As the rays of Florida sunshine hit the solar panels, the annual Solar Powered Go Kart race has started, sending go-carts zooming around FGCU’s track.
Cape Coral High School‘s Solar Car team was founded in April 2024 by Junior Mason Huffman. Huffman has participated in solar car races since elementary school, which is what sparked his interest in starting his own club at Cape High.
“Now that I’m in high school, I really wanted to recreate that and start my own team that focused on building their own solar car and participating in this competition,” stated Huffman. “And then the other initiative, really was to just spark stem interest and expand the amount of opportunities that high school students have here.”
Their officer team consists of a mechanical engineering manager, an electrical engineering manager, and a business manager and 11 members. However, they are currently accepting members to either build or race regardless of grade level.
A significant aspect of the club is participating in community outreach events at middle schools. “We had several middle school students participate in our event where we built miniature solar cars, and we taught them the basics regarding how solar panels were, gear ratios, how an electrical motor works, things like that,” said Huffman. “And then after that, the fun part of it all is that we got to build all the miniature solo cars, and then we raced them all, which was really exciting.”
Members have also participated in two other outreach events, one of them at Trafalgar Middle School and the other at Cape High for the 2024 summer STEM camp. The students were also invited to do an outreach event in the fall semester at Diplomat Middle.
On January 25th, 2025 they will be presenting different renewable ways of energy at the 2025 Collier County STEM Exposition, which is held at Aubrey Rogers High School.
Throughout the year, the club has faced some obstacles. “At the beginning of the club, the first obstacle was creating funds. So it’s definitely difficult to find grants around Florida that support STEM initiatives. So I think that’s really been the first hurdle that we’ve tackled.”
Since then, the club has been given grants by LCEC, the Scientist Society of Southwest Florida, and Cape Coral Kiwanis. The club’s next goal is to start preparing for the competition.
The SunChase Solar Car Competition will take place at FGCU where approximately 10 to 12 teams participate each year. The competition consists of two parts, a presentation and the actual race. The race has two sprint races and one endurance race in which the amount of laps the go-cart can go is measured. The presentation is done in front of a panel of judges where you explain the components of the car and how changing certain aspects affects the performance.
As of right now, the team is tackling how to modify a frame they collected to fit all the components it needs.
“We took [the frame] apart and removed some parts of the engine that came with the frame of the go-cart because it was originally a fuel-driven go-kart with gas components so we tried to see what we could take from what we had to add an electric motor,” said club sponsor Chase Lieberenz.
MASER club sponsor, Lamar Bryant has taken a supporting role and agreed saying, “Right now they’re dismantling the engine because they don’t need that gas-engine and trying to convert it into a solar-powered engine.”
By adjusting the frame, they will be able to fit the seat, engine, and solar panels and later focus on the sun collection. Ultimately, the team is getting ready to compete and grow into a larger club.
