Conventional Cars koto-ward-student-solar-car

Published on December 17th, 2011 | by Charis Michelsen

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Talk About Showing Off – Students Display Successful Solar Car

koto-ward-student-solar-carOne of the fun things at Tokyo’s annual Eco Products exhibition this weekend is a solar car – but not just any solar car. This one was built as part of an education program led by Koto Ward mayor Takaaki Yamazaki, in a bid to get children excited about scientific technology and the environment.

The solar car was built as part of a project called the “Solar Car Challenge Program,” for Koto Ward students ranging in age from elementary to high school age. The students publicly appealed to ward residents, businesses and universities located within the ward for (presumably financial) cooperation, and the project kicked off. “Building a solar car from scratch was a really good experience,” said 9th grader Kota Tsukahara.

Kids Can Do Surprising Things

The finished product, perhaps surprisingly for something apparently carried out largely by teenagers, managed to finish 10th at the solar car race in Suzuka last August. Tsukahara was put in charge of energy management. “I ran calculations on my laptop every week,” he said. “To figure out what we needed to do to finish the race. Then we instructed the driver.”

Tsukahara’s instructions were apparently pretty good; when the car reached the finish line, the energy remaining in the battery was close to zero. “Next year, we’re aiming for a podium finish,” Tsukahara said, adding that some day, he wants to take the car to the World Solar Challenge in Australia.  If he succeeds, he’ll be in good company.

If Japan is aiming for a greener future by educating the kids today, they’ve gotten a pretty good start. How would you like to see students in your area working on developing green technology (cars or otherwise)? Let us know in the comments, below.

Source: Response.jp | Image: Koto Ward.



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About the Author

spent 7 years living in Germany and Japan, studying both languages extensively, doing translation and education with companies like Bosch, Nissan, Fuji Heavy, and others. Charis has a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and currently lives in Chicago, Illinois. She also believes that Janeway was the best Star Trek Captain.



  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000952005408 Uncle B

    With clean Solar, Wind, Wave, Hydro, Tidal, Geothermal, Electricity and a less avaricious lifestyle where sustainability overcomes affluenza, humankind will survive – The fissioning of Uranium must be forbidden, world-wide , in the wake of the Fuckoshima holocaust, and the fissioning of safer cleaner Thorium must replace it.
    Cars like these are really expressions of a more intelligent mankind showing a desire to live with nature not against it. Gobar Gas – for all city sewage and compostible garbage, must be preached to mankind, as well as basic nuclear energy facts and the dangers of Uranium fission compared to Thorium fissioning.
    Bill Gates moves now, away from the restrictive U.S. schools, and takes his fortunes with him to Asia, to the vast Pan Eurasian Empire, and China, where as described on http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4971 China seeks cleaner nuclear endeavors, and actually has Thorium fueled CANDU reactors up and running. Japanese students building Solar cars are well appraised of this evolving energy knowledge as part of the Pan Eurasian Empire, and look to recharge-ability, economical propulsion, and greater distances traveled, not following the U.S. obsession with “Stoplight to Stoplight” pissing contests for testosterone’s sake.
    A clash of the giants witnessed here – Japanese seek longer distances, higher reliability, sustainability, and economical performance, where U.S., still obsessed with roaring gasoline engines, actually has cars retailed there with over 600 horsepower low compression and least efficient gasoline engines.
    Thankfully intelligence will prevail over bruit force mentalities, and an enlightened mankind will evolve and take the lead in the world, and it is already happening with the constructive, deliberate, “Controlled Demolition” of the U.S. Dollar, and the empire it once represented, and its replacement with the Yuan. World wide. Soon enough we will all ride electric bullet trains, imported from China we will no longer be enslaved by the gross and unbearable expenses of car ownership, and we will be set free with smaller electric, rechargeable, short hop vehicles, and air fares will disappear as we learn to Daisy Chain electric bullet trains on our continent as is being done in the new Pan Eurasian Empire as we speak. The cars, solar in hature even, may well come from Japan and these students creative ideas.

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