By Doug Peeples SGN News Editor . An electrical engineer's quest to turn our highways into solar energy plants has completed the first hurdle. Scott Brusaw of Solar Roadways in Sage, Idaho, has finished a prototype solar road panel. . And before words like nut case or crackpot start swimming around in your head, the U.S. Department of Transportation thought enough of the idea to give him a $100,000 small business grant to build his solar road panel prototype.

Without getting too technical, the panel includes solar cells with LEDs sandwiched between thick sheets of glass. The result is a road surface hard enough to withstand vehicle traffic and the ability to provide energy for the Smart Grid, eventually paying for itself.

So, What Happens Next?

"We were told it may be a while before the decisions are made about Phase Two funding. In the meantime, we've applied for other grants and we're talking to potential investors," Brusaw told Smart Grid News. "If we're awarded a Phase Two contract, it will give us an additional $750,000 and two additional years to gear up toward manufacturing solar road panels for parking lots."

Parking lots are an ideal first testing ground, said Brusaw, who is pictured below. "We'd test our technology in parking lots with slow-moving light-weight vehicles and learn our lessons in non-critical areas." The next step would be residential neighborhoods and finally, highways.

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Lessons Learned

While there are technological and engineering challenges ahead, Brusaw said the project yielded some unexpected information. Originally, the plan was to place the solar cells and LEDs under the glass. But during the process, he discovered that they could be placed inside the top glass layer. Since the solar cells are closer to the road surface they can gather more energy and the LEDs are much more easily seen by drivers. And, while solar panels tilted at the recommended angle outperformed the flat solar road panel on bright sunny days, the solar road panel collected more energy on overcast days.

It looks like the future of this innovative Smart Grid concept is in the hands of the DOT at this point. But even at this stage of development, Brusaw's solar road panel project seems less like pie in the sky and more like a challenge worth taking on. Do you agree? Be sure to vote in the Quick Poll.

Photo courtesy Mark Dixon of YERT; home page image courtesy artist Dan Walden.

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