Scott Brusaw, one of the founders of Solar Roadways, has until 12 February 2010 to show that his concept is a viable means of generating electricity by resurfacing our road networks with solar panels. According to Brusaw in a recent interview with the BBC, each four by four metre panel has the capacity to generate 7.6 kW per day and if installed across the USA, could generate three times as much electricity as the US needs. To put this into context, a 1.5 kilometre stretch of road covered with these panels could generate (and store) enough electricity to supply 500 homes. Brusaw also claims that the final cost of his panels will be the same as asphalting a road and they will have a useful life of 21 years, although a staggering five billion US Dollars (a stimulus package in itself) would be required to replace all the US’s roads with Solar Road Panels.
The solar roadways would be covered with 30 cm thick panels built in three layers: a translucent top layer which would be rough to improve traction ansd strong enough to support the weight of vehicles; a second PV cell layer containing the electronic mechanisms permitting light to be absorbed, transformed into electricity and stored; and a third layer responsible for distributing the energy produced. The second layer would also contain LEDs to light the roadway, while the third layer would also contain fibre optic cables for communications.
Safer roads
Like a giant video game, the LEDs embedded in the Solar Road Panels would "paint" the road lines from beneath to provide safer night time driving, as well as to give up to the minute instructions (via the road) to drivers (i.e. "detour ahead"). The road would also be able to sense wildlife on the road and warn drivers to slow down.
There will also be embedded heating elements in the surface to prevent snow and ice build up, providing for safer winter driving. In short, this feature packed system will become an intelligent highway that will improve accident rates while doubling as a secure, intelligent, decentralised, self-healing power grid.
Finally, Solar Roadway’s panels would help mitigate climate change still further as they would avoid the need for asphalt, a petroleum-based substance which contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, and, according to Solar Roadways, would promote the use of electric vehicles that could be recharged at any point along these new intelligent highways, finally making electric cars practical for long trips.
Brusaw reports that the first manufacturing plant for these panels will be operational in two years and that “in three to four years, we could be building the first of these roadways in the US”.
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