High Schoolers Race Solar-Powered Cars They Built Themselves Across 630 Miles of Texas

Teams begin a five-day journey from Fort Worth to Fort Stockton fueled entirely by sunlight

Dozens of teams of high school students set out Sunday on a five-day, 630-mile road race across Texas in cars powered entirely by sunlight, according to The Verge.

The race runs from Fort Worth to Fort Stockton, testing both the students' engineering skills and their vehicles' endurance under the Texas sun. Unlike a typical competition, the student teams design and build their own cars from scratch, using off-the-shelf parts along with 3D-printed materials.

The event puts a spotlight on hands-on science and engineering education at a time when solar power and renewable energy technology are drawing growing attention nationally. For the students involved, the race doubles as a real-world lesson in the physics and practical constraints of harnessing sunlight for propulsion, from managing weight and aerodynamics to squeezing maximum efficiency out of every hour of daylight.

The multi-day format means teams must also manage logistics across the sprawling Texas landscape, adjusting strategy as weather and road conditions change over the five days of competition.

— Compiled from reporting by The Verge.