Rice Business Report February 2019 February 2019 Rice Business Report | Page 6

Rice Business Report February 2019
Are Roads a Solar Energy Power-House?
Of all the sources of renewable energy, solar power gen-
erates the most attention. Perhaps it's because the sun is
such a powerful permanent fixture that we're able to as-
sociate it with sustainability. Wind seems transient by
nature and the sea is almost alien. Whatever the reason,
solar power dominates the alternative energy market.
One of the latest avenues to be explored has to do with
transport. More specifically it has to do with solar pow-
ered roads.
Back in October 2009, Scientific American featured an article on a certain Mr Scott Brusaw who, with
funding from the US Department of Transportation, was looking at various ways in which to make so-
lar road panels. Brusaw is an electrical engineer by trade, but after being inspired by a throw-away
comment from his wife decided to start Solar Roadways and build solar road panels made of glass.
The aim is to have the vast network of roads in the US generate enough energy to power the entire
country and then some. But, at the time there were (and still are) two problems with the plan:
1) The cost would be enormous.
2) The type of glass required hasn't been invented yet
Brusaw remains undeterred. For the past two years or so he's been busy building prototypes and
testing current glass technology. Much of this time has been spent trying to balance maximum trans-
parency (for solar absorption) with grip so that vehicles don't slide off the road. He's also been trying
to justify funding. Many people believe that it would be simpler and cheaper to construct solar farms
rather than embed solar technology into roadways
For one thing, solar farms are already in existence and don't require much in the way of research and
development. Solar roads, on the other hand, are completely new. The R&D still needs funding, ex-
isting roads would have to be dug up and new ones laid and once that's done it would be a major job
to keep the technology current. Bursaw is adamant that the roads would pay for themselves but the
payback period has been estimated at 20 years and it's not unreasonable to expect technology to have
advanced significantly in that time
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