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Riders and teams have already started preparing for the 2007 RACV Energy Breakthrough. The Kid and I saw a few of them practicing around the circuit yesterday.

The official “What is the Energy Breakthrough” article on the website describes the event:

The BREAKTHROUGH is an exciting program designed to provide opportunities for students, teachers, parents and local industry to work together to design and construct a vehicle, a machine or innovation in technology that will represent an energy breakthrough.

The program encourages participants to examine and use the latest technology while considering its impact on the environment and the way people live locally and globally. The RACV Energy Breakthrough isn’t just a once-a-year event! 

School groups work throughout the year to design, build and test vehicles or machines within detailed specifications. It requires a team effort and an across-the-curriculum approach. These groups then bring their vehicles and machines to Maryborough in November, for a huge celebration in which they can demonstrate and trial them in action.

In essence, school teams compete against each other using either pedal powered recumbent bikes (as in the photo above) or super economical petrol/human hybrid vehicles. There’s no real energy breakthrough actually happening; it’s more about giving kids who will be vehicle engineers in 10 years time a place to start thinking about design, power and the kinds of tradeoffs required to balance vehicles against environmental cost.

For the town it means an influx of several thousand teenagers, most of them drunk, and a whole bunch of cash. All the carnie folk come to town as well; there’s a big fair on the Saturday night with rides and the usual sideshow stuff.