Progress Energy, Harris Nuclear Plant host EV Challenge

(I-Newswire) April 2, 2005 - The EV Challenge, which is sponsored by the Wake County-based Carolina Electric Vehicles Coalition, is a yearlong educational program during which high school and middle school students construct electric vehicles. Progress Energy and the North Carolina State Energy Office are sponsors of the EV Challenge.

Hundreds of high school students from North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Florida presented and competed in their custom-built electric cars and trucks in this final event of the annual EV Challenge. The second day of the challenge, which will be held Saturday at Wakefield High School, will feature the electric vehicles built by high school students and model solar-powered cars built by middle school students.

"Progress Energy is committed to environmental stewardship, and we are proud to sponsor educational programs that promote science and alternative fuels," said Jim Scarola, Harris Nuclear Plant vice president.

EV Challenge is a yearlong educational program that involves students from a variety of fields of study, including mathematics, auto mechanics, physics, engineering, electronics, journalism and other disciplines. Throughout the year, students compete in activities such as environmental science projects, Web site design and public presentations. Schools are also rewarded for community service-oriented activities. The highlight of the EV Challenge program is the students' design and construction of street-legal, electric vehicles.

The inaugural EV Challenge was held in 1996 with roughly 200 students from three North Carolina high schools taking part. For more information about the EV Challenge, please visit www.evchallenge.org.

Progress Energy (NYSE: PGN), headquartered in Raleigh, N.C., is a Fortune 250 diversified energy company with more than 24,000 megawatts of generation capacity and $9 billion in annual revenues. The company's holdings include two electric utilities serving approximately 2.9 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida. Progress Energy also includes nonregulated operations covering competitive generation, energy marketing, natural gas production, fuel extraction and broadband capacity. For more information about Progress Energy, visit the company's Web site at http://www.progress-energy.com.

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