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Students at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology have designed, fabricated and efficiently integrated a flat solar array in Rose-Hulman's Solar Phantom solar-powered electric vehicle. The choice of a fixed, flat array was influenced by the simplicity and the cost of manufacturing and the number and cost of photovoltaic cells rather than just the energy collecting ability of the array itself. There are three basic types of solar arrays used for solar-powered electric vehicles: curved arrays, flat arrays, and tracking arrays. Our objective is to present a comparison of the three array types based on the power and size constraints imposed by the solar-powered electric vehicle race rules.

The objectives of our project at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology were to build a competitive and reliable solar vehicle at minimum cost. This article presents a brief summary of our vehicle design. The main body of the article addresses the computer-aided design of Solar Phantom's photovoltaic (PV) array and its integration with the vehicle electrical system. The main advantage our design was the high solar efficiency achieved without using peak power trackers. Measured results for our solar array are presented and compared with the computer-generated data. Some of our experiences with the vehicle from the GM Sunrayce are also presented.