For More Sun opens with a group of young people laboring over the engine of a strange, flattened vehicle and making grating, metallic sounds. The greasy hands and sweat-drenched backs are not those of ordinary mechanics, but a group of university students working on the National Taiwan University (NTU) campus. A voice-over says, "When you're trying to make a dream come true, you find your dream just gets bigger and bigger..." It is the voice of Cheng Jung-ho, professor of mechanical engineering at NTU.
Documentary director Bayas Lee has seen the scene many times, and it was pivotal to his taking on the project. "I wasn't really keen on the idea at first, but after visiting the garage and talking to Professor Cheng, I decided to do it." Producer Liu Chia-ming asked him in May 2005 to make the film about the team of NTU students and their professor making a solar car to compete in a world race.
For some time, Lee had not seen any projects that stimulated him, but the energy of these young people in hot pursuit of a dream touched him and changed his long-held notion that academics live off the fat of the land. "They really take things as they come," says Lee. "At the same time, they're really serious and manage to keep their spirits up in the face of the kind of challenges that nearly led me to quit making films."
Lee wanted the film to trace their story back to 2000, when the bulletin board at NTU's Mechanical Engineering Department displayed this notice: "Those who can't deal with cold and miserable weather, mosquitoes, late nights and year-round work need not apply." The announcement was Cheng's attempt to recruit members for his solar car project. Some 30 students were undaunted and joined the team.
Theory and Practice
Cheng wanted to do the project to prove that Taiwanese students were capable of anything their foreign counterparts were. After graduating from the University of Michigan, Cheng worked at General Electric's research and development (R&D) department for five years before returning to teach at NTU. "I saw that our students are by no means inferior to those in the US, Europe and Japan, but that our technological developments lag way behind theirs," he says. "I think this problem lies in our education system, with its emphasis on academic performance rather than hands-on skills."
Particularly in engineering, Cheng thinks that theory and practice are often not combined effectively, so graduates find it difficult to apply what they have learned from textbooks to practical problems in the real world. For this reason, Cheng sought to create a curriculum that integrated theory and practice. His approach was to organize a team to build a solar car, despite the fact he himself knew nothing about the technology at the time. The team was named Formosun, which abbreviates "for more sun" and plays on "the sun of Formosa," the often-used Portuguese name for Taiwan.
"We began this project from scratch. I thought it'd be terrific if we were only able to build a solar car that simply moved," Cheng says. "Nevertheless, the students demonstrated great enthusiasm and capability. We completed our first car, Formosun I, in 2002 and Formosun II in 2003. Our progress inspired us to compete with the world's best in the World Solar Challenge (WSC)."
WSC was founded by Australian Hans Tholstrup in 1987 to address the problems of shrinking oil resources and environmental pollution. It was hoped the ultimate challenge--to design and build a car capable of traveling across the entire Australian continent powered by sunlight--would trigger the world's awareness of these problems and bring about the finding of solutions to them.
If at First, You Don't Succeed...
Building a solar car was costly. Now that the aim was to take part in the international contest, they had to make a more sophisticated vehicle. That meant more money was needed. Cheng tried various means to raise funds. Apart from his own pocket, he solicited aid from his relatives, friends, business enterprises, civic groups and government agencies. In addition, he organized exhibitions, study camps and islandwide "road test tours." These activities not only collected much-needed funding, but also increased public understanding of the solar-powered car.
Formosun III may not be an ideal city runabout, but that is the goal for the next version. (Courtesy of Formosun)
In 2003, the NTU team raced Formosun II in the 7th WSC, and in a practice-run on the Hidden Valley track, it beat 25 participants to take second place. However, due to the low efficiency of the silicon solar panels they used, Formosun II ranked 13th in the 3,000 kilometer main event that started in Darwin and ended in Adelaide. "There're very few things in this world as satisfying as driving a solar car that you've created and built with your own hands," says Cheng. "All the hard work slips away, and you know you're doing something that you'll never forget."
