UPDATE: 9.8.09
Press Releases
August 25, 2009
US DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION AWARDS $100,000
RESEARCH CONTRACT TO SOLAR ROADWAYS
Funds intelligent roads and parking lots
SOLAR ROADWAYS, SAGLE, IDAHO (August 25, 2009)- Solar Roadways today announced that it has been awarded a DOT contract that will enable them to prototype the first ever Solar Road Panel.
The Solar Roadways will collect solar energy to power businesses and homes via structurally-engineered solar panels that are driven upon, to be placed in parking lots and roadways in lieu of petroleum-based asphalt surfaces.
The Solar Road Panels will contain embedded LEDs which “paint” the road lines from beneath to provide safer nighttime driving, as well as to give up to the minute instructions (via the road) to drivers (i.e. “detour ahead”). The road will be able to sense wildlife on the road and can warn drivers to “slow down”. There will also be embedded heating elements in the surface to prevent snow and ice buildup, providing for safer winter driving. This feature packed system will become an intelligent highway that will double as a secure, intelligent, decentralized, self-healing power grid which will enable a gradual weaning from fossil fuels.
Replacing asphalt roads and parking lots with Solar Roadway panels will be a major step toward halting climate change. Fully electric vehicles will be able to recharge along the roadway and in parking lots, finally making electric cars practical for long trips.
It is estimated that is will take roughly five billion (a stimulus package in itself) 12′ by 12′ Solar Road Panels to cover the asphalt surfaces in the U.S. alone, allowing us to produce three times more power than we’ve ever used as a nation – almost enough to power the entire world.
FROM 3.7.08:
This new technology is going beyond ideas and into reality. There is a huge potential and it is not as farfetched as it might sound. Idaho-based Solar Roadways is one of the trailblazers. The solar roadway is a series of interconnected Solar PV road panels that you can actually drive on. Electrical engineer Scott Brusaw was inspired to start the company when he heard Caltech solar energy expert Nate Lewis suggest that covering just 1.7 percent of continental U.S. land surface with photovoltaic (PV) solar collectors could produce enough power to meet the nation’s total energy demand.
The heart of the solar roadway concept is the solar road panel. Each individual panel consists of three basic layers, the road surface layer, which is translucent and high-strength yet rough enough to provide traction. The surface layer is capable of handling today’s heaviest loads under the worst of conditions and protect the electronics layer beneath it.
The three layers (top, middle, and bottom) of a solar road panel.
Next is the electronics layer, which contains a large array of cells, the bulk of which contain solar collecting cells with LEDs for “painting” the road surface. These cells also contain the “Super” or “Ultra” caps that store the sun’s energy for later use. Batteries are not used in the solar roadway. Since each solar road panel manages its own electricity generation, storage, and distribution, they can heat themselves in northern climates to eliminate snow and ice accumulation.
The third layer is the base plate layer, which distributes power (collected from the electronics layer) and data signals (phone, TV, internet, etc.) “downline” to all homes and businesses connected to the solar roadway. The power and data signals are passed through each of the four sides of the base plate layer. The base plate layer is directly attached to vertical risers, pneumatic or hydraulic pistons that raise or lower different points of individual solar road panels. Riser bases are installed beneath the frost line to avoid the “heaving” phenomenon common in colder climates where the ground freezes and thaws. This provides a natural earth ground for the electronics layer of the Solar Road Panels. The risers are controlled (raised, lowered, or locked) by the solar road panel’s microprocessor board. The microprocessor board communicates with each adjacent panel to ensure a seamless road surface.
The skeptics main concern is the surface. Solar Roadways has approached the nations top materials research labs. “Penn State University’s Materials Research Institute and the University of Dayton’s Research Institute [are] working of figures for developing the top layer,” Brusaw says. He has also said they could easily make the surface to the specs needed… i.e. durable enough for long term use of fully loaded 18 wheelers, non glare, transparent enought for PV, good traction for braking etc.
The possible “extras” from this technology are impressive…
•The first and best is power…. enough for the entire country.
•Rather than paint and markers on the road you would have colorized substrate that would even light up at night like a runway… no guessing where the road is.
•The roads would defrost themselves in northern climates
•All the other wires could be integrated, power, cable tv, internet, phone etc.
•Plug in or wireless microwave on board charging of electric vehicles… charge while you are parked. •Monitoring of traffic for safety and law enforement.
•Power all the street lights and intersections for safety
• Save hundreds of millions of animals lives by built in wildlife warning devises to keep the animals using the under roadway pathways built for them instead of on top of the roads.
“It looks like 2008 is going to be our year. Everything seems to be falling into place at just the right time,” says Brusaw.
article on renewableenergyworld
Happy PV trails,
Bruce