- An Idaho inventor, Scott Brusaw, CEO of Solar Roadways, has created a solar-powered roadway made of glass.
- The glass panels contain solar cells that power heating elements, which operate much like the rear window defogger in a car, preventing ice accumulation. They also house LED lights.
- Replacing existing asphalt with the solar panels will save money and natural resources over time, since asphalt is made with petroleum.
SAGLE, Idaho — Entrepreneur Scott Brusaw is about to put an end to potholes, icy roads and asphalt with his innovation, a solar-powered roadway.
The 53-year-old electrical engineer and CEO of Solar Roadways will outfit the area around his Sagle, Idaho, business this spring with a series of structurally engineered glass panels that have the strength of steel and may be driven upon. Inside the glass are solar cells that power the embedded heating elements, which operate much like the rear window defogger in a car, preventing ice accumulation.
The panels also contain LED lights for "painting" the road lines from beneath the surface to ensure safer nighttime driving. Brusaw also included a microprocessor board that spells out messages such as "slow, curve ahead" or blink to indicate wildlife or pedestrians are crossing the roadway.
The U.S. Department of Transportation funded the project after officials saw a need "to put an electric blanket over our highways" and find alternatives to petroleum-based asphalt and concrete, he explained.
"Asphalt is so antiquated," Brusaw stated. "Because it uses petroleum, we don't know how long that natural resource will be available to us, so it's time to find another way. Solar-powered glass is the answer."
The Federal Highway Administration has encouraged the prototype trial around Brusaw's business because, "They want us to prove our technology first and perfect it," he said. In the meantime, Brusaw and his wife and business partner, Julie, are putting the final touches on Phase II of the project, which details the manufacturing process.
Brusaw estimates that his solar roadways cost $4.4 million a mile, but insists the cleaner, self-sustaining highway would pay for itself over time.
"My long term goal is to have the solar roadways generate enough clean electricity around the world that would eliminate the need for fossil fuels and protect the planet from global climate change," he added.
Inside Line says: Kiss your asphalt goodbye. — Rene Wisely, Correspondent
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jensonious says:
02:10 PM, 01/23/2011
I think that I am involved in probably one of the worst nightmares of this idea...the trucking industry; 80,000 lbs or more, tire blowouts, and mechanical failures that loves making pot holes in the pavement. what about extreme temperatures and weather like tornados? its a great idea, but it has a lot of challenges to face.
05stangdriver says:
02:03 AM, 01/22/2011
I have a few concerns:
Traction, which has been addressed here, would be iffy. You'd have to texture the glass so much that it would have a very rough 'frosted' appearance, which I would think would reduce the light-collecting ability of the solar cells underneath.
Then, there's the scratching, which would affect the light transmission even more. Roads are dirty. There's all kinds of grime and rocks and pebbles that accumulate on and in the treads of tires, all of which act like sandpaper on a road surface.
I don't know, I just think that the texture of the 'glass' would have to be so rough to begin with, and then that would deteriorate over time even more, that there would be marginal power generation at best, and it certainly wouldn't be totally clear like in the picture, it would be so frosted that you couldn't read that 'slow' notification at all, it would just be a glowing blob of white light coming through.
As for the 'defrosters' to melt any ice and snow accumulation, so that you'd never have to plow the road or worry about ice build up... Yeah, right! You'd have to generate a LOT of power to create enough heat to overcome a major snowstorm and keep the road clear, and even if you could do that, all the meltwater has to go somewhere, and sooner or later it'll freeze next to the road or in the storm drains or wherever, which will clog things up, and then the warm solar powered road will be flooded instead of frozen...
