A U.S. company’s grand vision to cover every sealed road surface with solar panels and ending dependency of fossil fuels of any kind has taken another small step towards fruition.
Idaho based Solar Roadways recently won the GE Ecomagination Challenge and along with it, a USD $50,000 cash prize. Out of 3795 ideas submitted to the GE Ecomagination Challenge, Solar Roadways received the highest number of public votes.
In 2009, the company received a grant from the Federal Highway Administration to create the first Solar Road Panel prototype; a very different type of module to the solar panels we install on our homes.
Each solar panel consists of three layers. The road surface layer provides a gripping surface, but still allows sunlight to pass through to the solar cells. This initial layer also contains LED lighting and a heating element, which is engaged in snow conditions.
The electronics layer contains the solar cell and all the circuitry for sensing conditions and controlling lighting, heating and communications; creating an "intelligent" roadway system. The final layer distributes the power and data signals to homes and businesses connected to the Solar Roadway.
According to the Solar Roadways web site, in the 48 contiguous U.S. states alone, pavements and other impervious surfaces cover 112,610 square kilometres. If the entire amount were covered by high efficiency solar panels, and taking into account available sun hours and various inefficiencies, 13,961 billion kilowatt-hours of clean, renewable electricity could be generated annually.
The cost to carry out such a massive project would be enormous, but Solar Roadways believes it would take just under 22 years to pay for itself not using any other methods of revenue collection the company proposes aside from electricity generation – with some extra "value adding" ideas, it could take far less.
