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CNN Sunday Morning

Winston Solar Challenge Turning Popular

Aired July 15, 2001 - 09:33   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: In Austin, Texas today, our Dr. Lehman Marks, the founder of the Winston Solar Challenge, and solar car racer from past year, Jason Henderickson, and he is a judge this year.

Listen, you two, thank you for joining us this morning.

MARKS: It's good to be here, thank you.

JASON HENDERICKSON, WINSTON SOLAR CHALLENGE: Howdy.

NELSON: This looks like it is going to be an exciting week for you both. Let's start with you, Dr. Marks. This test of these solar cars; why don't you go ahead and explain this program for us a bit so the people back home can understand.

MARKS: A number of years ago, really back in 1993, we decided to try to start a program to really motivate kids in the sciences, to try to turn them on, as well as teach other things, like life skills, like dedication. And with our tag teaming this year with Green Mountain Energy and with the other good folks that are working with us and the belief of our own school, Winston School, we've been able to develop a program that teaches kids how to build these solar cars, and then we offer opportunities for the world to see them.

The neat thing about this is it's just not science technology, which I love as an old science teacher, but you're really teaching these kids commitment, dedication, and how to stick with something.

NELSON: All right. Jason, you took part in a race last year, I think. How did you enjoy it and what did you get out of it?

HENDERICKSON: Well, all the Winston Solar Challenges, this will be my fourth, are so much fun. Just being able to work with all the other teams in hosting the race and just to be able to provide them an opportunity to race and just each them. And it's amazing to see what each team does for the other team. It's just such a learning experience, it's wonderful.

NELSON: Dr. Marks, let's get into some of the mechanics here. I'm looking behind you on the screen. It looks to me like a cloudy day. How does a solar car perform in clouds and what do you do to offset that?

MARKS: Well, actually, you only use about 30 percent of the energy with the cloud cover, and we know this. When our own team went across Australia, '99, that 2000 mile race across the outback, three of those days were totally cloud covered. Yes, we were only traveling 5 to 10 miles an hour and going through the outback at that speed, it's not pretty, Brian, but it was a great experience for the kids.

I was actually able to jump out of the chase car, run up faster than the solar car, get a picture and get back in.

NELSON: Must be painful. Now, what goes into making a good car?

MARKS: Two years. Two years of a kids life. They've got to raise the money. They develop a design. They build the car, they test the car, and then they raise the money to be able to go race it.

NELSON: And, scientifically, what goes into making a good car?

MARKS: Well, it is an incredible amount of technology these days. One, finding the right solar cell that you can do your job with as well as afford, the kind of new motors that are coming out, power trackers that allow you to make the best use of the energy, and then to find that right sponsor to be able to make it all fit together.

We've been very fortunate in this race to find some really great folks with Green Mountain, with Dell, with Winston, with Aclovis (ph), to sort of provide the way so that these students get a chance to show off what they're doing. It wouldn't be any good if you couldn't see the race.

NELSON: Jason, I understand, when you raced, there are some tough choices that have to be made in the design of a car, right? Because you're building this right from scratch. Everybody has to make some tough choices about where to put the solar cells and how much weight, what the design of the car is. Tell me something about that.

HENDERICKSON: Well, with our car, we had spent quite a lot time designing and building our new car and we used a CAD program, a computer assisted design program, to make a wire frame so we could make sure that our car was structurally sound. And we used aluminum to make it light. Our car was only about 500 pounds with the batteries and the cells on it.

You have to choose what kind of batteries your going to use so that you can get the most power for the least weight, because weight is a big issue in solar car racing. The lighter your car is, the faster it will go. And the solar arrays, just placing them flat or up or sideways, all the different things you can do with solar cells.

NELSON: I have a note here that a typical car generates 7 - 1,500 watts of power, that's about one to two horsepower.

MARKS: That's right. That's about enough to run a small hairdryer, so you don't have very much to work with here. But you've got to realize that a 500 pound car, that's a world class car, and so you're having to deal with rolling resistance and the aerodynamics of it so that just a breeze will be able to make it go down the road. NELSON: Now, Dr. Marks, a lot of people are going to be thinking that maybe this is technology that we're going to see on the streets of America and around the world. How close are we and is it going to be a totally solar car when we get there?

MARKS: No, I'm sorry to say, there is just not enough ambient light in the United States to make that possible. But...

NELSON: Is that because there is too much smog, or is it...

MARKS: That, but it's just where we are within the longitude, latitude area of the U.S.

NELSON: Yeah.

MARKS: The problem is that without that kind of light, you're going to have to see it as a conjunction, a hybrid with something else, such as solar cells with batteries, solar cells with gasoline, solar cells with something else. But, maybe more important than anything else, we're teaching kids, as well as the people who see this event, to be environmentally conscious. That's one of the reasons why our tie in with Green Mountain is so good, because they are environmentally conscious people. All their energy comes in from alternative source, wind, solar, biomass, that kind of thing.

This is what we're trying to say: be aware, but show good kids doing great stuff.

NELSON: All right. Thank you very much, both of you, for joining us. The Winston Solar Challenge. We've been talking to Jason Henderickson, that's the young driver from past, now a judge this year, and Dr. Lehman Marks, the founder of the program. Thanks very much for being with us.

MARKS: Thank you.

HENDERICKSON: Thank you.

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