I don't mean to be a killjoy, at first this seems to be a really great idea, and it may work for small areas like driveways and such, as the inventor proposes to implement at his own business. But, in the words of Sun Tzu, "No battle plan survives contact with the enemy", and when the 'enemy' is WEATHER... Well, Mr. Brusaw, rotsa ruck! I'm just saying that there will almost certainly be more difficulties than he can imagine, and I hope his design is robust enough to handle them.
smallfield says:
05:37 PM, 01/21/2011
thgir_evom
Thanks
Man - I never realized what roads cost
New Construction Undivided 2 Lane Rural Road with 5' Paved Shoulders $1,713,007.35
Milling and Resurfacing 2 Lane Rural Road with 5' Paved Shoulders $416,437.91
So at 4.4 million/mile you'd need 6 resurfacing episodes before it'd pay for itself (probably not that much more durable than a regular road). Probably unlikely to be cost effective this way.
The big what if is how many kw/hours this thing produces in the summer when the heat isn't on. I'll bet a panel that size makes a lot of power. Usually solar panels detract from the surroundings, but in this instance it makes something look better.
hondalvr4life says:
01:59 PM, 01/21/2011
MY biggest question is, will this road provide the same kind of traction that ashpalt gives you? Also I question its durability. roads are abused and what would happened if the glass broke?
rpvitiello says:
11:22 AM, 01/21/2011
For people mentioning plows, the idea behind this road is you would not need a plow. It would melt the snow as it fell onto the road surface due to the heating element. All the roads could stay snow clear at all times.
As for cleaning. Roads are cleaned now anyway so that is not a new expense.
Talking about traction, in NYC quite a few sidewalks are made of glass and i have never slipped on one of those any worse than a normal sidewalk. They do have some grout between the sections of glass though. Maybe they could make this road design with sections on cement in between the glass for better wet traction if necessary (although I am not sure it would be needed after walking on glass floors etc...)
I think a better cost comparison would be how much would it normally cost to build a 1 mile long asphalt or cement road, AND build a 1 mile long soler power array individually. How much "excess"energy would this system make to send power to the grid? If it is competitive in pricing to other power options it may very well be worth it. Current "green" power solutions require allot of empty land which is less open space for plant and animal life. This puts the power plants on land that would otherwise be empty most of the time anyway.
juan_mx says:
11:19 AM, 01/21/2011
thgir_evom,
I didn't think a regular road was so expensive.
Considering that the proposed road generates electricity, it does not sound that expensive now.
fast_cars says:
10:47 AM, 01/21/2011
$4.4 million per mile?! In this economy? Really? I wonder how truly concerned Mr. Brusaw is with the environment without thinking about profit first? Just saying....
bengal3200 says:
10:46 AM, 01/21/2011
I have to agree with the people who say grip would be better. And it would be great for places like Arizona. Of course, they never have any problems with their perfect roads anyway. No need for heated roads there.
Now in WI, MN, MI, etc, where headed, deer-alerting roads would be awesome, the glass wouldn't be able to hold up to the harsh winters. Even if the glass were pliable, to withstand the frost heaves, what would happen when a 5+ ton snow plow pushed that giant steel blade across that glass road?
greenpony says:
10:43 AM, 01/21/2011
"I rejected to our US government's request about solar powered roads. if Fast and Furious cars and heavy trucks will be dangerous and slippery the glass roads. our popular will be very very mad to our US government why bad situation about the solar powered roads will replacement to traditional roads. it is bigger greedy taxes. it will more worthless."
Uh, wow. Do you have an app that generates random words for you? Or do you pick them with the tried-and-true finger-in-a-dictionary method?
ingalook says:
10:30 AM, 01/21/2011
Asphalt just comes out of the ground... I live in Trinidad and Tobago, we have the largest natural deposit of asphalt in the world, much or the world's roads were paved with asphalt from here at one time or another and our "Pitch lake" shows no signs that we have begun to deplete it.
I'm am sure this "glass road" has some applications in certain situations, but for the most part a concrete road with an asphalt layer has the best bang-for-buck...
You can even mix shredded up recycled tires into the asphalt to get a quieter more grippy surface and at the same time get rid of old tires...