INTERVIEW - Solar car world record holder pushes green tech limit
Marcelo da Luz, the founder of Power of One (Xof1) Solar Car Project, has driven his solar car to world record fame. He more than doubled the previous driving distance record of 15,070km (he is currently at 36,200km). He was also the first in the world to operate a solar car below freezing temperatures, the first in the world to drive a solar car on an ice road, the first in the world to reach the Arctic circle in a solar car and the first in the world to charge a solar car with the power of the midnight sun. Because his solar car runs on electricity generated from sunlight, he also holds those same records for electric vehicles.
So, it might surprise you to know that Marcelo da Luz is not an engineer. It might surprise you to know that he does not have any financial investors backing him. It might surprise you to know that Marcelo da Luz is just a flight attendant who gambled his life savings on a passionate dream to inspire the world and raise environmental awareness.
Before moving to Canada in his 20s, Marcelo spent his childhood growing up in São Paulo, Brazil, where he was deeply moved by the surrounding pollution. Marcelo saw first-hand how the Tietê and Pinheiros rivers, once sources of fresh water and leisurely pursuits, became polluted from heavy industrial chemicals.
The city of Cubatão, in particular, arrested his attention. Nicknamed the “Valley of Death” due to the births of brainless children and the prevalence of respiratory and blood illnesses, the city has been ranked as one of the top ten dirtiest cities in the world by Popular Science. Marcelo remembers how in school, “I asked the teacher, ‘Why is there pollution?’ The teacher said, ‘That’s the price of progress.’” As an adult, Marcelo reflects, “I like to think pollution’s not progress. Quite the contrary.” He wanted to find genuinely progressive alternatives that would avert the waste and decay so evident in his childhood surroundings.
In 1987, Marcelo watched the World Solar Car Challenge in Australia. His first thought was, “Wow, how incredible is that? A race of cars powered by light... that’s the future, I want to be a part of it.” Solar power seemed like a promising technology that could address the pollution of “progress” on two fronts - energy and transportation. However, with zero experience, let alone expertise in the engineering field, he thought, “I’m a nobody. I can’t do this. It was a dream for somebody else to dream, not for me.” So, that dream was placed on the backburner.
Marcelo, who believes that motivation in life is about pain versus pleasure, soon found the pain of not pursuing his solar car dream too hurtful to bear any longer in 1999. His housemate, well aware of Marcelo’s solar car passion, left a stack of related research papers on his desk. The top page revealed that it takes 50,000 man hours to build a solar car, which is the equivalent of one person working 40 hours a week for 25 years.
Marcelo was not discouraged.
Despite the daunting statistics and the feeling of futility he felt welling up within his heart, he thought to himself, “If an engineer takes that long, I better start now.” Thus, Marcelo began his research by turning to the rules and regulations of the World Solar Challenge that had first inspired his mad quest. Sufficiently versed in the essential requirements, he then reached out to companies and organizations, not for cash, but for services, parts and discounted materials. He was turned down by over 1400 of them.
Marcelo was not discouraged.
In fact, he believed so strongly in his project, that he burned through his savings and obtained a second mortgage on his home. After assembling an international volunteer team from all walks of life -homemakers, engineers, nurses, and teachers - the Power of One (Xof1) Solar Car was at last ready for testing on March 13, 2005.
However, obstacles immediately confronted Marcelo and his team when they wished to test drive the Xof1. The racing tracks were still closed for Winter. The Ontario government did not want to issue any permits for solar cars with foreign licenses to be on public roads. It seemed his dream, at last manifest and ready to flex its solar muscles, was unable to get on the road.
Marcelo was not discouraged.
His team, in an epiphany, realized that they could bypass the regulations by testing the solar car on a frozen lake. Since the laws did not forbid his car from driving on a body of water, Marcelo and his team were able to successfully complete the first test trials for the Xof1. After the tracks opened in the Spring, further testing of the solar car’s VOIP communication, steering, brakes, speed and stability proved that it was ready for the open road.
Now that Marcelo was ready to begin his marathon drive, his savings and mortgage funds had run perilously low. Rather than postponing his long-awaited journey, he began to use credit cards and loans.
The car, licensed in the country of Barbados in 2007, was at last ready for its first tour. The man, without any prospective job, spouse or household responsibilities requiring his attention, was also ready. The goal? To break the previous record of 15,070 kilometers. The journey began in Buffalo, New York, but first symbolically began at Seneca College in Toronto where Marcelo had received tremendous help and technical support.
The bizarre sight of a solar car cruising down the street stirred the local media into snapping photos and interviewing Marcelo even from the very beginning. As he crossed Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin, Marcelo cruised without major incident. He was accompanied by a van of volunteers with spare parts and plenty of water bottles, ready to assist him if anything malfunctioned in the vehicle or if he became dehydrated.
When he entered Stillwater, Minnesota, Marcelo was pursued by the police. He was not speeding. He had merely attracted attention from some of the locals who called in reports about his car. The police told him it was not legal to drive on the road in a solar car. Marcelo produced documentation proving that it was, in fact, perfectly legal. The police did not budge. They called it in, waited for confirmation from DC, and Marcelo was vindicated. Not content to let the matter slide, the police directed their attention to the supply van. They claimed that it was a commercial vehicle and required various registrations.
