Solar Roadways: The Prototype (video)

The Solar Roadways project is working to pave roads with solar panels that you can drive on.   In addition to collecting and storing solar energy, these Solar Roadways will deliver the electricity directly to your home.   These Solar Roadways would replace asphalt roads, significantly reduce pollution, reduce fossil fuel electricity, and create a new electricity network in roads that would replace overhead electricity lines.   What’s not to like?

In 2009, Solar Roadways received a contract from the Federal Highway Administration to build the first ever Solar Road Panel prototype.  This year, Solar Roadways has entered GE’s Ecomagination Challenge: a $200 million innovation experiment where businesses, entrepreneurs, innovators and students share their best ideas on how to build the next-generation power grid – and just might get funded.  Watch this video and visit the Solar Roadways website to show your support.

Solar Roadways: The Prototype

Introduction (excerpts from Solar Roadways website)

Suppose we made a section of road out of this material and housed solar cells to collect energy, which could pay for the cost of the panel, thereby creating a road that would pay for itself over time. What if we added LEDs to “paint” the road lines from beneath, lighting up the road for safer night time driving? What if we added a heating element in the surface (like the defrosting wire in the rear window of our cars) to prevent snow/ice accumulation in northern climates? The ideas and possibilities just continued to roll in and the Solar Roadway project was born.

In 2009, we received a contract from the Federal Highway Administration to build the first ever Solar Road Panel prototype. During the course of its construction, we learned many lessons and discovered new and better ways to approach this project. These methods and discoveries are discussed throughout this website – http://www.solarroadways.com

Source: http://www.solarroadways.com/

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Tags: eco, solar, solar power, solar roadways