Goodbye gasoline.

Genius! Pure Genius! Those asphalt roads suck up so much heat that could be used for better causes. This is a really smart concept and I hope it launches over the next decade.

Curious on how long the panels last before needing repairs, a price comparison, and construction time comparison. The LEDs look like they would be easier to see though and I would think easier to change lanes around then painting over the lines and then painting new ones.

The only downside I see to this right now is for when it rains... and I'm not talking about the clouds blocking the sun. Since the road would be made of glass, water would make it harder to drive on and easier to slide. It might be possible if they used a textured glass to at least try to give some grip.

So, would these be for "temperate" climates? I can't imagine they would survive snow, ice, salt or gravel much less a snowplow very well.

I suppose we could use hovercraft?

pretty sure it wouldn't generate that much electricity during a traffic jam.

@scharfy Build in heating powered from the solar panels to melt the snow. These solar panels are being developed in Sagle, Idaho.

What happens when a lot of 80,000# trucjks drive on it?

What happens at night?

What happens when it snows?

What happens when it snows and they plow it it at 70 MPH?

What happens when it snows and they pray or sprinkle salts and sand on it?

What happens whe somebody hits the brakes hard?

Please read the FAQ on their site. at solarroadways.com

This sounds awesome but there seems to some quirks. The claim is that the solar road is able to be installed for roughly the same cost as asphalt roads. While these numbers seem to be interesting (if solar roads last 3 times longer than asphalt, does it really mean its worth paying 3 times more for it? I vote no.), there is another aspect that is far more troubling:

We aren't maintaining our current roads. Its not because of the cost of maintenance, its because all the money has gone elsewhere. Our politicians do not budget for roads anymore. We may install solar roads but... what's making our politicians maintain the solar roads after that?

Let's vote the wrong people out. Then this solar dream can actually be a reality with little chance of being a nightmare.

Nice early effort. Energy collected from roadways is a good idea. The methods still need work, though. There isn't any reason not to collect energy from noise, heat from friction and solar radiance. These panels are a big step forward, but we're still playing with blocks here. More is possible when we get a better idea of how the world really works. Committing to this may be an error.

adding carbon scrubers would be a big pluss

When all homes, businesses, and parking lots are covered with solar panels, then move to roads ... great advances by these guys, but not sure it's the best time spent

Hmmm, I could see this technology used on some straight as an arrow interstates that run through the desert. But in areas where the weather is extremely cold I wonder how the panels could survive water freezing in the cracks (or gaps between panels) in the glass. Not to mention snowplows, chains, and every other metal abrasive used to clear, and gain traction on snowy roads.
It would also be interesting to see how curved, and angled road panels will be measured, built, and delivered to the correct job site in a reasonable amount of time.
Still, interesting idea!

Any reason we don't try to turn the heat into energy?

Or the pressure of vehicles?

I may be wrong, but these solutions seem more durrable.

This would be awesome if it works as advertised, and we actually adopt it. unfortunately I don't think we're progressive enough to do it, but maybe not, a proof of concept is being funded by the government.

Well, some Ideas are just absurd. SEEMS like a good idea until you think a little. Much less expensive to build a roof over the entire highway system with solar panels on it.... and while you're at it... hang a monorail underneath.... cargo trucks hang down under... passenger cars run on top of the rail.... tubes for Fiber data cables, maybe pneumatic tubes for small package transport... save the asphalt by protecting it from weather... much cheaper and cooler... Piezo film under the asphalt makes more sense....

If you're actually interested in this and not just spouting off random thoughts of disdain read up on it at solarroadways.com . Very interesting, and the reason it is so ingenious if it works as advertised is that it also gives us the decentralized electricity system we need, along with cable & telephone, the fact the the upkeep cost on those can be transferred to the road work, only makes this more affordable.

After reading thier information on the solarroadways site, I have to say they have a good idea, but are doing it wrong.

Their plan doesn't count for road grime. Thier pannels aren't going to be generating a lot of power after a year or so.

