MIT's Eleanor: A Solar Powered Racer
It doesn’t look like like something you’d see in a car dealership showroom, or even something that would be stable enough to drive over the most modest pothole, but the solar-powered Eleanor can hit 90 mph, has enough battery power to make it from New York to Boston without the sun to recharge it, and it could be the future of the automobile industry.
Eleanor was developed by MIT’s Solar Electric Vehicle Team, a group that has been at the university since 1987. In that time, they’ve built ten different solar-powered vehicles and have participated in the World Solar Challenge, a grueling 2,000-mile race across the Australian Outback.
All power for the vehicle come from the 64.5 square feet of solar panels across its top, which is stored in 71-pound battery. The solar panels produce about enough electricity to power a hair dryer, but that is more than enough for Eleanor, which is driven by a 10-horsepower electric motor mated to the single rear wheel.
At first glance, Eleanor seems to be an interesting vehicle, but not of much practical use. After all, its one thing to drive a solar vehicle under the blazing sun of the Australian Outback, but it doesn’t seem all that practical for the real world. Well, Eleanor could represent the next step in electric vehicles, and it wouldn’t be the first solar car to do so.
In 1987, during the first-ever World Solar Challenge race, a car called the Sunraycer, developed in part by General Motors, finished the 2,000-mile race three days before the rest of the competition, and it crossed the finish line with fully charged batteries and attained speeds of 45 mph. Much of the technology that went into the construction of the Sunraycer has evolved into what is now the Chevrolet Volt.
Eleanor weighs in at a little below 500 pounds and most of that is in the suspension and drive mechanisms. The entire top portion of the body, including the canopy and all the solar panels weighs a mere 40 pounds.
Regarding that speed figure of 90 mph, Eleanor hasn’t actually been that fast yet, but designers of the car say it is capable of it. The reason that Eleanor hasn’t been driven that fast is actually more a reflection on the drivers than the vehicle. In order to maintain its light weight, Eleanor is for the most part hollow with the body being its current size in order to promote better aerodynamics. Designers of the vehicle say that when the vehicle starts going really fast, it tends to resonate, causing a deep rumble inside the cockpit, and that rumble tends to unnerve drivers.
This year’s World Solar Challenge Race takes place at the end of October and MIT will be refining Eleanor until then. If the vehicle proves successful, it will likely influence future generations of alternative energy vehicles.
