Aspen Morning TV features Solar Rollers
Who needs coffee when your morning show is filled with solar energy?
A great overview of Solar Rollers from The Lift morning show...
Solar Power World Intersolar Interview
In this video interview overview of the program, Noah Davis reveals the true goal of the Solar Rollers: "pretty much world domination."
Long Tail Pipe
...what I found at Intersolar simply astonished me with what an excellent idea it is.
David Herron describes the Solar Rollers program based on his visit to the demonstration track at Intersolar 2015.
Aspen Public Radio - Nonprofit in the Spotlight
Aspen Public Radio is featuring Energetics Education throughout the month of July!
Every month, Aspen Public Radio picks a non-profit to highlight with a series of interviews and spots. We are very excited to be featured throughout the month of July - when Aspen is hopping!
We will add links to the four interviews here as they become available:
Part 1 - Noah Davis - The History of Energetics Education
Part 2 - Noah Davis - The Solar Rollers Program
Radio News Feature with a Solar Rollers team
Ask high school students a meaningful question - and you'll get a meaningful answer. Just ask January Jones after this news feature interview with the members of the Roaring Fork High School Team.
January Jones of KDNK Radio sits down with a Solar Rollers team to get the scoop on what these students get out of the program. They say some funny and poignant things about solar, building things collaboratively, car racing and explosions.
Solar Rollers from the Student Perspective
"It's not a step-by-step process. The teams have to design the car and then solder and wire everything together. Initially they look in the box and say, 'What is all this stuff?'"
Roaring Fork Lifestyle magazine published a compelling story focusing on the Roaring Fork High School Solar Rollers team as they prepare for the Trophy Race on May 16.
Renewable Energy World - Email from the Future
We’re starting small by sending a few ideas back to 2001 — to a guy we met named Elon Musk. He appears to have some potential and we need to start somewhere.
A team of future high school graduates has developed technology capable of sending emails and digital attachments back from the future. The group call themselves the “Photon Farmers” and they are the future winners of the 2017 Solar Rollers energy education competition.
They sent the following email and attached photo from 2018 to the nonprofit that runs Solar Rollers, Energetics Education based in Carbondale, Colorado.
“Hello from the Solar Rollers World Finals in 2018! We are the winning team from 2017 (you don't know us yet) and we've formed a startup after graduation. Our first app sends email messages like this one back in time. It requires some serious hardware but we were able to acquire the Large Hadron Collider for a song after the accidental black hole incident.
We are resisting the temptation to send back real-life spoilers but we just had to send this picture of the 2018 Solar Rollers World Finals race. It’s going off.
We are currently working on a business model for our app that solves real problems for society and promotes sensible energy use. We’re starting small by sending a few ideas back to 2001 — to a guy we met named Elon Musk. He appears to have some potential and we need to start somewhere.
Taking part in Solar Rollers racing was a real hoot and a great way to build a team while learning all aspects of an energy system. Thousands of high school teams now participate in the program and partners include SunPower, Tesla, Apple, Google and Lego. By the way, Lego now dominates the electric vehicle market with customizable convertibles that come with color-coordinated plastic helmets.
We'll let you know when it becomes possible to send a reply to us. In the meantime, don't take any wooden nickels (not legal tender until 2017) or buy any hydrogen-fueled vehicles.
The 'Photon Farmers' Team
April 1, 2018"
Reno News and Review
“It’s an energy-based competition,” Davis said. “It’s not just the technology and the fabrication of parts and the engineering that goes into it; it’s actually an energy management program, the whole race.”
The Green page of this week's Reno News and Review lets the biggest little city know that Solar Rollers are coming to town.
Reaching out beyond Colorado
This is going to be nationwide, and with remote locations and races, we have to scale it up...
Going Interplanetary on ABC News
ABC News in San Francisco led their Intersolar "innovations in solar" story with Solar Rollers.
They may be the world's funniest looking race cars.
"Carbon fiber frame with solar panels on top, it's padded with foam and they go really fast," said high school senior George Jouflas.
Jouflas is the reigning champion of Solar Rollers.
