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The Victorian Model Solar Vehicle Challenge is a competition held annually at Scienceworks in Melbourne, Australia. The challenge gives school age children a chance to design and build a car or boat, and more recently a Mars Rover, that operates solely on solar power. It is run by MSV, a voluntary organisation created to administer the challenge.
A solar car challenge for schools' was first thought of in 1987 during the first World Solar Challenge. Everyone who attended—car makers, staff and students from universities and secondary schools—believed it to be a great experience. Two individuals, Paul Wellington (teacher at Chisholm Institute of Technology, part of Monash University), and Ted Mellor (Warragul Technical School), felt that such an opportunity should be accessible to a broader spectrum of students, because at the time, the high cost of making a life-size solar car meant that only well-funded schools could afford it. Thus, it was decided that a competition for model solar cars would be created; model cars being much cheaper and less time-consuming to make than life-size cars, but still requiring the same amount of thought and skill. Paul and Ted assembled a team of science and technology teachers, curriculum developers, sponsors, representatives and former World Solar Challenge team members (today known as MSV), and with the financial support of Energy Victoria, they established a Model Solar Car Challenge in Victoria. The first race was run in May 1990, at the Exhibition Buildings in Melbourne.
The Sponsors of the event past and present are:
The World Solar Challenge (WSC), since 2013 named Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, is an international event for solar powered cars driving 3000 kilometres through the Australian outback.
St Kevin's College is a private Catholic primary and secondary school for boys located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The college has five campuses, three of which are in the suburb of Toorak, the fourth in Richmond, and the fifth being a sport campus located behind Stockland Tooronga. The school owned a campsite 'Silver Creek' in the town of Flowerdale which was completely destroyed by the Black Saturday bushfires.
Nuna is the name of a series of crewed solar powered race cars that have won the World Solar Challenge in Australia seven times: in 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2013, 2015 and 2017. The vehicles are built by students who are part of the "Brunel Solar Team" at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, sponsored by Brunel.
The American Solar Challenge (ASC), previously known as the North American Solar Challenge and Sunrayce, is a solar car race across the United States. In the race, teams from colleges and universities throughout North America design, build, test, and race solar-powered vehicles in a long distance road rally-style event. ASC is a test of teamwork, engineering skill, and endurance that stretches across thousands of miles of public roads.
The Geelong College is an Australian independent and co-educational, Christian day and boarding school located in Newtown, an inner-western suburb of Geelong, Victoria.
Melbourne Polytechnic, formerly NMIT, is an institute of higher education and vocational education (TAFE) located in Melbourne, Australia that has been operating since around 1910.
Damascus College is Ballarat’s only Catholic co-educational secondary college. It was established in 1995 after three separate Catholic colleges, St Martin's in the Pines, Sacred Heart College and St Paul's College amalgamated. The college is located on a treed 20 hectare campus in Mount Clear, 7 km from Ballarat's central business district. Damascus College is a day school for secondary students in years 7 to 12.
Durham University Solar Car, formerly Durham University Electric Motorsport, is a student-run team in the United Kingdom that designs and constructs solar powered cars to compete in international competitions. It is the longest running solar car team in the UK and is financed entirely by third party donations and sponsorship.
Loreto Mandeville Hall Toorak is an independent Roman Catholic single-sex primary and secondary day school for girls, located in Toorak, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is one of many Loreto schools around the world, established by the Loreto Sisters founded some 400 years ago by Mary Ward.
The Solar Car Challenge is an annual solar-powered car race for high school students. The event attracts teams from around the world, but mostly from American high schools. The race was first held in 1995. Each event is the end product of a two-year education cycle launched by the Winston Solar Car Team. On odd-numbered years, the race is a road course that starts at the Texas Motor Speedway, Fort Worth, Texas; the end of the course varies from year to year. On even-numbered years, the race is a track race around the Texas Motor Speedway. Dell sponsored the event from 2002-2008. Hunt Oil Company sponsored the 2010 race.
