Use roads as photovoltaic power plants
AutoBlogGreen has a story about a nice idea developed by Scott Brusaw and his wife. The idea itself is pretty simple and tries to solve several problems at once. We all know solar energy is good, but there is also the problem, that it uses a lot more space than its ungreen counterparts like coal plants et cetera. If we would put solar cells into our roads under a translucent layer, the deserts would remain a free habitat for wildlife. The potential space to use in America is huge. There are 65′000 square kilometers of roadways and parking lots that could be used as space for solar cells. Of course this makes only sense if we manage to produce cheap solar cells, and even better organic cheap solar cells. That these cells only come at an efficiency of about 4% is no problem, if we consider the huge amount of space that could be covered with them.
Another interesting possibility of this type of road would be the possibility to include LEDs to show all kinds of signs, including warnings from accidents. The problems to solve are, as mentioned above, the production of cheap solar cells and to find a material that is translucent and hard-wearing. It would probably also make sense if the parts would be reusable, because roads get rebuilt quite often.
September 24th, 2007 at 10:14 pm
[...] cells are steadily coming down so maybe after all it won’t be that long until we see the solar roadway? The good thing with this announcement is that its not about a new invention that was just made, [...]
September 24th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
In San Antonio, a normal 9′ x 18′ parking space would easily power an automobile if ALL of the solar energy striking it could be used to power the vehicle. And, there is more than one parking space per automobile!
This idea depends on the development of a material that does not exist to my knowledge. But, it is something that does not seem totally out of the real of possibility.
There are some impressive examples of solar roofs over parking facilities, and there are other ways to generate electricity from traffic on roads, such as the piezoelectric effect.