"They take on a project like this and learn about solar cells, lithium batteries, working with carbon fiber, all those things," said Solar Rollers creator Noah Davis.
Built from scratch, they go 28 to 30 miles an hour and only briefly stop to charge under blinding lamps that were originally made for a marijuana grow house. The contest could soon go international.
"And then it'll be interplanetary eventually if we can make it," said Davis.
Solar Power World Article
The roller slammed into a track barrier, built by solar mounting systems supplier Unirac, and its rear wheels jumped-up from the course. Nothing was damaged during that crash or a dozen or so subsequent ones, but the impacts elicited a few “aahs.”
“It’s just they go so epically fast, how do you not crash?” Slater asked, without overstating the speed. In a good straightaway, solar rollers can reach 28 mph.
A great description of the action at the Solar Rollers Special Exhibit at Intersolar 2014 from Solar Power World. A Race To Educate Students
Intersolar TV features Solar Rollers Special Exhibit
Can a reporter deliver his commentary and drive a Solar Roller at the same time? Start at 3:59 if you're in a hurry to find out.
Intersolar North America, the largest solar exhibition in the US and a sponsor of the program, featured Solar Rollers on their dedicated Intersolar TV channel.
RMI/Christian Science Monitor Feature Solar Rollers
Hands-on learning is best for understanding energy issues, study finds
Education is important for the future of the world's energy challenges, writes Laurie Guevara-Stone. And today's children can learn through hands-on experience, according to a Purdue University study.
Laurie Guevara-Stone of the energy think-and-do tank Rocky Mountain Institute explored a study featuring the use of hands-on techniques to teach energy concepts. It's no wonder she featured Solar Rollers!
Summit High School Feature
Members of the Summit High School tech club designed and built a solar-powered remote-control car that can go 28 mph. The car, one of two built by the tech club’s two teams, won first place for fastest speed at the Solar Rollers competition Saturday, May 17.
The Summit Daily News honored the students of Summit High for their award-winning performance at the 2014 Solar Rollers Trophy Race!
Battle Mountain High's Win in the Vail Daily
Their car was mangled after a competitor crashed into them and they were 40 laps down, working feverishly to get back on the track as other teams’ remote control solar race cars sped past.
And that’s when they had their MacGyver moment.
They replaced a non-replaceable broken king pin with the top of a drill bit and the spring from an ink pen.
The victors get some well-deserved attention from the Vail Daily for their persistence and ingenuity in the 2014 Solar Rollers competition.
CLEER Pre-race Article
“These brave students, teachers and team leaders from the community have really jumped in with both feet to learn about energy here. The effort they’ve put into strategizing, tinkering, experimenting, testing and refining has to be commended. They are already victors at the starting line.” said Davis.
Energetics Ed Non-profit Spotlight
“The idea is that adults have not been very successful with solving energy problems,” he said, “So let’s give young people the tools they need to make changes as they enter the workforce and become consumers.” Solar Rollers teaches kids how energy systems work because, he explained, energy use is the most important human interaction with the planet. “It’s so easy to convince yourself that you’re maintaining an interaction with the planet by hiking up Castle Creek but it’s also about energy use in your car or in your home,” he explained.
Battle Mountain High Prep Story
Kenny Vargas,17, solders interconnecting ribbons to a solar cell as part of the Technology Student Association’s Solar Rollers’ project Wednesday at Battle Mountain High School. The team will race their car in the Solar Rollers Trophy Race against other Colorado high schools on May 17.
EDWARDS — George Jouflas does not tinker — he designs and redesigns.
Take the solar powered remote control car his Battle Mountain High School crew is
building for the Solar Rollers Trophy Race. He’s rebuilding the suspension to work like
a Formula 1 car or Grand Prix racing motorcycle. Then, he created some kind of traction
control.
The team is also doing some amazing things to save weight because it’s battery powered. The
lighter it is, the longer and faster it will run. He isn’t saying how any of this works because
it’s a Solar Roller race, after all, and someone has to win.
“It might as well be us,” he said smiling.