Everyone can have a place in the sun! This is especially true in the case of Éclipse V, a vehicle designed by a multidisciplinary team of 26 students from the École de technologie supérieure de Montréal and propelled exclusively by solar energy. An ardent defender of the environment, this fifth-generation vehicle, which is strengthened by two new technologies (IsoGrid, which reduces the vehicle’s weight, and super-capacitors, which favour faster acceleration), will try its luck at the prestigious World Solar Challenge in Australia this fall. The team is confidant it will improve on the 20th-place finish (out of 50 contestants) it earned at the 2001 American Solar Challenge. In addition to this event, the team behind the Éclipse V has made the promotion of solar energy its raison-d’être. Accordingly, the Éclipse V promoters last year undertook an extensive CEGEP tour under the slogan 'Drive the Future.' In collaboration with the universities of Toronto and Waterloo, they travelled from Waterloo to Montreal, doing numerous stopovers with the aim of heightening public awareness.
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A convincing ambassador for solar energy, the Projet Esteban, the solar car designed by the Société technique du véhicule solaire at the École polytechnique de Montréal, has just launched its second prototype on the road to success. Last July Esteban II, this proud promoter of non-polluting and renewable energy, participated in the 3,700-km American Solar Challenge inter-university race between Chicago and Los Angeles. To heighten public awareness about alternative energy sources, the multidisciplinary group of some 40 students involved in the Esteban project undertook an extensive tour in the summer of 2002. They took their prototype from Montreal to Montmagny, with stops in Berthierville, Trois-Rivières, Shawinigan, Quebec City and Sainte-Julie. This 11-day tour aroused keen interest from both the general public and the media. But it also attracted the attention of the technical committee and jury members of the Association québécoise pour la maîtrise de l’énergie who acknowledged Projet Esteban during the 13th edition of its Énergia contest held in October 2002.
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The 16th symposium of the Association de la maîtrise en environnement de l’Université de Sherbrooke (AMEUS) was a major annual environmental event in Quebec. Held last February 28 under the theme Énergie: efficacité et durabilité (energy: efficiency and durability), the symposium attracted more than 250 environment professionals from across Quebec and from many fields including industrial, municipal, governmental and university. Among other things, the symposium, which was set up with brio by the student members of AMEUS, gave lecturers an opportunity to present and defend concrete experiences and various forms of energy available on the market now and in the near future. Finding its roots in the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by the Canadian Prime Minister, the symposium had two precise objectives: to modify the use of energy so as to make it more respectful of the environment and to explain the importance of producing and using energy which is in keeping with sustainable development in order to guarantee its durability.
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