Marcelo was not discouraged.
After a day of filling out paperwork to sate the overly zealous police officers, Marcelo and his crew set forth once again. Throughout their travels, Marcelo would be stopped a total of 26 times by local troopers and police officers.
Traveling north through Minnesota, the Xof1 team entered the Canadian phase of their journey, heading towards the Arctic. Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia faded into the rearview camera of the solar car, until at last the sprawling wilds of the Yukon lay before Marcelo. At the very northernmost tip of the Yukon, Marcelo crossed into the Arctic.
Rain, cloud cover and terrible road conditions impeded the Arctic journey, especially the last 450 miles to the Arctic Circle. Despite these difficulties, Marcelo pressed onwards, circling down into Alaska where the locals called the police to report a “UFO” sighting. The solar car was frequently mistaken by observers as an alien spacecraft, despite its use of wheels to travel on the road.
Looping down through the Yukon and British Columbia, the Xof1 team was heading towards the United States. However, in Vancouver, B.C., the crew became stranded for a month without sunlight.
Marcelo was not discouraged.
Once the clouds allowed the sun to share its generous light, the solar car traveled forth to Victoria, B.C., where at last the world distance record for a solar car was broken when Marcelo surpassed 15,070 miles in October, 2008.
But why stop there? Marcelo wanted to make sure he left an untouchable record.
What about all the bills and expenses piling up? No matter. Despite the publicity not generating any sponsors, his determination was purest steel. After all, family and friends were inspired by his mad quest and he wanted others to feel motivated to “benefit mankind and their environment.” The journey that followed would leave Marcelo without income for 3 and a half years. Cheap meals, motels and the lifestyle of a traveling green technology monk became his modus operandi.
Southward and onward, from 2008 to 2009, Marcelo traversed the outer edges of the United States, down the West coast, across the Southern states, back up the East coast and across the Canadian north until at last he returned to the frigid Northwest Territories in July 2009.
Having now doubled the previous world record, Marcelo was not satisfied. He wanted danger. He wanted a challenge. So, Marcelo decided that he would tackle the Arctic and drive up the Dempster Highway to Inuvik, the northernmost Canadian community. Of course, the solar car was not designed to be without sunlight in the often cloudy Arctic skies, nor was there heating in the vehicle for the driver. Furthermore, the ice road does not start forming until late November or December. Marcelo would have to wait until Spring.
Marcelo was not discouraged.
He would wrap his feet, put on his sunglasses and drive beneath the midnight sun to glory. He waited until April 10, 2010, and began the 113 mile ice road challenge from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk 113 miles away. The weather was overcast, so it took 3 days to charge the batteries. The ice road between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk, the longest continuous ice road in the world, was handily conquered in under 5 days by the intrepid Marcelo as he drove into the town of Tuktoyaktuk on April 10. He then completed an unscheduled return trip to Inuvik on April 14.
As proud as Marcelo is of his physical displays of solar car mastery, he has always been more interested in empowering the environmental and sustainable energy movements than in self-aggrandizement. In April, 2011, Marcelo decided to address the issue that had first plagued him at the beginning of his journey in 2005 when he was unable to drive his solar car in Ontario.
“I can drive the car anywhere in the world, except the province of Ontario,” laments Marcelo. While he did not contemplate becoming an outlaw, Marcelo thought he would step just close enough to the edge to bring attention to his solar car cause. By hand, by sweat, and by sheer willpower, Marcelo decided, “To protest the province of Ontario and to raise awareness for my cause, my fight with the government... I said fine, I can’t drive it, but I can walk. So I pulled the solar car by hand from Niagara to Toronto. It was 160 kilometers. I had to take side roads. It took me 12 days and I averaged about 15 kilometers a day.”
This undaunted, activist spirit has led him to make education about solar power issues of prime importance in his campaigning. What good are his demonstrations if he does not offer them as a lesson?
To this end, Marcelo has decided to at last discipline his passionate quest with some strategic planning. He admits he has “been acting with my heart, less with my brain. I haven’t been planning ahead. This time, I’m going to take some time and share the acts of one experience with communities. I’m going to give them a platform to participate.” Next Spring, 2012, Marcelo will pull his solar car from Toronto to Ottawa, which is 3 times the distance from Niagara to Toronto. He will again pull the car an average of 15 kilometers a day, but this time he will stop at communities and schools, invite local heroes engaged in sustainability to give talks and reach “a critical mass of awareness” by the time he finishes his symbolic trial.
Until then, Marcelo is recording all of his triumphs, obstacles and misadventures in a book about his experience. It will be published next Spring, just in time for his latest solar car stunt.
Asked to summarize his reasons for pursuing such a wild quest, for traveling over 36,200 kilometers in a solar car, for driving over frozen waters beneath the midnight sun and for pulling the weight of a vehicle behind him in protest, Marcelo sees not himself but mankind reflected in his purpose.
“My opinion, my view on what I have experienced so far is that we do not lack technology. We do have clean and sustainable tech we could be using today. In fact green sustainable tech has been available for quite sometime. What we lack is a political will. We’re a bunch of hypocrites, we’re all waiting for the government, someone or somebody to save the planet for us and it’s not going to happen. We have to take ownership. We have to take some responsibility. We have to do our own share.”