A solar car, built as a labour of love by a Beach resident, has racked up an impressive amount of firsts over the past two years, powered partly by the sun, and partly by the motivation of countless helpful strangers to help spread Marco da Luz' message of environmental sustainability.

The Power of One solar car project, known as xof1 for short, has become the first solar car to operate below freezing temperatures; the first solar car to drive on an ice road; the first solar car to drive north of the arctic circle; and the first solar car to charge with the power of the midnight sun. In the meantime, having travelled through the midwest U.S. States, the prairie provinces, British Columbia, the Yukon, Alaska, the west coast, and through the southern U.S., da Luz and xof1 set a world distance record for travel by solar car, at 35,750 km and counting.

Although those are all amazing achievements, da Luz is almost as proud of the less quantifiable experiences during his journey. He has shown the car to thousands of students at hundreds of schools, driven past wild horses and bison, encountered a wolf, been pulled over 26 times (including once by the Secret Service, and once by police who were called with reports of a UFO), and xof1 was chosen in 2008 to represent the “car of the future” at the start of the 100th anniversary of the Great Race in New York City.

Solar cars have been built for years, mostly by university engineering teams, but da Luz wanted to create something a bit more out of the ordinary to show the world what's possible with alternative energy sources.

“When you think of a solar car, you probably think of a hot country, in the summer, on a flat road,” he said. Building a car and testing in ideal conditions wouldn't do much to test the limits of the technology, however. “I didn't just want to build a solar car for the sake of it."

Not everyone could understand his determination to break the distance record. The car had to be licensed in another country, after the Ontario Ministry of Transportation refused to issue da Luz a permit to drive the car in the province in 2008. Instead, the journey began in Buffalo, travelling through the U.S. to Manitoba, where the team headed back north of the border.

“The only place I'm not allowed to drive the car is where it was built,” he said.
After driving through half of Canada and much of the U.S., xof1 is still holding up well. Although there were a few small repairs to the solar car – the fairings covering the wheels didn't survive an encounter with a deep pothole in the far north, and there were some suspension problems – overall, xof1 proved to be tough enough for the journey.

“I had more problems with the van and the trailer than with the solar car,” said da Luz.

In Whitehorse, the transmission on the support van was replaced at no charge by a generous mechanic who wanted to help the team. He was just one of many people whodonated time, technical skills, places to stay, and other support along the way.

photo by Moritz Noster

While preparing to drive the highway this past summer, da Luz and his team stopped in at the lodge that marks the beginning of the highway. The manager told them not to go, as the road was in its worst condition since it was first built.

“I looked at him and said, ‘you know, people told me I couldn't even build this car, and I've made it this far. I'm going to try it’,” said da Luz. Xof1 made the journey both ways, crossing the continental divide multiple times. Even an encounter with one of nature's most feared predators didn't stop the solar car on its record-breaking northern drive.

Along the Dempster, da Luz and his crew had to pull over to charge the car's batteries, as they didn't have enough power to make it up a particularly steep hill. Beside the car were animal tracks, which da Luz decided to follow. When he returned to the car, he saw two other vehicles pulled over beside his team in the support van, and what looked like a big dog on the side of the road. As he walked towards the cars, he realized the animal was actually a wolf, but thought it might be domesticated, since it was so close to the cars. Only after coming within a few feet of the wolf, and trying to pet it, did he realize it was actually a wild animal.

In Fort McPherson, the team showed off photos of da Luz and the wolf. He was surprised when people started phoning their friends to come see the photos of the guy trying to pet the wolf.

“I thought, ‘this is the first solar car that's ever been here. Why are they so excited about a wolf?’ They said, ‘we've never seen anyone get that close to a wolf and live to tell the tale’,” he said.

After thousands of kilometres of road, dozens of volunteers, travelling one of the roughest roads in the country (both ways), da Luz' next goal for xof1 almost seems reasonable.

If he can raise enough sponsorship over the next few months, da Luz is planning to drive xof1 from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk, on the longest ice road in the world. On April 10, if everything works out, da Luz and a crew of volunteers from around the planet will attempt to drive xof1 along 180 km of ice road in temperatures that could reach -30 degrees celsius.

Although in normal weather the car can drive up to 200 km in the dark on a full charge, da Luz is not completely sure of exactly how long the batteries will last at extreme temperatures, in an unheated vehicle. He's not expecting the charge to carry the car the full distance, and is expecting to be camping in the arctic.

“I asked myself, ‘what would be the greatest challenge on the planet for a solar car?’,” he said.

Never one to dream small, da Luz also has a plan to travel the west coast of North and South America, from Inuvik to the tip of South America, spreading his message of sustainability.

For more information and to stay updated on the Power of One solar car project, visit www.xof1.com.