Solar Roads are the future power houses of the world. We all know that there are many million miles of roads built in the world, what if all those roads were able to harness sun’s energy?
Well, considering the massive network of roads and highways, a huge amount of power would be generated even if solar panels with just 15% efficiency are used. These roads could also have embedded LED lights in them which can provide navigation to the travelers and tell them about any road blockages due to accidents etc. These roads would also be able to re-route the entire traffic.
US Department of Energy recognized the huge potential in this concept and gave a $100,000 contract to a company named “Solar Roadways”. The firm will build a prototype 12 x 12 feet solar panel which could be fixed into roads.
If this experiment turns out to be successful then who knows one day we forget about Nuclear or any other energy and just rely on Solar Roads because they have a huge potential.
See the video below for some detailed information.
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If we do this all the silicone on the earth is gona vanish in no time…
Silicon is the second most common element in the Earth’s crust, comprising 25.7% of the Earth’s crust by weight.
So it will never vanish by constructing a road. Google silicone abundance.
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Silicon
Is this for real ?
i am hearing about this for the first time. I have heard about piezoelectric crystals generating power at roads and at pathways but htis is novel to me.
Solar panels are inefficient enough as it is!! how are they gonna perform with road grime on them, rubber and dust and exhaust particulate laid down, how the hell are cars gonna go on wet silicone?! im not gonna say these arent things that can potentially be overcome, but at what cost! do you really want to be replacing 100 mtrs of solar panel each and every time a major crash occurs? they might be able to be built to take the weight of an 18 wheeler, but what about when it tips over and drops its 30 ton load of steel onto it with force…
While a good idea in theory, solar roads are not a practical solution for power generation because, as Daniel cited, wear, tear and grime would make them overly expensive to maintain. A better idea, I would think, would be to put solar on the roof tops of commercial and residential building as this would greatly reduce the need for infrastructure and would allow people to be independent of central power failure.
It would also allow people to have free or very cheap energy and would pave the way for hydrogen and electric vehicles that could be conveniently charged from home.
Of course as history has shown us when there is no way to meter and charge for energy unscrupulous enterpriser will put a stop to it.
Then again maybe this is a very forward idea considering the fact that hydrogen cars with their constant output of water exhaust would destroy all asphalt roads, rendering the material useless, and petroleum production would also decrease for lack of primary demand, which in turn would make rubber tires (and other petroleum byproducts) prohibitively expensive.
wowww.
i hope this will be a huge turn in our life.
all the best solar road
thanks hyder for ur valuable information
How to Build Cheap Solar Panels
What would happen when there was a pot hole or sink hole? The entire electrical and data lines for whatever the street grid was supplying would be out. This is not a practical idea at all. Just a dream by someone who should understand it will never work. Think about the problems construction would cause, today you can pave at around 2.5 miles an hour and drive on it as quick as 30 minutes later and still paving construction causes terrible delays over months even years for larger cities. I wonder how that would work with these new construction processes which don't exist yet. This will not solve our energy problem and further than a possible experimental will never reach fruition.
SILICON isn't the issue here. There is no way that enough indium could be sourced to dope all of that silicon, because it is scare enough as it.
Do they have any protection against electric storms?