Picture it: a highway, sometime in the near future. You take your significant other out for an afternoon drive in your car. Suddenly, a deer leaps out in the road, but you are able to brake in time. Why? The flashing sign on the road itself warned you to slow down.
A sign within the road itself? But that’s just a flat asphalt surface. How can it warn drivers of danger? It cannot possibly know that there is something else on the road.
However, Julie and Scott Brusaw, a counselor and an engineer, respectively, have come up with an innovative solution to the way we manage roadways. Their idea, “Solar Roadways,” includes a solution to global warming, while at the same time revitalizing the economy with jobs.
Solar panels are wonderful (yet expensive) alternatives to burning fossil fuels. They utilize energy from the sun and convert it into electricity. The Brusaws propose to replace asphalt roadways with solar panels.
The panels themselves consist of three different layers. The first layer, the Road Surface Layer, is made of glass. Yes, I said glass. This glass is not a typical windowpane; it has been textured to provide traction for grip, is durable enough to withstand thousands of pounds of pressure, and yet it is still translucent, allowing light from the sun to penetrate. Also in this layer are LED lights and a heating element, eliminating the need for road salt. Further, because the surface is heated, it stays dry, even in inclement weather. The second layer, the Electronics Layer, contains a full microprocessor board. This allows for intra as well as interpanel communication. It also controls the LED lights and the heating element in the first layer. The last layer, the Base Plate Layer, distributes the collected electricity into the electricity grid.
The panels overall are shaped like hexagons. On the surface of the hexagons are hundreds of other hexagons. With six sides each at 45 degrees from each other, they form a prism that traps light coming from every angle. Likewise, the embedded LEDs are in the hexagon shape as well, allowing for maximum visibility from every angle.
Asphalt is a petroleum-based product. As the cost of oil rises daily, finding oil alternative products is vital to the preservation of our economy. Further, the creation of each of these panels will create thousands of jobs, not to mention the maintenance jobs for upkeep, and for monitoring. The replacement of a panel in the road is much faster than pothole repair (ten minutes compared to a few hours).
The idea behind Solar Roadways is to produce electricity and give back to the power grid. With the addition of cables and wires alongside the panels, we can get high speed internet faster than we currently have and constant cell phone service; no more dead zones!
With over 28,000 square miles of asphalt roads and concrete areas in the US alone, the possibility for the use and application of Solar Roadways is large. Using Solar Roadways could produce three times as much energy as we currently consume. For more information, please visit SolarRoadways.com. Let’s drive into the future of sustainable roadways!
Model Photo: SolarRoadways.com