Target Grade Levels: Students in Grades 7-12

How to Participate as an Interactive Videoconference Site: In order to be an interactive videoconference site for this event, your site must have H.323 videoconferencing capabilities. Your site must also be connected to your national high speed research and education network (i.e. Internet2 in the United States).

Description:

Methacton High school has an electric car and has recently built a solar photovoltaic solar cell array to charge the car. This program will show how battery electric vehicles work, how solar cells produce electricity and the practicality of using renewable energy to charge an electic vehicle - from both student and teacher perspectives.

The car itself has a fiberglass frame, three wheels and runs on 17, 12-volt lead, acid-gel batteries. The car, with the batteries, weighs 2150 pounds. The three wheels make it lighter, producing less friction, which demands less energy. The Lorax has a three phase AC induction motor. The Solectria controller takes the 204 volts from the batteries and converts them to a three phase AC pulse to make the motor run. It has 700ft/lbs. of torque at the drive wheel. The car has been driven at speeds of up to 80 mph. The first part of the presentation will focus on its design and performance.

Our latest project, which was completed in April of this year by the students, installed a 1000 watt solar photovoltaic array on the roof of the garage where the electric car is stored. The goal is be to make "The Lorax" (the name of the electric car) totally renewable by collecting more energy from the sun than the energy needed to charge the car. Any additional energy collected from the solar photovoltaic cells will be used for the electrical needs of the garage with the surplus then being fed back to the school. We have collected over 60 KwH of energy since its installation on April 12 th.

The Lorax has achieved success in competition, by achieving first and second place wins at the “Tour de Sol”, a national competition, in the battery electric division. The Lorax has been featured on local news stations, The History Channel, and "Cool Fuel", a series which aired on the Discovery Channel. This year we will be competing in the 21st Century Automotive Challenge in June in New Jersey.

This is an 'open forum' videoconference event - - students and teachers are encouraged to ask questions throughout!

For more  information and resources, see the program website at http://www.magpi.net/programs/lorax.html