An ambitious plan to build solar roadways across the country sounds almost too good to be true. And guess what? It is.听听听
First, some backstory: A two-person startup called wants to pave roads with solar cells, and they鈥檝e already secured almost $2 million in crowdsourced funding. The basic idea is pretty simple. The solar road would use existing asphalt as a base layer, while and last about 30 years. 听
The company鈥檚 math is quite compelling鈥攊f all the asphalt roads in the U.S. were paved with solar cells (about 31,000 square miles of land), they鈥檇 generate three times the electricity we use today. And the potential interface between the roads and future electric cars (with the solar cells providing wireless power to undercarriages) also sounds great. And it gets even better. This 鈥渋nformation superhighway鈥� wouldn鈥檛 only generate power for cities and cars, but also for powerlines and fiber-optic cables.
You might also be wondering how tempered glass is supposed to hold up to all this abuse. Well, the company claims the new roads can withstand vehicles weighing up to 250,000 pounds. In fact, Solar Roadways . (It also admits that the material it plans to use hasn鈥檛 yet been load-tested tested in an environmental chamber.) 听
With a small town in Idaho promising to build a solar parking lot and a bike path this year to test the technology, and with plans to move from prototype to production relatively soon (although there鈥檚 no mention of exactly when or where), the road to the future seems to be coming along nicely, right? 听
Um, not so fast. There are some potholes in the plan. 听
One seemingly mundane question has to do with tire marks. You鈥檝e seen them鈥攕kid marks on the highway that look so dark you wonder what terrible accident occurred. Solar Roadways says it hasn鈥檛 yet tested the effect of car tire marks on its solar cells. Instead, it鈥檚 only used bike tires to see if these black streaks impede power generation. The company claims the answer is no, but we鈥檙e still waiting for more data during the next round of testing. 听 听听
Then there鈥檚 the question of funding. In , Solar Roadways says the cells 鈥減ay for themselves.鈥� Back in 2011, I asked noted if the project sounded feasible. His main objection at the time? That building solar roads would cost several billion dollars and require serious government and taxpayer involvement. We鈥檙e still waiting to hear from the company regarding how much it anticipates the next phase of the project will cost, although it claims we should have those numbers later this summer.听
There鈥檚 no data available about what would happen to the road after a year of heavy commuter traffic, trucks, and buses following their routes on a daily basis. And the effect of skid marks and the everyday abuse roads must take from the elements is still unclear. 听
The takeaway? While we鈥檇 be stoked to see this idea succeed (sounds like a win-win, right?) the tech is still untested. Solar Roadways hasn鈥檛 made it obvious, from its FAQ or the crowdfunding campaign, what its long-term plans entail, how much a stretch of road will actually cost, or when the company will start building working models.听
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