ANU students take on rural Australia ahead of the World Solar Challenge

Gliding smoothly through dusty, rural towns, a strange, silent vehicle draws stares from watching locals.

Amid the rumble of trucks, the clanging of utes and the occasional roar of dirt bikes, its metronomic precision makes it seem unaccustomed to the cacophony of the country roads.

The onlookers are struck by its futuristic look. It’s like it slipped through a crack in time. The sleek design invokes the mysteries of a future that’s all the more compelling in a place so unchanging.

The object of their gaze?

A completely solar-powered race car. It was designed by a student-run group pioneering the future of renewable energy: the solar racing team from the Australian National University (ANU).

Every year, the team compete in the prestigious World Solar Challenge, a gruelling Mad Max-style marathon spanning the Australian outback.

In 2025, the team decided to do things differently. Before the big race, they took their car on a practice run through rural Australia.

The solar racing team’s business lead is ANU student Cameron Wallace. He sees the trip as helping Australians get a feel for the power of renewable energy, no matter where they live.

“One thing that we’ve definitely been lacking is how we do outreach – we have really wanted to broaden our scope within the Canberra region and go to places we have never been before.

“At the end of the day, we were also thinking about how the team could potentially have a separate identity from just competing in the World Solar Challenge.

“We approached Origin as a sponsor [for the regional tour], who agreed and supplied us with six EVs – things really came together.”

Starting in Wagga Wagga, the team followed the sun west, through the agricultural heartlands of Griffith, Bathurst, Orange and Dubbo. Along the way, they stopped at local schools and community centres to hold hands-on workshops. This gave students a rare chance to work directly with solar power.

“It was really cool to see such interest from the students – seeing their reactions and sometimes even answering really technical questions,” says Wallace.

“One of the big things we were trying to promote was the fact that we are students too, and you can put yourself out there and be part of a team and challenge yourself to do something new.”

But they aren’t the only ones meeting new challenges. Last year, the ANU team hit a milestone, crossing the finish line of the 3,000-kilometre World Solar Challenge for the first time.

Now, they’re gearing up to do the same under tougher conditions: a smaller battery capacity, and a new racing schedule. In 2025, their car will hit the road at the end of winter. Last time, it had the boost of a high summer sun.

Through their rural adventure, they hope to unite the team. To race well, they’ll need to confidently rely on each other – especially when the sun isn’t shining.

“I think the biggest benefit for the trip, aside from being able to do solar testing, was getting our competition and operations team familiar with what it actually looks like for every single person in the team to set up a tent every day and load a trailer,” Wallace says.

“It’s one thing to get a solar-powered vehicle through the outback but try 40 university students and getting them to wake up on time.

“It was really inspiring seeing all the team members get to know one another and build a better, more cohesive team. Through that, you could start to see team members who were maybe a bit shy really come out of their shells and gel together.”

With their prestigious race on the horizon, and an unmissable chance to share their passion with communities, it’s safe to say the future of renewable energy is bright – at least for these ANU students.

“The idea with the regional tour is that it’s something that we’re able to replicate and continue on as a team,” says Wallace.

“We would love for it to grow into something where one day we have schools ringing us up, wanting to get involved – that would be an awesome reality.”