Students Compete in NREL Solar and Hydrogen Fuel Cell Races

By Aaron Turpen, Wed, May 25, 2011

Students look under the hood of the NREL HFC shuttle

In brief: Sixty-five teams from twenty-four Colorado schools participated in an area-wide hydrogen fuel cell and solar car competition, the Junior Solar Spring and Hydrogen Fuel Cell car competitions hosted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Littleton.

The word

Each of the teams raced solar powered or hydrogen fuel cell powered cars that they designed and built themselves with trophies going to the fastest of those participating. Other trophies for innovation, craftsmanship, and technology were also awarded as was a trophy for sportsmanship.

The competition is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy's Golden Field Office, by Haselden Construction, Jefferson County Public Schools, Dakota Ridge High School, Warren Tech, Rocky Mountain Bottled Water, and the Alliance for Sustainable Energy as well as NREL.

Trophies were awarded to:

Fasted Solar Powered Model Car:
1st Place: Logan School for Creative Learning "Thundercougarfalconbird" (Denver)
2nd Place: Drake Middle School "Drake 4" (Arvada)
3rd Place: Bell Middle School "3am" (Golden)
Solar Design for technology, innovation, and craftsmanship were given to:
1st Place: Logan School for Creative Learning (Denver)
2nd Place: Southern Hills Middle School (Boulder)
3rd Place: Lincoln Academy Middle School (Arvada)
Fastest Hydrogen Fuel Cell Powered Model Car:
1st Place: The Logan School for Creative Learning "And the winner is.." (Denver)
2nd Place: Fitzsimmons Middle School "Overdrive Hydrogen" (Bailey)
3rd Place: Bell Middle School "Iron Domino" (Golden)
Hydrogen Fuel Cell Design for technology, craftsmanship, and innovation went to:
1st Place: Woodlands Academy (Castle Rock team "Larry the Leaf")
2nd Place: Woodlands Academy (Castle Rock team "Bobby the Bullet Train")
3rd Place: Mead Middle School (Mead)
The Sportsmanship trophy went to Woodlands Academy (Castle Rock) "Larry the Leaf" team