The Sasol Solar Challenge is a South African endurance challenge for solar-powered vehicles, with classes for hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles, and biofuel-powered vehicles as well. Recognised by the International Solarcar Federation, the first challenge was run in 2008, and every two years thereafter. The event covers roughly 2,500 km, but has set loops for teams to repeat, with the potential to do 5,000 km. The current record, held by Dutch team Nuon, is 4,716 km, set in 2016 in their car Nuna. The challenge route may change from year to year. In 2022, it ran from Carnival City near Johannesburg to Cape Town over the course of 8 days. The challenge has both local South African teams from both high schools and universities participate, as well as some top-ranking international teams from Japan (Tokai), Belgium and the Netherlands.
Sacred Heart Girls' College (SHGC) is an independent Roman Catholic secondary school for girls from years 7 to 12 located in the Melbourne south-eastern suburb of Oakleigh, in Victoria, Australia. It was opened in 1957 by the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions (RNDM). The College houses approximately 1000 students.
A solar car is a solar vehicle for use on public roads or race tracks. Solar vehicles are electric vehicles that use self-contained solar cells to provide full or partial power to the vehicle via sunlight. Solar vehicles typically contain a rechargeable battery to help regulate and store the energy from the solar cells and from regenerative braking. Some solar cars can be plugged into external power sources to supplement the power of sunlight used to charge their battery.
Solar car racing refers to competitive races of electric vehicles which are powered by solar energy obtained from solar panels on the surface of the car. The first solar car race was the Tour de Sol in 1985 which led to several similar races in Europe, US and Australia. Such challenges are often entered by universities to develop their students' engineering and technological skills, but many business corporations have entered competitions in the past. A small number of high school teams participate in solar car races designed exclusively for high school students.
Education in Victoria, Australia is supervised by the Department of Education and Training (DET), which is part of the State Government and whose role is to "provide policy and planning advice for the delivery of education". It acts as advisor to two state ministers, that for Education and for Children and Early Childhood Development.
The Midnight Sun Solar Rayce Car Team is a Canadian solar car race team affiliated with the University of Waterloo of Waterloo, Ontario. Founded in 1988, the Midnight Sun team is a student-run organization which designs and builds a solar vehicle every two to three years to compete in two solar challenges; the World Solar Challenge, held in Australia, and the American Solar Challenge, held in the United States.
Nossal High School, also referred to as Nossal or NHS, is a government-funded mixed-sex academically selective secondary day school, located in the Melbourne suburb of Berwick, Victoria, Australia. The school was established in 2010 and caters for students in Year 9 to Year 12.
The Fraser Coast Technology Challenge is an annual youth and technology event held in Maryborough, Queensland, Australia. The Royal Automobile Club of Queensland has been a committed supporter of this event. The Fraser Coast Technology Challenge aims to help develop efficient, environmentally friendly, vehicles as forms of transport, as well as using emerging technologies in ways to help further students education. Schools from across Australia and New Zealand enter teams in the challenge. 2012 was the 10 year anniversary of the first running of the event.
Stella and its successors Stella Lux, Stella Vie and Stella Era are a series of solar racing family cars, built for the World Solar Challenge in Australia, sofar winning its Cruiser Class all four times it was held – in 2013, 2015, 2017 and in 2019. Stella is considered the world’s first solar-powered family car and was given the 'Best Technology Development' Award at the 8th annual Crunchies in San Francisco in 2015. Being the only competing vehicle with a license plate, the road registration of Stella contributed to the winning score in the races. The vehicles are designed and built by "Solar Team Eindhoven" (STE) — some 26 students of different faculties of the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in the Netherlands. The group have set up a non-profit foundation to promote their concepts for practical solar vehicles for adoption on a broader scale.
Junior Solar Sprint (JSS) is a competitive program for 5th- to 8th-grade students to create a small solar-powered vehicle. JSS competitions are sponsored by the Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP), and administered by the Technology Student Association (TSA). Objectives of JSS are to create the fastest, most interesting, or best crafted vehicle. Skills in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are fostered when designing and constructing the vehicles, as well as principles of alternative fuels, engineering design, and aerodynamics.
