(PhysOrg.com) – In a first step toward turning highways into energy-generating solar panels, the Sagle, Idaho-based startup Solar Roadways has recently received a $100,000 grant from the US Department of Transportation (DOT). The company will use the money to build a prototype of its Solar Road Panel, made from solar cells and glass, that is meant to replace petroleum-based asphalt on roads and in parking lots.
The 12- x 12-foot panels, which each cost $6,900, are designed to be embedded into roads. When shined upon, each panel generates an estimated 7.6 kilowatt hours of power each day. If this electricity could be pumped into the grid, the company predicts that a four-lane, one-mile stretch of road with panels could generate enough power for 500 homes. Although it would be expensive, covering the entire US interstate highway system with the panels could theoretically fulfill the country’s total energy needs. The company estimates that this would take 5 billion panels, but could “produce three times more power than we’ve ever used as a nation – almost enough to power the entire world.”
This seems like a good idea but might be a little pricey. I wonder how durable these panels are.
Why not add piezoelectric to the mix and generate juice day and night?
i like the idea of at least trying something… to sit and do nothing but rehash the problems of clean, cheap energy like we have since the 70′s doesn’t seem to be getting us anywhere… i’m for trying literally anything at this point if it will get us off oil.
Are roads that much cleaner in the United States compared to everywhere else in the world? How “clean” does the road need to be?
Also, it won’t take long before someone hits a guy at night who was trying to steal some of these panels.
I like the ice melting/wildlife warning/detour-making smart-road idea. though. Sounds useful for Canada. Hopefully it can melt all the snow before it runs out of juice otherwise you would have a nationwide ice rink. Go team go.
I don’t know if anyone’s noticed – but roads usually need re-surfacing every few years – potholes, bumps, whatever.
1 mile of road=5280 feet, so 440 panels per lane, that’s 1760 panels x $6,900 for 1 mile of 4-lane highway. That’s just over $12million per mile.
And, is there really a shortage of space for solar panels? Do we really need to pack them into the roads? Aren’t there 100s of square miles of open desert (where the sun shines) and we don’t have to worry about clearing snow off the road?
I appreciate the idea: someone is trying to innovate. So let’s build some cheaper solar panels and try to be a bit more practical.
Why not along the side of the road where no one would be driving on them?
These will go nowhere. The wiring in these will be so stressed by weights, temperature changes, they will be constantly malfunctioning. The only places that can afford these by any stretch would be big cities, which have traffic sit on these solar panels all day, thus making them barely generate any electricity. 1 mile of 24 ft wide road will cost $6,467,600, JUST FOR THE PANELS.
I would like to see Solar collectors in place where the sun always shines, but space-based solar collection is probably a long way off
Definitely a step in the right direction. The key to alternative energy success is diversify, the accumulative effect must eventually deliver the desired effect, energy independence and carbon free. What’s more, alternative energy is a high tech industry where the US should be leading the way rather than playing catch up. That’s what generates jobs and beefs up the economy, preparing your people to make a product that can’t be made anywhere else.
Interesting idea. But instead of using the panels to pave roads, use them for roofing.
This will never happen. How tough can they make them? Tougher than concrete? Very unlikely.
Wow, maybe after rolling these out they’d finally ban studded snow tires in my state, and I can see the nice new freeways they keep paving out here be smooth for more than one winter!
We need to find ways to use less energy not ways of generating more., we get to the balance point that what we use now, or better yet generate it as needed, as in per device… that would be the turn over to true energy independence.
Solar Panels like these would never survive Utah’s roads.
#12 From your comment I gather you’re the type of person who, when confronted with the problem of an insufficient supply of hats, would suggest we start lopping off some heads. Such a “progressive” thinker. Tell you what, Captain Oblivious, if there’s water inside the Titanic, there might be a leak somewhere.
The story is interesting, but factually inaccurate. The amount of light reaching the surface of the earth is 1KJ/m-s, which would require about 0.1% of the land area of the US to replace the energy used from all sources. Photovoltaic cells are never 100% efficient (far from it, in fact) and energy density varies with time of day and weather conditions. To list all the reasons why this investment is stupid would probably overload most modern computers. After all, 4 GB of RAM ought to be enough for everyone, no?
The road does seem a pretty stupid place to put a solar array, and that’s without considering the maintenance, durability and efficiency issues.
The roadside solar panels like they have around Germany seem to be a much more cost effective way to generate electricity and maintain.
Boneheads. Why not put the damn things in sewers, and be done with it?
First, it only makes sense to put out solar panels along freeways in sunny areas like the Desert Southwest.
It makes more sense to put the solar panels on south facing sound panels along freeways in cities. The sound panels are there anyway, and won’t get run over all the time (far less maintenance), so why not collect energy on those panels and turn it into something useful, like power?
In the boonies, put the panels along highways on south facing tilted panels.
We need to stop this silliness and embrace oil like a sick friend. Grab it’s big emaciated shoulders and plant a wet smoochy on big-oil’s diseased lips. And drill Alaska and the Yucatan, silly.
I don’t think we can afford all the copper needed to connect this fiasco to the grid.
Efficiency will be poor because of the IR
drop (voltage drop) losses.