A Road Made of Solar Panels

By covering all of the existing roads and parking lots in the United States with durable solar road panels, a North Idaho couple hopes to eliminate most of the need for fossil fuels in the future.

John Brusaw and his wife Julie, of Solar Roadways, have been working on the solar roadways concept for more than five years.

In July of this year, Solar Roadways received a $750,000 research contract from the Federal Highway Administration to create a solar parking lot outside their home and laboratory in Sagle, Idaho.

The solar parking lot is the first step in the company's long-term goal of retrofitting existing roads, parking lots, sidewalks, bike paths, playgrounds and driveways (the list goes on and on) with structurally engineered solar panels. These panels, the company says, would not only provide clean renewable energy to homes, businesses and schools, but could perform a myriad of other useful functions:

• Providing recharging stations virtually anywhere for electric vehicles

• Eliminating the need for snow removal from road with embedded heating elements
• Illuminating the road or path with embedded LED lights that increase visibility for drivers and can provide warnings, such as stop or slow down
• Creating a stormwater redistribution system
  
• Providing a decentralized "smart" grid to eliminate power outages and the need for utility poles
• Providing green jobs
  
• Creating roads that pay for themselves over time
  

According to Brusaw, the concept is in the development stage. Lessons will be learned and ideas perfected through smaller projects like the backyard parking lot. The next phase, he adds, will be moving to bike paths, driveways and playgrounds before venturing out onto our highways.