By Derek Spellman

dspellman@joplinglobe.com

NEOSHO, Mo. — Shane Bennett has seen the future, and it is sunny.

Bennett is the president of Sol-Stainable Technologies, which converts ordinary electric golf carts into solar-powered carts. It was started last year by Bennett and three other fellow Crowder College students.

The four students are alternative-energy apostles trying to secure a niche in an emerging industry.

“It is getting more and more popular,” Bennett said. “You couldn’t find anybody doing it six months ago.”

Solar power has gained ground as an alternative energy source for cars and houses, but now businesses such as Sol-Stainable Technologies are showing how solar power can also be harnessed for smaller, less expensive applications.

With current technology, a solar-powered car can reach speeds of 105 mph and be driven on the highway, but it also costs hundreds of thousands of dollars.

By contrast, the solar golf carts that Sol-Stainable Technologies can provide might reach speeds of 15 mph but cost far less. Bennett said that the company can convert an existing cart at a cost of about $2,500 and with a turnaround time of less than a week, depending on the model.

The most immediate market would be golf courses, but Bennett and his partners also plan to promote the machines as a convenient and energy-efficient transport for retirement communities, theme parks, casinos, school campuses and large rural properties.

Sol-Stainable Technologies is partly an outgrowth of Crowder College’s solar energy programs, Bennett said.

Bennett credits Art Boyt, director of Crowder’s Missouri Alternative and Renewable Energy Technology (MARET) Center, with inspiring the operation.

The first solar car to cross the United States was built under Crowder’s guidance, he said, and Boyt was one of the pioneers in the field.

Years later, some of his students — including Bennett — began to see how a golf cart was well-suited for solar power. Its canopy, for example, provided a flat surface that was good space for solar panels.

The key advantages of a solar cart, Bennett argued, is that its primary energy source — i.e., the sun — is virtually inexhaustible and free.