Seattle Times, Living:
Monday, July 30, 1990
Frederick Case
Western Washington University's Vehicle Research Institute has designed a dual sunshine- and gasoline-powered automobile that institute director Michael Seal believes could drastically cut air pollution.
Normally such an announcement from one of America's lesser-known engineering lyceums might provoke skepticism. However, this is the same institution whose low-budget solar vehicle beat MIT, Stanford and other American academic giants recently to nab second place in the GM Sunrayce USA.
By any standard that's a major feat, if only because the $160,000 WWU prototype finished the 11-day race just a couple of hours behind an $800,000 University of Michigan vehicle that drew heavily from General Motors expertise. ``We called it the Michigan steamroller,'' Seal says.
A measure of WWU's triumph is that its Viking XX had to make do with $10,000 worth of terrestrial-grade solar cells, while Michigan used satellite-grade solar cells that cost $200,000, and seven other competitors used the same expensive technology.
Yet the WWU car produced 1,580 watts, considerably more than the next most powerful entry's 1,200 watts.
All 32 cars in the 1,625-mile race along secondary roads from Florida to Michigan were built by teams of university science and engineering students guided by faculty and community advisers.
Last week, the victors paraded to the Capitol in Washington, D.C., to meet House and Senate leaders and Department of Energy and Department of Transportation officials. "This solar race may have real long-term significance," Seal says.
Solar-car races are considered important because they advance state-of-the art technology for one of the most promising forms of alternative automotive travel.
WWU's Vehicle Research Institute, a unit of WWU's technology department, has been creating the Viking series of prize-winning experimental internal-combustion cars since 1974. But Viking XX - which consists of two pods linked by a 160-square-foot solar panel sloped like one side of a house roof - is WWU's first solar car. It was also the most unusual-looking vehicle in the race, and Seal believes its success "shows that our unique design was correct."
The Energy Department awarded Viking top prize for the most powerful solar array. On the sunny last day of the race, with Paul Dickerson of Port Townsend at the wheel, the car ran the whole lap at close to the 55-mph speed limit.
Driving the car was both "exhilarating and exhausting," says Sage McCallum, 28, a business major who was the Viking's only woman driver. "It's like a big motor home, a bit unstable in the wind, and with only about six inches to spare on either side. But I'll be proud to tell my children that I drove one of the first solar cars."
Seal believes that "from a purely engineering point of view," there's no reason why solar cars shouldn't eventually become commonplace on freeways. But he sees the relative frailty of solar cars as an immediate problem.
The two-person Viking XX, for example, weighs only 640 pounds. "Considering they'd have to mingle with Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks, just the matter of safety will keep solar cars off the freeway," says Seal. "It would be almost like riding a bicycle."
In fact, during the race, a Canadian solar vehicle was hit by a car and was severely damaged, although the driver did escape injury.
One solution Seal offers is separate roadways for heavy vehicles and light vehicles. Even so, there are other practical problems. Though the Viking XX can hit 55 mph in sunshine, rain reduces its speed to about 17 mph, and at night it must run entirely on batteries.
"So, all things considered," Seal says, "we're still quite a long way from having a purely solar car."
Which is why WWU is designing a hybrid electric-gasoline vehicle.
Seal believes that such a dual-power car would be completely at home on the freeway, and could retail for about $15,000. He says it will be primarily solar, with electrically driven front wheels. But the rear wheels will be driven by a gasoline engine that can be switched on at night, in rain, and on long cross-country drives. Reverse gear is electric, and on snow or rough terrain the car could be put into four-wheel drive.
Though Seal says General Motors has expressed an interest in WWU's dual-power car, the university is also open to go it alone by raising about $200,000 for a prototype. That's how Viking XX was built, with donations of money or expertise from more than 70 companies, including the J. Ward Phillips Co., Alpha Technologies, Rimland Pacific, Heath Tecna, Intalco Aluminum, Christenson Engineering, The Boeing Co. and Paccar.
Surprisingly, Seal says solar cars perform better in Washington state than in Florida. "Heat reduces efficiency of photo-electric cells," he explains. "That's why they do better in the clear, cold air of the northern states." Seal calls Eastern Washington "some of the best solar territory in the nation."
Despite about a century of refinement, the internal combustion engine's efficiency remains largely unchanged at about 25 percent of potential. But Seal says huge improvements have occurred since the days when solar cells began at 5 percent efficiency. The Viking's cells are 14 percent efficient. "We don't yet know where the top end is," Seal says. In experimental research, The Boeing Co. has developed cells of 37 percent efficiency.
Battery technology has recently become an area of intense interest as automakers scramble to develop a car that can run on electricity. Seal says such batteries could be recharged with excess power from house-roof solar cells.
Before concentrating on engineering a dual-power car, WWU plans one more major mission with the Viking XX. In November, WWU will compete in the World Solar Challenge race in Australia, which was won last time, in 1987, by a GM solar-powered car. GM will defend its title, one of at least seven U.S. entries including WWU, the University of Michigan and University of Maryland.
WWU's strategy in Australia will be to dig deeper into the battery and drive faster to pick off the University of Michigan - and, the Washingtonians hope, everyone else, including Ford and the Japanese and Europeans.
However, recognizing itself as an underdog, WWU is appealing for $200,000 to equip the Viking with the same high-power solar cells as other competitors.
Viking XX will be on display from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday at the Vehicle Research Institute in the Ross Engineering Technology Building on the WWU campus).
Copyright (c) 1990 Seattle Times Company, All Rights Reserved.
