BOONE, N.C. — Team Sunergy, Appalachian State University’s student-led, interdisciplinary solar vehicle team, earned a podium finish in the international 2025 Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix (FSGP), completing 227 laps, or 715 miles, to take home second place in the competition’s multi-occupant vehicle category. The team also won the event’s Abe Poot Teamwork Award — a recognition of their collaborative spirit in helping other teams succeed in the competition.
The competition, held June 30 to July 5 at the National Corvette Museum Motorsports Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky, scored contestants on a formula combining total miles completed, average speed, number of occupants and time spent charging vehicles with nonsolar energy. Hosted by the Innovators Educational Foundation, the annual Formula Sun Grand Prix is an endurance race on a closed-loop track that emphasizes safety, strategy and driver etiquette.
“We were trying to race a significant number of miles every day, so our vehicle and drivers needed to be extremely reliable, and they really demonstrated that well,” said team manager Zach Howard ’25, of Holly Springs, who is pursuing an accelerated master’s degree in technology with a concentration in renewable energy technology at App State. “We were also able to help other teams on the track, and the tools we had at our disposal helped with the experience they had while they were there.”
Pit stop: Team Sunergy converges to keep solar vehicle ROSE competitive during three days of racing in this year’s Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix. Photo by Kyla Willoughby
This year’s race likely marked the last run for ROSE, as the team is preparing a new, third-generation solar vehicle, with a goal of competing in the 2026 American Solar Challenge — an international solar vehicle distance road race held biennially by the Innovators Educational Foundation. The vehicle under development uses advanced composite structures and a more aerodynamic design that will make it hundreds of pounds lighter than ROSE, which weighs in around 1,100 pounds. Team Sunergy expects to begin testing the vehicle early next year.
Supported by App State’s Research Institute for Environment, Energy and Economics (RIEEE), Team Sunergy is integrated into the university’s research and innovation enterprise as a model for hands-on, interdisciplinary learning. And its students have distinguished themselves against some of the best collegiate engineering programs in the world.
Dr. Christine Ogilvie Hendren, vice chancellor of research and innovation at App State, traveled to Kentucky to cheer on the team.
“The team emphasizes research that integrates knowledge across many different disciplines and includes students, faculty and professionals from different sectors — all united in a specific shared goal, with dedication to each other as a team,” Hendren said. “A key aspect of our research and innovation strategy is to bottle this magic and create the conditions to repeat it in any number of other areas of excellence, including rural health care, robotics and automation, mountain agriculture and forestry innovations, and energy innovations.”
The thrill of success excites members of Team Sunergy, App State’s student-led solar vehicle team, as they monitor ROSE’s progress in the 2025 Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix, via the live feed streaming from the vehicle’s interior. Pictured, from left to right in the foreground, are Team Sunergy driver and mechanical lead Ethan Collias, a junior management major from Kings Mountain, and Ryan Densmore, a senior computer science major from Davidson. Pictured, from left to right in the background, are Adam Reed ’25, who recently graduated from App State with a bachelor’s degree in sustainable technology, and Andrew Bir, a senior sustainable technology major from Greensboro. Photo by Kyla Willoughby
Sun, sweat and team spirit
Prior to three days of racing, the team and its sun-powered, two-seater ROSE (Racing on Solar Energy) participated in three days of scrutineering — reviews by race officials who examined mechanical and electrical systems, safety equipment, lights and vision, solar array testing and vehicle handling. ROSE’s signature reliability and the experience gained by the team since it formed in 2013 became evident as Team Sunergy easily passed inspections.
Soaked in sweat, team members tested their nerves and resolve against intense heat, sleepless nights and the pressure of their own expectations for their performance. Rather than race at a top speed of 60 mph and burn through precious energy, drivers approached the sun’s rays strategically, holding ROSE near 30 mph. This consistent pace allowed the car’s solar array to replace the battery’s charge at about the same rate that energy was used, according to App State junior Ethan Collias, a Team Sunergy driver and mechanical lead from Kings Mountain who is majoring in management.
Team Sunergy members cheer on App State’s solar vehicle, ROSE (Racing on Solar Energy), as it cruises down the straightaway in the 2025 Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix, held in Bowling Green, Kentucky, from June 30 to July 5. Photo by Kyla Willoughby
With an eye for steady progress and maximum laps, App State’s Team Sunergy strategically balances speed with efficient use of the sun’s rays to bring solar vehicle ROSE to a second-place finish in the 2025 Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix. Photo by Kyla Willoughby
ROSE was able to start without a significant glitch, hold consistent lap speed and energy use through different drivers and smoothly complete the race, logging more laps than any other vehicle in its class — a testament to Team Sunergy’s level of preparation, said Jim Dees, advisor to the team and RIEEE research engagement manager.
“We did more laps than any other vehicle, felt good about that, ran the best race we could have and let the chips fall where they may,” Dees said. “ROSE was incredibly consistent and reliable — the car just kept going and going.”
As soon as ROSE was race-ready, Team Sunergy members fanned out among the other teams to help wherever they could.
