Karnataka - Hubli-Dharwad   

The sun makes this car go

Creative: The three students Sachin M. Siddannavar, Nagaraj M. Totager and Manjunath M. Tamate of N.R. Desai Rotary Kannada Medium School with their solar car in Hubli.

HUBLI: Three high school students from Hubli have designed and developed a working model of a solar car by investing just Rs. 70.

Sachin M. Siddannavar, Nagaraj M. Totager and Manjunath M. Tamate, all ninth standard students of N.R. Desai Rotary Kannada Medium School in Deshpande Nagar here, have designed the solar car with materials they found in a scrap yard.

Sachin, Nagaraj and Manjunath worked for nearly three weeks on their model, which they prepared for an exhibition that was held here on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The body of the prototype was created from a toy car found in the scrap yard. The solar panel they have used for the car was also found in the yard. The car is powered by a motor that is used to make wipers function.

Nagaraj’s family owns a garage, which was of great help to them. The three used to spend three to four hours at the garage every day trying to build the car using discarded yet useful spare-parts.

The car runs on a battery charged by solar power. “We had seen a solar torch, and based on its functioning, we designed the car,” said Sachin.

Although the solar panel they used did have the capacity to generate power, the students fixed another such panel inside the car to play music using an iPod. They used left over paint available in the garage to give their creation a new look. “We wanted to do something new apart from the usual models. Nowadays, much is spoken about renewable energy, and we thought we should work on solar energy,” the students said. Lauding them for the initiative, headmaster of the school M.S. Patil said that for the first time he had seen students of the school working on an idea that was usually attempted by college-goers. He said the school would provide its students the right platform to translate their ideas into reality.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

‘Do not pay heed to rumours’
16 colleges to participate in 20-20 cricket
National Disaster Reduction Day observed in Dharwad
Discourse series in Hubli
The sun makes this car go

Copyright © 2010, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu