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The DCU Solar Racing team in front of the DCU sign with the beta prototype

Engineering a brighter way to race

Maidir linn

We're a student-led team designing and building a world-class solar electric race car. We're pushing what's possible in sustainable development, teamwork, and Irish engineering.

Support the projectMeet the team

2022

It started with a few students and an idea.

In 2022 a few DCU engineering students set out to build Ireland’s first solar race car. None of us had built a car before. DCU backed us from the start, but there was no plan: only the idea, and the will to see it through.

The team in green DCU Solar Racing polos around the prototype, a team member in the driver’s seat

Who we are

Students at Dublin City University, from mechanical and electrical engineering to software, aerodynamics and operations, building the car alongside our degrees.

What we are

The team behind Ireland’s first solar race car. We design, build and race our own cars, from a bare chassis in 2024 to 24 hours at Circuit Zolder in 2026.

Team Members
22
Disciplines across the team
10
Kilometers raced in 24hrs at the iLumen European Solar Challenge
639km
Irish Solar Powered Race Car
1

Built by students

  • The team in green kit celebrating round Solas with two Irish flags outside the pit garage at Circuit Zolder
  • Solas on the Zolder track at night, its headlights on
  • Team members in hi-vis working under Solas in the pit garage
  • Solas taking a corner at Circuit Zolder
  • A team member raises a fist beside Solas in the Zolder pit lane
  • Solas, number 32, passing the red and white kerbs at Zolder

The road so far

Four years from an idea to a race car, and not everything went to plan.

Not everything went to plan

  • Dates we didn’t make

    We set ourselves deadlines and races we weren’t ready for, and had to let them go.

  • Money ran short

    With DCU behind us but no funding of our own, the money ran out before the build did, and we had to find support one partner at a time.

  • People moved on

    Students graduated or left mid-build, and each time the team had to regroup and relearn what they knew.

We kept going.

  1. Team members in a bare steel chassis, with a hub motor on the stand beside it

    2024

    Build small first

    The first step, a bare chassis to learn on, shown at DCU Glasnevin in October 2024.

  2. Team members gathered round the prototype at dusk, its lights on and a driver in the seat

    2025

    The first drive

    Our prototype drove on campus under its own power in September 2025.

Solas, number 32, crossing the finish at Circuit Zolder as the team waves the Irish flag

2026

Finally, a race car

Solas ran the full 24 hours of the iLumen European Solar Challenge at Circuit Zolder: 159 laps, 639 km, 7th in class.

Built to outlast us.

Every one of us will graduate. The team is meant to keep going long after, each year handing on more than it was given.

Team members in green DCU Solar Racing polos on the podium at Circuit Zolder, one lifting a gold trophy

  • A team that teaches itself

    Students who joined to learn become the ones who teach, so what we know stays when we leave.

  • Racing with the best

    Not only finishing, but contending at the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge and the races that follow it.

  • Ireland on the grid

    A lasting place for Irish engineering in solar racing, so the next team never has to start from nothing.

  • Engineers for what comes next

    Graduates who go on to build cleaner cars, grids and machines, and take what they learned here with them.

Become a part of our journey

Whether you're a student, mentor, or sponsor, there's a place for you in DCU Solar Racing.

Adopt a solar cellContact the team