Also they aren't including the increased installation cost of something this complicated. Making sure that all those lines and communication works on install is going to take much more skilled workers and more time. Not to mention way more points of failure. Maintenance is going to be rough with these things.

I say dump the solar cell and go with seedback engines to recover the heat instead of light. Get rid of the LEDs on every pannel to reduce the cost. The internal heating might still work, but the energy cost must be taken into account. If the temperature difference is enough the seedback engines might even still work covered in snow. Finnally they need to develop a quick and simple installation method when they develope the pannels.

And that is my expert opinion as no one at all. Kudos for comming up with a good use for all that roadway though. It has a lot of potential.

I think this tech is an intersting "bridge" between the super sifi roads of the movies made of light and those of the practical solutions that steam from those off the wall concepts.

I just don't want a 3ft thick slab of glass below me as a bridge but you would have to admit that it would be pretty cool if it where like those self tinting glasses to inform drivers which lanes where supposed to be in use. if the margin starts to merge over and you are driving on air it becomes a little more disconcerting to stay in the HOV lane...

Far better than "reinventing the wheel" with regard to the road surfaces themselves is to put all of those grassy meridian and on/off ramp areas as prime spots for towers (read something like grain silos) placed at intervals and covered in high-efficiency solar cells and a wind power generator(s). The towers could also serve as nodes to carry wireless internet and cellular signals thus creating a ubiquitous communications network and energy source on land already dedicated to roads and essentially unused. Add up all of that acreage around the nation and I believe you're looking at ample space for as many towers (silos) as one needs or wants. Something like a silo might even provide space for other uses as well such as a network of power storage nodes. Such a network might not produce precisely the same amount of power, however, add that to solar panels and wind power generators installed on the majority of private homes and commercial buildings and one may have a viable, sustainable and organic network able to adapt to failures in one section or another.

Maybe turning huge parking lots that sit there half empty all day would be a good use of this technology. Seems like some climates are not well suited for this road type. I think the LED lights would be awsome in FL during all the heavy rain storms, but they would be very slippery in the winter in Colorado.

The grass median in the middle of highways serves a purpose, they catch out of control cars. Putting power towers in them would just give people something to crash into. That's why they are kept clear and mowed, and not allowed to overgrow.

May sound great, but highly impractical. Do you think that it would hold up under the tonnag hauled over these roads? Then there's the problem in areas such as where I live, there snow and ice cover the roads, salt and gravel would quickly seap in and cause damage. No, this is not the future. Good try, though.

One thing I did not see addressed is how much watr it will take to keep these panels clean. The amount of water required to keep regular solar arrays clean (must be maintained each month) is tremendous. How would they keep a roadway clean? And what would places like California do in years like now when they are in such a drought?

After having read all the info on their website, I have to say I'm impressed - at least by their enthusiasm.

They do an admirable job of presenting specific details, addressing the obvious questions, like some of the ones being asked here (READ THE WEBSITE PEOPLE!), and presenting the math to back up their selling points.

Unfortunately, it's their own math that is their undoing. Some of the biggest advantages to the Solarroadways technology essentially require a wholesale, all-or-nothing adoption.

You can't use this technology to wean the country off foreign oil unless the whole country adopts it.

It doesn't provide a decentralized power grid unless the whole country adopts it.

However, on their very own website they note the cost of replacing all of our asphalt roads and highways would reach into the tens of trillions of dollars. Where would that money come from?

They try to address this by noting the current cost of replacing and maintaining asphalt roads. They claim that asphalt roads only last 7 years, and Solarroadways panels would last three times that. Thus the fact that they would cost three times as much, kind of evens things out.

The problem is that while asphalt roads maybe SHOULD be replaced every 7 years, most of them aren't!

Where I live there are plenty of roads that haven't been totally repaved in 20-30 years, and some haven't been repaved EVER. We actually have a few roads here that are still paved in the red brick that was laid down almost a hundred years ago.

And this isn't some rural area I'm talking about - it's the 5th largest city in the state!

