Roads made of solar cells, certainly sounds good! Although I have a feeling that the ones who make the decisions will consider this too expensive. But that hasn’t stopped these guys from trying.
Roads made from these specially designed solar cells would cut greenhouse emisions by 75% and could potentially power an entire nation. They also melt snow and ice on the roads, making them safer as well.
Solar Roadways is a modular paving system of solar panels that can withstand the heaviest of trucks (250,000 pounds). These Solar Road Panels can be installed on roads, parking lots, driveways, sidewalks, bike paths, playgrounds… literally any surface under the sun. A nationwide system could produce more clean renewable energy than a country uses as a whole (http://solarroadways.com/numbers.shtml).
They have many other features as well, including: heating elements to stay snow/ice free, LEDs to make road lines and signage, and attached Cable Corridor to store and treat stormwater and provide a “home” for power and data cables. EVs will be able to charge with energy from the sun (instead of fossil fuels) from parking lots and driveways and after a roadway system is in place, mutual induction technology will allow for charging while driving.
The project is currently up for funding on Indiegogo
Really? You make it sound like there are cars parked along all roads at all times.
Unfortunately, solar roadways are bunk like thorium powered cars. Rudimentary calculstions of the cost of such a project and the overall efficiency of solar panels tells you this. Solar panels over the roadways, or along the sides, would give you many magnitudes more energy and you wouldn’t have the tons and tons of cars and trucks driving over them causing untold wear&tear on the glass (lol) panels.
Stop funding fraudulent underinformed projects!