TECSTAR Donates Solar Cells for Solar Motions' Cascade Cruiser Solar Car

TECSTAR Inc. (City of Industry, CA) recently announced that it donated 4,000 of its high-efficiency solar cells to fuel the Cascade Cruiser solar car. The car, owned by the Solar Motions (Fremont, CA) team, is planned to compete in a solar car race between Chicago and Los Angeles in 2001 and in the 2001 Australian Solar Car Challenge.

On February 28, several members of the Solar Motions team, led by Team Leader Martin Koebler, drove the solar car on the TECSTAR plant grounds and gave a short presentation on the car to TECSTAR employees as a way to say thank you for the donation.

The Cascade Cruiser weighs 616lbs: 352 pounds for the car, 88 pounds for the batteries and 176 pounds for the driver. The structure of the car is made of carbon-aluminum honeycomb composite. The 4,000 solar cells can charge up to 2000W in sunlight, the equivalent of running on 33 60W lightbulbs, and the car can reach speeds up to 82mph.