Solar Roadways Get DoT Funding

mikee805 writes "Solar Roadways, a project to replace over 25,000 square miles of road in the US with solar panels you can drive on, just received $100,000 in funding from the Department of Transportation for the first 12ft-by-12ft prototype panel. Each panel consists of three layers: a base layer with data and power cables running through it, an electronics layer with an array of LEDs, solar collectors and capacitors, and finally the glass road surface. With data and power cables, the solar roadway has the potential to replace some of our aging infrastructure. With only 15% efficiency, 25,000 square miles of solar roadways could produce three times what the US uses annually in energy. The building costs are estimated to be competitive with traditional roads, and the solar roads would heat themselves in the winter to keep snow from accumulating."

Duh...

[AlexBirch]

They are going to cut 1/2 the greenhouse gases by getting more and more cars off the streets and into repair shops!

Re:You got to be kidding

[printman]

Yeah, since the roads will be glass they'll replace the plows with big squeegees.

Re:Oh, get real.

[russotto]

Woudln't it make much more sense to just coat death valley with solar panels, rather that putting solar panels on the roads where they will be covered up half the time?

Or line Death Valley with aluminum panels and turn it into a enormous solar-thermal system. Any James Bond villains around, we can get them to finance it by claiming it's a death ray.

Re:Oh, get real.

[Spit]

Translucent, but it's also nearly frictionless. So you'd have to put a contact layer on top of that, something like asphalt is fairly cheap.

Re:Oh, get real.

[jamstar7]

Woudln't it make much more sense to just coat death valley with solar panels, rather that putting solar panels on the roads where they will be covered up half the time?

Or line Death Valley with aluminum panels and turn it into a enormous solar-thermal system. Any James Bond villains around, we can get them to finance it by claiming it's a death ray.

Not a bad idea there, especially for those of us just one lab accident away from becoming supervillians.

Halfasec while I check land prices in Death Valley for my new improved solar powered lair...

Re:Oh, get real.

[Faylone]

A death ray? Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

Re:Oh, get real.

[MiniMike]

By the time this is technically and financially feasible, we'll have flying cars and no roads.

Re:whatcouldpossiblygowrong

[Anonymous Coward]

So each subsequent Model T cost 161.8 times less than the original. Thus, our solar roads would not cost $484 trillion.

Instead, they'd only cost $2.99 trillion.