This year (2010) alone, we've lost lives in coal mine and oil rig disasters. The Gulf of Mexico has become a nightmare: lives and jobs lost - ways of life gone. What (more) is it going to take to get us off of our dependency on fossil fuels?

Years ago, when the phrase "Global Warming" began gaining popularity, we started batting around the idea of replacing asphalt and concrete surfaces with solar panels that could be driven upon. We thought of the "black box" on airplanes: We didn't know what material that black box was made of, but it seemed to be able to protect sensitive electronics from the worst of airline crashes.

Suppose we made a section of road out of this material and housed solar cells to collect energy, which could pay for the cost of the panel, thereby creating a road that would pay for itself over time. What if we added LEDs to "paint" the road lines from beneath, lighting up the road for safer night time driving? What if we added a heating element in the surface (like the defrosting wire in the rear window of our cars) to prevent snow/ice accumulation in northern climates? The ideas and possibilities just continued to roll in and the Solar Roadway project was born.

In 2009, we received a contract from the Federal Highway Administration to build the first ever Solar Road Panel prototype. During the course of its construction, we learned many lessons and discovered new and better ways to approach this project. These methods and discoveries are discussed throughout this website. Please enjoy and send us any questions that you may have.


http://solarroadways.com/intro.html

Sick man!

Doing something at the moment so don't have time to read the article or watch the video at the moment but I reckon I get the premise, awesome, will it ever be implemented though, I wonder...

i hope so duck

genius!! fuckin A

As someone who lives in an area of the country prone to snow, I love this idea. Unfortunately due to the state of our country, seeing this implemented is not that likely in my opinion. Here is to hoping though.

cap the profits of 10 of the world's largest companies for a year to pay for it, and force the unemployed to work on it. energy problem solved.

muchos respectos!

A lot of electricians are unemployed right now. I am currently working on joining an apprenticeship, and in one of the tests I had to take (a reading comprehension test), I had to read an article on the history of roads, and the different methods used to make them. While watching this video I began to wonder if it was coincidence. I hope I will get to work on installing these.

Agreed 100%

excellent post, I have bookmarked this here and on my firefox browser

I can see it working for the whole country, like down town Manhattan in winter, there are heated walkways and roads that get wet at best. good post