Teacher-Student Team Builds First Solar Car in Arab Region

Apollo's Chariot

A team of fourth-year engineering students and their professor have successfully built the first solar-powered vehicle in the Arab region. Named Apollo's Chariot-in reference to the Greek god of the sun-the steel and fiberglass one-seater vehicle measures five and a half meters in length and two meters in width. It weighs about 700 kilograms, or almost half the weight of an average sedan.

Led by Mechanical Engineering Assistant Professor Daniel Asmar, the student team of Elie Maalouf, Amin Kanafani, Ahmed Hammoud, and Rawad el-Jurdi took about seven months of work to build the "Chariot."

With its aerodynamic design, the futuristic-looking vehicle glides through the air quietly. During a demo on campus, Maalouf effortlessly maneuvered the car-forward, backwards, along a curb, then up a small hill.

Noise and air pollution do not figure in the dictionary of Apollo's Chariot. "It looks like a rocket, but moves like a swan," said Amin incredulously. "We actually built a car that runs on a new kind of energy. It's almost like magic!"

But Professor Asmar admits that solar-powered vehicles are still years from becoming commercially available. Right now, building one that can be safely driven on the streets would cost more than a million dollars. Apollo's Chariot cost about $25,000, a sum that was raised through several local and foreign sponsors: Power Tech, a Lebanese company; Voluntariato Internazionale per lo Sviluppo, an Italian association; Italian Cooperation, a department within the Italian Foreign Ministry; Byblos Bank; Carrosserie Abillamaa, a Lebanese company; Oelle, an Italian manufacturer; Bank of Beirut and Arab Countries; Bridgestone Tires; and the AUB Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Through a number of photovoltaic cells, the car converts solar energy into 1000 watts of power. The components of the car include the cells and batteries, which capture and store the solar energy, and a DC (direct current) motor which converts energy from the batteries into a uniform source of energy.

"I'm ecstatic," said Professor Asmar. "This is a dream come true for me that would not have been possible without our sponsors." Asmar, who joined the faculty of AUB at the end of 2007, said he had been dreaming to build a solar-powered car ever since he was an undergraduate student at the University of Waterloo in Canada.

"We feel very proud of our achievement," he added. "Usually, researchers don't manage to get their car to run like ours on their first attempt. Of course, our goal is to keep on improving it, so we could compete in next year's World Solar Challenge, representing Lebanon and AUB for the first time."

The World Solar challenge is a 3000-kilometer race by solar electric cars, whose purpose is to promote research in solar energy. It is held in Australia and was first launched in 1987. The next race is scheduled for 2009. The team also hopes to promote solar energy locally by taking the car on a road trip on the highways of Greater Beirut in the fall.