“It’s a herculean effort just to get here, so if we can help another team make the difference between getting onto the track or not, that’s really worth doing,” said Collias.
Focus is key amid excitement and distractions at the annual Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix. Pictured during this year’s race, App State Team Sunergy member Adam Reed ’25 swaps out wheels on App State’ solar vehicle ROSE. Reed graduated from App State in May, earning his bachelor’s degree in sustainable technology. Photo by Kyla Willoughby
ROSE’s spacious travel trailer was equipped with a solar-powered machine shop where other teams were welcomed to make critical last-minute fixes, often late into the night. Over years of competing in FSGP, the Team Sunergy shop has kept its door open, becoming a center of goodwill and cross-team spirit — collegiality that won Team Sunergy the Spirit of the Event Award in the 2024 Electrek American Solar Challenge.
In the lead-up to the race, Team Sunergy troubleshot electrical components, replaced parts and innovated on the fly while learning from past mistakes. Solar-powered systems are nothing if not tricky, said Dees, and in the pressure of the pit, immersed in constant noise and distraction, you have to focus — there is simply no room to get it wrong.
“This year was the swan song for the vehicle that helped spotlight App State as a national leader in solar vehicle innovation,” Dees said. “ROSE’s durability, dependability and relentlessness have put us at the head of the solar racing landscape, and we were happy to take the vehicle out one final time.”
App State Team Sunergy driver Ariana Jones, of Raleigh, a senior majoring in building sciences, and passenger Mike Burry, a junior from Troutman who is majoring in industrial design, focus on controlling speed and enduring the heat to help bring solar vehicle ROSE to a podium finish in the annual Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix. Photo by Kyla Willoughby
Advancing student-led innovation and experiential learning
This year, as Team Sunergy works to develop its next-generation solar vehicle, the team has welcomed a group of Catawba College students through a new partnership with the college.
As part of this partnership, Catawba College has provided funding support for materials and parts for the new vehicle, with App State providing hands-on training and peer mentoring to the team’s Catawba College members. The ultimate goal through the partnership is to both support and inspire the development of new collegiate solar vehicle teams in North Carolina.
Like many universities with solar vehicle teams, App State is looking for ways to stabilize funding sources for this new vehicle initiative, said RIEEE Managing Director Grace Marasco-Plummer, who also attended the Formula Sun Grand Prix to show support for Team Sunergy.
“We intend to explore solutions to effectively support a model to integrate the program academically while preserving student-led innovation and problem-based, experiential learning and leadership opportunities,” Marasco-Plummer said.
Zipping along the closed-loop track at the National Corvette Museum Motorsports Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky, App State’s solar vehicle, ROSE, completes 227 laps (715 miles) to finish second in the multi-occupant vehicle category of the 2025 Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix. Photo by Kyla Willoughby
Team Sunergy has been representing App State ingenuity and team spirit since 2013, when students converted a gas-powered golf cart to electric power as a fall project, led by Army veteran Dan Blakeley ’15 ’18, an undergraduate student at the time. The teams that followed modified a donated existing shell to create the single-occupant race vehicle Apperion in 2015. In 2018, ROSE was ready for the track, designed and built entirely by App State students with a carbon fiber aeroshell, a 300-mile range and a top speed of 60 mph.
Since 2016, Team Sunergy has earned a top three podium finish in either FSGP or its sister competition, the cross-country American Solar Challenge road race. And lessons learned through the Team Sunergy experience have served its alumni well, with many graduating from App State and pursuing promising careers in a wide variety of fields, such as engineering, transportation, manufacturing, e-commerce and game development.
“These students leave App State having proven to themselves that they are able to envision something that doesn’t exist, draw on their education to create new knowledge and make it real with the help of the teams they build and join — and, importantly, employers can’t wait to hire them,” Hendren said. “The joy and confidence they gain through this experience stay with them, and they carry it through to create impact on the world after college.”
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Team Sunergy also earned the Spirit of the Event Award
About App State’s Team Sunergy
Appalachian State University’s internationally recognized Team Sunergy is an interdisciplinary, student-led team with a passion for sustainable transportation — and the ingenuity, innovation and drive to create it. The team began in fall 2013, as a class project to build a solar-powered golf cart, and has evolved into an award-winning program that has achieved podium finishes in every year of competition in both the Formula Sun Grand Prix and American Solar Challenge (ASC), including a first-place finish in the 2021 ASC. Both races set the standards for and test the limits of solar vehicle technology. Team Sunergy’s first vehicle, Apperion, was a modified single-occupant race car. In 2018, the team designed and built its current, two-passenger, Cruiser Class car, ROSE (Racing on Solar Energy), from the ground up. Learn more at https://sunergy.appstate.edu.
About Appalachian State University
As a premier public institution, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives. App State is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System, with a national reputation for innovative teaching and opening access to a high-quality, cost-effective education. The university enrolls more than 21,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and 80 graduate majors at its Boone and Hickory campuses and through App State Online. Learn more at https://www.appstate.edu.
Team Sunergy also earned the Spirit of the Event Award
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