Another problem is that they use the target cost of an individual panel ($7000) to make their comparisons with the cost of asphalt, however they don't appear to factor in the costs of installing the panels. The old roads would still have to be ripped up, and some kind of power distribution system would still have to be put in place to get the power from the roads to the people.

Unfortunately, the only way I could see the country taking on this huge undertaking would be in the event of an all-out energy disaster, and by that time it would probably be way too late.

Billy said: "One thing I did not see addressed is how much water it will take to keep these panels clean."

Steel Fox said: "Their plan doesn't count for road grime. Their panels aren't going to be generating a lot of power after a year or so. "

BZKoss said: "Since the road would be made of glass, water would make it harder to drive on and easier to slide."

Tasty said: "Much less expensive to build a roof over the entire highway system with solar panels on it."

There are some serious flaws in the plan, but these aren't them.

Read the freakin' website, people!!! Every one of these things is addressed.

I live in Phoenix and I'd much rather see solar cells being used in environments like here, where their use makes sense. Places where there is lots and lots of sunshine. Where it can be done now and used in capacities that require little maintenance.

If they used solar cells to cover over parking lots of malls, shopping centers, etc., etc., it would be a real boon to the public. Shaded parking and more electricity in one step. Even city sidewalks could be covered.

It could be done right now and without having to develop and refine new technology for something like this road. It could create new jobs, lower electrical usage (and hopefully rates), and provide new business opportunities. It would be a long tern project that would start producing immediate results (power generation) and would actually produce a return on investment. Unlike public transportation systems which almost never pay for themselves and require constant taxpayer subsidies.

Which means it will probably never be done.

Awesome!!! Very awesome!!! u could turn a two lane into a four lane during rush hour times or if there were a sudden increase of cars on the road.

I am not sure this is actually a good idea. It'll just continue encouraging people to buy cars and congesting the roadways. We should have gotten rid of cars a long time ago and utilize other concepts such as Personal Rapid Transit (PRT).

It's a good start, maybe this ain't practical now but their data when they have the prototype could be very interesting and something useful in the next step. A++ with the idea

i can't wait for the future to get here

Smart and dangerous, they would have to repair the broken glass frequently. And eww, the roadkill! But the concept is good, I guess we'll have to wait for the prototype results...

They're expensive now sure, but if they learn how to make them better the price will go down. New technology is always expensive at first.
Possibly better to use them in cities first where they regularly do street cleaning(thus less worry about them getting covered in crud) and they are closer to places using power, thus you lose less of the generated power by transferring it a long distance.
Though there might still be the issue of them maybe getting less sun during lunch rush-hour or something, lol. Ideas are good though, keep thinkin.

Cities would be better served mounting them on top of all the high rises.

As for the idea of building towers and stuff on interstate medians, UGH! I'd like to continue to have something other than concrete to stare at while driving down the highway. Having the grass and trees also help keep that little part of the highway cooler instead of still more heat.

Here is an idea.. why not use some of these panels (minus the LCD) for sidewalks in sub-divisions? That would lower electricity requirements for the entire neighborhood, power their lights at night to offer more security and help support them in times of outages.

Just an idea.

Stupid, expensive and dangerous. Also, the "slow" marking turns me off. Roads should not be built to drive slowly but to drive rapidly. Check the German autobahnen for how to drive smartly and quickly.

They should totally take this a step further... every so many feet, they can install conductors of to a metal grid that sits 14' above the road. All electric cars can then have conductors on their rear bumpers that make contact with the grid at all times... then, they can charge a toll to enter the area with the panel road... the cost is offset by the fact that the consumer wont need to pay for "fuel" while on the special area... finish it off by making all the electric cars available in either blue or red and reinforcing the bumpers so that if you accidentally bump into someone, it'll just be some fun...

Alright, I took it far enough... Sounds like a great "academic" idea, but it has a long way to go before real-world application can become a reality for reasons already posted above.

I say that energy should be spent in developing better solar panels for home / commercial use... in other words, finish what was started, make it an efficient, viable solution before you expand beyond the current means with academic ideas...

This would make for great garage driveways. ... LED only the edges.