Learning from its experience, the NTU team set to redesigning a brand new solar car, Formosun III. The third-generation vehicle saw several component improvements. For one thing, on a limited budget they managed to purchase a batch of gallium arsenide (GaAs) solar cells that were rejected for use in outer space. The new GaAs solar panels were 15 percent more efficient than the silicon ones.
The wisdom of their experience paid off at the September 2005 WSC: Formosun III finished in fifth place, behind Nuna from the Netherlands, Aurora from Australia, Momentum from the US and Japan's Sky Ace TIGA. It also won the Technical Innovation Award.
"I was proud of our team," Cheng says. "We did the majority of the engineering work ourselves." In particular, encapsulation was still a pretty advanced technique that most participants entrusted to specialists in Germany or the US at an expense of about NT$5 million (US$156,250). Competitors also used space-grade solar panels, the Dutch champion reportedly having spent NT$50 million (US$1.6 million). The NTU team, however, spent just NT$7 million (US$218,750) on total production costs.
Turning Point
Doctoral student Kevin Chang has been with Formosun from the beginning and is the team leader. "In the process of designing and building the solar car, we've gathered masses of data, calculated endless possibilities and conducted various analyses and feasibility studies. It's been a complete engineering training for us," he says. "Plus, I've learned how to plan, lead and manage--this is invaluable experience for my future."?
Being on the solar car team was a turning point for Chang. His university life before, like most of his fellows, was simply going to class and sitting exams; he neither had special interests nor knew what he was good at. "We were propelled by ambition," he says. "I made a habit of doing my level best, and it got me interested in making things."
Chang is keen to share the team's material and technological improvements. He explains that the use of composite materials like carbon fiber not merely cemented the rigidity and strength of the Formosun III structure, but also reduced its weight to 210 kilograms, from the first-generation vehicle's 400 kilograms. Using computer-aided design software and computational fluid dynamics, the team slashed the latest model's aerodynamic drag by one third and increased its average speed to 140 kilometers per hour from Formosun I's 40.
In addition, Formosun III was equipped with an energy control unit the team developed that gauges the amount of power generated by its solar panels and accordingly sets the most suitable driving speed for the motor.
Chang understands there are few places in Taiwan that could provide him with a similar training, given that commercial R&D is largely focused on mass production and investment-return rates closely monitored. He thus feels lucky to have had such an opportunity and, after graduation, expects to pass the experience and knowledge he has acquired onto the domestic automobile industry.
Graduate student Chen Chou-hsing was assigned to design housings for solar modules. To master related techniques, he did countless experiments and sought assistance from a few domestic enterprises and academic institutions, including Shihlin Electric and Engineering Corp. and the Industrial Technology Research Institute.
The main challenge of his assignment, he says, was to determine manufacturing parameters to prevent solar cells from bubbling or cracking and to yield the best efficiency. "Working with different companies and organizations helped expand my knowledge beyond the classroom," he says. "When you encapsulate solar cells, you must be careful and meticulous. I discovered that I have these characteristics and that I'm suited to this kind of work."
Chen knows that Taiwan has sufficient sunshine all year round to make solar power viable, but thinks it is a pity that its use is still scarce. He wants to work on the development of solar-energy generation, transmission and storage equipment and hopes that such technology is soon widely used in daily life.
Professor Cheng says frankly that solar cars are unlikely to be commercialized, citing the technology's dependence on unpredictable weather and its subsequent instability. Nevertheless, he believes that solar energy is a good source of supplementary power and should be broadly promoted.
The NTU team is now working on its fourth vehicle, with a revamped emphasis on practicality. Its aim is to develop a driver-friendly, energy-efficient and pollution-free car utilizing a mix of solar energy, fuel cells and lithium-polymer batteries wrapped in an ergonomic design within two years. Initial manufacturing costs alone are estimated at NT$9 million (US$281,250) at least. Cheng is unsure if the planned model will be mass produced or not. Still, he is eyeing participation in international automobile shows to display Taiwan's technological advancement.
Just as Cheng says in the opening shots of the documentary, the NTU team's dream is getting bigger and bigger. The self-described hopeless optimist says, "I don't know where we'll get the money, but I know we'll get it."