Are Roads About To Become The Green Energy Producers Of The World?

Based in America, the idea is that the road surface will be made up of lots of extremely tough solar panels which will be heated and lit up from underneath using solar energy; melting snow and ice, providing safe night-time driving with no electric lighting and meaning road markings will not fade. The panels would also generate a large portion of the country’s energy reserves through solar energy. A crowdsourcing campaign (where resources, usually funding, are obtained via donations from large crowds of associated people, usually via the internet) has been under way since World Earth Day on the 22nd April but ends tomorrow (31st May). The project itself has been in the works for many years, with the first contract for a prototype being issued in 2009. The prototypes have been made and tested, including a test to show that the panels are harmless to animals and people and a digger being driven over the solar roadway repeatedly with no damage caused. The current funding drive is for the mass production of these high-tech black-box-like panels and for them to be laid on a selected surface for real life long-term testing.

The technical part is just as astonishing: the base layer of each hexagonal panel is made of entirely recycled, and recyclable materials. Then comes the circuit board, on top of which is the layer of LED lights and the topmost surface, the one we will be driving and walking on, is made of specially toughened glass that is half an inch thick. The panels slot together in any combination, and if only one panel needs maintenance, then only that one panel is popped open for repairs, isolated, with none of the other panels effected.

Several prototypes are being worked on at the moment; for different climates, heavy load traffic, pavements and car parks. What they all have in common though, is that they are all solar powered and will quickly pay for themselves through savings and energy supplies (some sources suggest that Solar Roadways could provide up to three times the energy required by the USA). There is also a plan to connect nearby businesses and houses to the solar panels through driveways and car parks, so that they can be powered by the solar energy created by the panels.

Unfortunately at the moment these roadways are only being tested out in Sandpoint Idaho, home of Solar Roadways co-founders Scott and Julie Brusaw. This couple, however, have plans to conquer the world with their fascinating clean energy producing road surface. I have to say, I’m excited to see it come to life here in the UK.

Here are some sources:
http://www.industryleadersmagazine.com/ … ur-future/
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