Solar Roadways, is it doable?
An Idaho based company has come up with a novel product to make our roads safer; the solar roadway. This takes the standard solar panel and re-engineers it to become a durable, truck proof, self-illuminated paving block capable of replacing the standard asphalt we see everywhere.
The solar roads are designed with benefits over traditional concrete and asphalt, such as in-built LEDs for safety, pot-hole free (that one’s a big plus!), easy maintenance, protects wildlife and of course due to the generated electricity, a return on investment.
The solar roads are designed with benefits over traditional concrete and asphalt, such as in-built LEDs for safety, pot-hole free (that one’s a big plus!), easy maintenance, protects wildlife and of course due to the generated electricity, a return on investment.
The Big Question | What is this going to cost?! If we assume these roadways will be implemented in rural locations to maximise sunlight, the average 2 lane rural roadway in the US costs in the region of $400,000 per mile to resurface. The Average solar installation costs $6 per watt and at about 10 watts per square foot. If we assume that solar roadways will cost the same as a home installation (In reality I’d think probably more, these solar panels are made to be driven on after all...) and you do the math that’s a whopping $6 million per mile of solar roadway! There are 4 million miles of roads in the US… that’s a lot of cash, but you can’t think about this project in terms of initial outlay. |
The Energy
There is of course the return on investment to think about, every day these roads are installed they will generate electricity, and in turn money! It’s very hard to calculate what the return will be… In a way it doesn't matter too much, research suggests the panels may generate up to 600megawatthours per year, that’s a lot of clean energy! The company plan on doing more lifetime testing, perhaps they need to have a look at our reliability calculators in their current phase, as maintaining the panels I'm sure will be key to their success.
The Best StuffIt’s definitely not all bad news though, the possibilities for solar roadways are pretty much endless in environmental terms, the initial financial outlay is a small mountain to climb but the panels feature water collection, LED lighting and of course energy generation. Compared to asphalt, the Carbon heavy, energy rich standard in road building, it’s easy to see which is better for the environment in the long run. |  |
The Finale
Solar roadways is currently involved in the second phase of testing its solar roadways in a $750,000 contract with the U.S. department of transportation which you can read about here. Here at Epsilon Engineer we wish them the very best of luck and hope to be driving down solar roads soon!
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