Scott Brusaw of Sagle, Idaho–hopes to produce these solar panel roads by Feburary. The electrical engineer is currently at work building a prototype of his so-called "Solar Road Panel" with the help of a $100,000 small business grand from the Department of Transportation. "We're building solar panels that you can drive on," Brusaw says. "The fact that it's generating power means it pays for itself over time, as opposed to asphalt." There is about 260,000 miles of road in the United States so making this much solar panels will cost a huge amount of money. The glass will need to hold extreme strengths and the roads will have to allow tires to grip onto the glass. The coolest feature will be they will be self cleaning!
"Glass theoretically can have a very high strength, provided there are no flaws," says materials scientist John Hellmann of Penn State, a glass expert. But "can you keep the proper optical properties to transmit light to the PV [photovoltaics, or solar cell] and still not weather or change with that traffic going over it? …
We make some pretty doggone good glass for structural applications but we're not driving trucks on them." The cost of these roads will be about $1 per square foot which means they will be very expensive but with loans for the DoT Brusaw may be able to excel in this monumentus feat. Another awesome feature will be that they will be built with LED lights to illuminate the road and will be able to warn drivers about weather conditions and lane instructions such as "Slow Down". Remember this date Feburary 12, 2010 Brusaw will test a portion of his solar panel road to check durability and how well it will work.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=driving-on-glass-solar-roads
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Mike, Good so far. Find a second source with a little more information on the solar resources part - like how it will hook up to the power grid, for example.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/08/solar_roadways.php
Mike,
The idea of solar panel roads seems like a project that will be very difficult to complete but also very beneficial if the proper work is put in.If this idea actually works out the way they wish, it could solve many of our energy problems. As well as conserving energy, the roads may also play a key role in solving global warming, which is obviously a huge issue today. As you mentioned, a money issue is definitely stalling the development of this project. Scott Brusaw, the founder of Solar Roadways predicts that the lowest possible cost of manufacturing the solar panels will be about $10,000 per 12X12ft panel. This will cost billions of dollars to install them on all US roads. But even though it costs so much money, it will definitely save people money on their electric bills. The solar cells within the panels will power buildings and heat the road. Also, each mile of road can power about 500 homes.
Post a Comment