Half of the world think the idea is genius and there are still people thinking the idea is crazy. What do you think?? Hold on… finish reading the article before you conclude !!!
Solar roadways is the BRAINCHILD of the couple Scott and Julie Brusaw. The brusaws are not some scammers or wackos !!! Scott has an electrical engineering background and the project has gotten two rounds of funding from the Federal Highway Administration.
The couple have now raised more than $1 million to pursue the extremely ambitious goal of replacing the roads with solar panels.
Solar Roadways are made of hexagonal glass panels embedded with solar cells, electronics, and LEDs. Glass panels??? Glass breaks easily. Yeah! Right!! But the Brusaws say their prototype is very strong and can hold 250,000 pounds of weight.
By the Brusaw’s theory, the solar highway can generate three times the electricity consumed these days. The roadway is also capable of filtering storm water, allows to replace above-ground power cables, prevent icy roads by melting snow. It is also smart to alert the driver of the wandering cattle on the road just by lighting up!
Though the project is said to have raised more than $1 million, proving, there’s a strong popular appeal for these kinds of new high-tech road technologies, installation COST is a big challenge. Also, approval from the government a bigger challenge. “In some cases the technologies are not yet there,” says Levine, one of the project engineers of the solar roadways. “In other cases the technologies are there, but the American way of organizing government, society, and the planning function in particular, just has its way of slowing things down.”
Still, the couple believe a “paradigm shift” is already on its way. They say the project is capable of bringing other revenue sources besides selling electricity, such as advertising on the roads’ LED displays or charging people to refuel their electric cars.
Practically, according to the design, right from the power grid and the domestic distribution lines everything has to get a change over. The asphalt road has to be ripped off totally and then the new solar highways are to be laid. Yes, it looks like someone asking us to start a new life like “Bear grylls” of “Man and the wild” all of a sudden. Just the start is a big challenge. Once the project becomes a success its just not gonna be a success but a ROAD REVOLUTION.
