Solar Powered Roads

[freeztar]

Brusaw's company, Solar Roadways, is based out of his house in Idaho and in the home electronics workshop he built next to it with the income from his consulting. Solar Roadways is still in the concept phase, built on a childhood fascination with an electric race car game called slot cars. The idea of cars running on electric roads stayed with him as he went on to earn his Master's degree in electrical engineering. As global warming became established science, his wife Julie suggested he turn his obsession with electric roads into a way to conserve fuel and reduce pollution. Brusaw came up with the idea of a road that produced its own electricity, a solar highway for energy independence.

 

One of the nation's leading authorities on solar energy, Nate Lewis of Caltech, has calculated that covering 1.7% of the land surface of the United States with 10 percent efficient solar energy converters could supply all our current national energy demand. As it happens, this is roughly the same amount of land that is devoted to the nation's interstate highway system. Lewis believes that covering a large, barren section of some of the western states with solar panels is the best solution to our energy needs, but we would need a photovoltaic material almost as cheap as paint to make it cost competitive with fossil fuels, and we would still need to transport the energy around the country.

 

In Brusaw's Solar Roadways concept, instead of covering a large area of the Southwest with solar arrays, all of our roads would be paved with glass panels that could collect and distribute solar energy. Sunlight would shine through the surface onto a middle layer of solar cells. The solar cells would produce electric energy to light the road at night and heat it in winter, with enough leftover electricity to power homes and businesses. Brusaw estimates that each mile of solar panels could power 500 homes.

 

More here -

Source: Pennsylvania State University Materials Research Institute

[Tormod]

Moved to "News in Brief".

 

Please read our style guide for news publishing:

http://hypography.com/forums/tutorials-how-tos/1753-how-publish-news-article.html

 

:hihi:

[InfiniteNow]

Cool. They mention a concept like this here, too:

 

A Solar Grand Plan: Scientific American

 

:doh:

[REASON]

What a slick idea.....

 

 

.....I mean literally. Glass highways sound real slick, particularly when wet. I haven't read the whole concept. I'm sure a concern like this has been addressed.

[johnfp]

Humm, what happens when there is gridlock or heavy traffic?

 

The installation under existing roadways would be much more expensive then building a stand alone station in the desert.

 

The problem with solar cells is 1. they are expensive 2. they degrade over time (10years?).

 

I did resently see a special concerning a group that is working on a solar paint believe it or not.

 

The application most suited for solar cells is to design them as modular shingles for a house.

[Essay]

very tangentially,

 

Think of the rpm's that you could gear up to, from harnessing the expansion and contraction of road, or road-bridge, joints.

 

Materials could be designed to maximize thermal expansion/contraction, or take advantage of other weight change/distribution effects of traffic.

 

Could roadside magnets oscillate a circuit as cars whizzed by?

 

okay, back on the circle....

:doh:

 

Neat find, by the way....

[Ahmabeliever]

There was a solarfilm recently developed with 50% efficiency. So the figures can now be whittled down by 5. They said it was about 1/5th the price too. Production has started now they are needing to ramp it up to meet demand.

 

Out there somewhere....

 

Here's a link I think is a bit behind the times in so far as the technology is already being sold. I LOVE thefact they're making them organic though.

 

Solar Film

 

Here's a bit of treehugers blog and a nice link off it.

 

World's Largest Thin-Film Solar Power Plant Opens : TreeHugger

 

Solar roads are meant to be used already in some town in Belgium.

[Michaelangelica]

Solar-Powered Bra and User-Powered Dress To Juice Up Your iPod : TreeHugger

Help Protect Great Tits, Fight Global Warming, Scientists Say (With Pictures) : TreeHugger