By Elly Murray
Team Sunergy, Appalachian State’s solar car team, will be unveiling their newest solar car, ROSE, on June 22nd before they head off to the races with her.
ROSE, which stands for Racing on Solar Energy, is the first solar car that Team Sunergy has built completely from scratch. She is 100% their own, and they can’t wait to take her to the two races that they’re competing in this summer, the Formula Sun Grand Prix and the American Solar Challenge.
The car itself, according to Appalachian Today, features “seating for two, conventionally opening doors, a gauge cluster, turn signals and — an amenity the team is particularly excited about — cup holders. The car can reach speeds up to 75 miles per hour.”
This year, Team Sunergy has built their car to compete in a new class of solar vehicles, the Cruiser Class. Thus far they’ve been competing in the Challenger Class, in which the vehicles are built only to run as quickly and efficiently as possible.
The Cruiser Class, however, is more about practicality, and as Kali Smith, the business director of the team describes it: “The other class is fun…but we wanted to build a car that was more practical, one that people could see themselves driving, and when they see it, they know it’s a car. They don’t have to ask questions about it, they know what it is. So the car that we’re building right now, it’s two seats and it looks like an actual car.”
Doors open at 12:30, and the event begins at 1 p.m., lasting until 3 p.m. The event is held at App State’s Holmes Convocation Center, and admission is free.
The event is open to the public, so come check out Team Sunergy’s newest solar car and share in the pride of seeing that our local school has achieved such a feat of solar engineering.
For more information on the unveiling of ROSE, please visit https://today.appstate.edu/events/id/585
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