Solar Roadways

What if there were a way to avoid our treacherous winter roads covered with inches of ice that make the stopping of our vehicles a dubious proposition, at best? What if there were a way for us to no longer worry about Erie’s famous potholes that can cause serious damage to our vehicles? What if there were a way to completely be rid of roadwork that you’ve wasted half of your life waiting for, or a way to easily spot an animal on the road — be it a deer or a kitten — before we either demolish the front end of our vehicles or cry the rest of the way home?

What if there was a way to do all this and more while also providing our country with enough energy to exceed our needs?

Well, there is a way, and that way is called Solar Roadways, and don’t we feel a little silly for not thinking of it before?

If this is the first you are hearing of Solar Roadways, here is the short-and-skinny of the project: a Solar Roadway System would be secured on top of the already-present roads, sidewalks, parking lots, and bike paths with hexagonal glass solar panels — a shape which allows for the pavement of curves and hills — that are comprised of recycled materials, microprocessors, heating elements, and LED lights. This system would turn the nation’s approximately 31,000 square miles of roads into a massive generator of clean, renewable energy — over three times more electricity than is currently used in the U.S. — and serve as a charging source for electric vehicles.

One of the first questions you may ask is how would driving on glass be safe, let alone possible? After all, when most of us think of glass we think of the cups in our cupboards or the glass covering our end tables. Scott Brusaw, co-inventor and co-owner of Solar Roadways with his wife, Julie, has the answer to that.

“You first mention glass, people think of your kitchen window,” Scott told Fast Company, a business magazine that focuses on technology, business, and design. “But think of bulletproof glass or bomb resistant glass. You can make it any way you want. Basically bulletproof glass is several sheets of tempered glass laminated together. That’s what we have, only our glass is a half-inch thick, and tempered, and laminated.”

Not only is the glass sturdy, but it also has similar traction to asphalt roads and is able to stop a vehicle going 80 miles per hour, given the required distance. This was tried at university civil engineering labs across the country during the Phase II Prototype testing, along with load and impact resistance testing, which is reported by Solar Roadways’ website that the glass has exceeded all expectations of the tests.

The panels’ features which Erie would benefit from most, of course, are the heating elements and the LED lights.

The solar panels would heat up to about 35 degrees Fahrenheit, melting snow and ice during the winter months, which means no more snow plowing or shoveling and no more dreaded potholes from winter damage.

The water would then be collected through a corridor-like contraption where it is gravity fed through filters and can be transferred to an existing drainage system or can be pumped and moved to a larger filtration facility, an agricultural center, or an aquifer. The same filtering process would be utilized for runoff rainwater. This system would combat road flooding and prevent ice build-up on the sides of the roads.

The LED lights on the solar panels would illuminate the road lines at night for safer driving and can be instantly customized. Imagine the faded lines of our roads being transformed into bright, yellow lights that can be easily seen, including crosswalks.

The panels also feature weight detecting elements, which means if anything — from a person to an animal — walks out onto the road, the panels that are touched will light up, warning the driver and preventing possible accidents.

And we could also say a definitive good-bye to inconvenient construction, which, according to Solar Roadways’ website, results in a loss of over $160 billion in national productivity from people being delayed by road maintenance.

The panels — each weighing 110 pounds — contain communication devices that allow each panel to communicate wirelessly with surrounding panels. If a panel malfunctions, the panels around it can report the problem. The damaged panel can then be replaced with a reprogrammed panel in a matter of minutes by a single person, and the damaged panel would be taken to a repair center. The time and money saved by this easy fix versus asphalt road maintenance would be incredible.

Currently the project has secured two contracts from the U.S. Federal Highway Administration for research and development and has surpassed its Indiegogo fundraising campaign goal of $1 million by nearly $1.1 million, raising almost $2.1 million all-in-all. The campaign ran from April 21 to June 20 of 2014.

The production of the solar panels thus far has depended on Scott and Julie along with a handful of devoted volunteers based in Sandpoint, Idaho, but the monies raised will allow the project to reach new heights by funding a team of engineers to work out the final kinks and to streamline production, and to begin offering green jobs for the manufacturing and installation of the solar panels.