'Solar Road' generates electricity from solar power right under your feet
The solar walkway developed by talented engineers at the George Washington University is capable of generating electricity from solar power right under your feet. The 'solar road', as we'd like to call it, is first of its kind in the world and available for demo at the Virginia Science & Technology campus. As you'd imagine, the road comprises of special solar panels developed by the engineering team as a part of the sustainable 'Solar Walk' project. These solar panels were made using PV flood panels manufactured by Onyx Solar - a Spanish company known all over the world for their expertise in design & manufacturing of photovoltaic materials.
The demo road is about 100 sq.ft rectangular path capable of bearing loads up to 400 kg. Take our word that it is skid & slip proof and you won't require special skills to walk on it. A total of 27 semi-transparent solar panels that make up this road are capable of generating 400 watts of energy - just enough to power about 450 LEDs that would light up the path at the night.
We believe solar roads would solve a very important problem - mounting the solar panels on roof tops and at places they are difficult to install. We hope the technology matures fast for mass adoption so that in future, our roads will power the streetlights and maybe our homes as well! We'd like to seek opinions of our engineers on the feasibility of solar roads and the commercial aspects of mass adoption.
Source: GW Debuts Solar Walk on the Virginia Science and Technology Campus | GW Today | The George Washington University
We believe solar roads would solve a very important problem - mounting the solar panels on roof tops and at places they are difficult to install. We hope the technology matures fast for mass adoption so that in future, our roads will power the streetlights and maybe our homes as well! We'd like to seek opinions of our engineers on the feasibility of solar roads and the commercial aspects of mass adoption.
Source: GW Debuts Solar Walk on the Virginia Science and Technology Campus | GW Today | The George Washington University
Replies
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Sarathkumar ChandrasekaranI like the idea but feasibility of solor roads is a doubt.i don't think that the bearing load of just 400kg for a 100 sq.feet solor road.It may be good for building pavements where just people walk but if it was planned to be constructed as roads where tons of weighing cars and buses travel.I don't think it is a better idea to be adapted. -
Kaustubh Katdare@#-Link-Snipped-# - There's no question of the feasibility. The demo road is already letting uses walk on it and 400 Kg is very much bearable. We do not know whether 400 kg weight is 'total' for 100 sq.ft area. This may not be ideal at present for mainstream roads; but they can very well be the walkways in campuses or offices at open places.
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Ponte VedraSo, no credit given to Julie and Scott Brusaw? You make it sound like it was all your idea, and yet the Brusaws have been working on this, rather famously, for years now, and are in a second phase of government testing. They encourage others to make advances in the same technology, but it seems rather selfish of you not to mention them... especially when you seem to be using graphics made for them.
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