive about the future of solar energy as a whole.
“Solar energy is all around, so it’s very viable,” Spells said. “Solar cars as a good way to utilize our time and resources in an efficient way and, as long as we keep pushing the envelope and innovating, solar is the future.”