Solar panels on roads might seem like a bit of a far-out idea now, but the U.S. DOT is actually investing in funding the building of a prototype road. Building a solar road would be the ultimate green job.
What it will take for this to seem less odd is more people getting used to seeing solar panels everywhere, something that will happen soon, and a desperation for clean power, another thing that will happen very soon. The barriers to this include: the panels have to be strong enough to withstand traffic. They will have to be heated. The road panels will initially be expensive (what isn’t?). And we will have to get trucks and super-heavy vehicles off the road, (which should happen anyway because they cause accidents and destroy the roads we have.) The smoothness of the panels will also be an energy saver as they will reduce friction between vehicle and roadway. And they will generate lots of power.
Here’s a video explaining the idea.
From Grist: “The Solar Road Panels would contain not just solar panels but LED lighting (to enable real-time communication with drivers), heating units (to prevent icing), high-voltage power transmission lines, and even electric-vehicle recharging stations. It’s transportation, power, and grid infrastructure in the same place.
At the limit, if all paved surfaces in the U.S. were replaced with 15% efficiency solar panels, the resulting distributed power network could provide three times the electricity the nation consumes, with zero carbon emissions and no additional power grid infrastructure. (Yes, I’m aware manufacturing, installing, and maintaining it would generate emissions, as with any infrastructure project.)
So crazy it just might work? Apparently the Dept. of Transportation thinks so: Solar Roadways has received a $100,000 contract from DOT to build a prototype”
I love the idea. If it can work, why is it any crazier than CCS or geoengineering?
A great introduction to the idea is here. People are seriously considering this, which means creative ideas are going towards our energy problems, which is exactly what we need. It’s possible this could power the entire country. Think how many roads we have!
He created a 3-layer system to replace tarmac: the upper layer would be translucent and able to let the sunlight pass by, yet weatherproof. The middle layer would contain the electronics, including LEDs which would allow for easy lane reconfiguration and the solar cells that would capture electricity. This electricity could be stored and used to heat the road which would benefit winter traffic. The bottom layer would protect from the soil humidity while being also able to host communication cables and other systems.
Brusaw thinks that if the US Interstate Highway system was replaced with his system, with an solar cell efficiency of 10 percent, it could power the whole country.”
This seems a far better idea to me than painting roads white. In every area of the country where it gets cold enough to snow, white roads would literally be disasters waiting to happen. It’s the dark color of our roads that absorbes sunlight and makes the ice and snow melt. Dark solar panels on roads would accomplish this and generate power at the same time.
This seems like one of those ideas that’s interesting but ain’t never gonna happen. Think about the amount of up-front capital it’s going to take to rebuild every interstate in the country, and add to that the inconvenience of having all these roads closed for repair. Who would pay for that? You can get just as much power by installing rooftop systems all across the country. I’ll write more about this at makesolarsimple.com.
They could turn less-used roads into solar generating power strips. I doubt anyone is seriously thinking of doing this to highly-used interstates. It’s a good idea though for roads that mostly sit idle most of the time. There are a lot of roads that are barely used.
Not bad idea at all but maybe this ain’t practical now but their data when they have the prototype could be very interesting and something useful in the next step. A++ with the idea though there’s no doubt that building solar panels will be the mainstream in short time as grid cost gets higher and higher. As technology advances, production solar power materials are more competitive than ever.