We keep a close eye on great innovations and visionary organisations / individuals in the energy world, and just recently stumbled across a company with an amazing vision in solar energy.
Have you ever considered the possibility that one day all our roads, motorways, and car parks could all be made of solar panels? Well if this company gets their way, that idea might not be as ridiculous as it sounds. I’m talking about a US company called Solar Roadways. In 2009, they won a contract from the Federal Highway Administration to build a prototype of the first ever solar road panel.
They’ve progressed and learned a lot since then. Their idea is to start small with driveways, paths and car parks. Once they’ve perfected it on a small scale, then they can start rolling it out on a large scale, replacing roads and highways everywhere. They believe it would end our dependency on fossil fuels all together.
Aside from storing energy for our homes and offices etc, we could also charge up and run electric vehicles on such roads. Imagine supermarket and fast food chain car parks made of solar panels. You could park your electric vehicle in the car park and charge it up while you’re doing your stuff. They even envisage a time when your car could be charged by the road as you drive along!
They’ve just entered the GE Ecomagination $200m challenge. Might be worth voting for them. See what you think!