Communities of Tomorrow President John Lee and myself have spoken across western Canada about the need for innovative infrastructure solutions and LetsTOC.
Recent events include the annual general meeting of the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) and Economic Development Alberta (EDA).
In our “tag-team” presentation, John has a fabulous set of power point slides entitled “What If?”. The slides present some pretty mind-blowing ideas. The one that always grabs the audience is the solar road. You can almost hear the collective “What the heck is that all about?”
Well, it’s the idea of building roads not with asphalt or concrete, but with high density and high impact glass that also houses solar cells. The intent is not just to build a better or longer-lasting road, but to synergize two infrastructure needs—transportation and electrical generation—in one piece of infrastructure. The concept is all about doing something more than laying down a ribbon of pavement to be tromped and trampled upon.
The embedded solar cells would perform four specific tasks—powering roadway lighting and signs, heating the surface to melt snow and ice, generating power for electric cars, and transmitting surplus juice to the electrical grid for consumption elsewhere.
Proponents say the potential environmental, financial, and economic benefits are staggering.
Environmental benefits come in the form of renewable energy, lower emissions, and elimination of road salts and other chemicals. Financially, the sale of electricity creates a revenue stream to help fund construction, and on the other side of the ledger are savings that accrue from eliminating snow plows and better safety—fewer weather-related accidents. Economically, the idea offers increased efficiency and productivity.
Scott Brusaw, an engineer from Idaho, received $100,000 in funding from the US federal government to research and develop the idea. He argues that this type of road could “pay for itself.” According to Brusaw, the US has some 25,000 square miles of roadways. Solar panels embedded in that surface area operating at only 15% efficiency would produce up to three times as much electricity that the US now generates on an annual basis.
“We can’t keep building asphalt roads, doing the same thing. It’s an antiquated system we’ve been doing too long,” says Brusaw (Solar Roadways, the Prototype).
Okay. But it sounds so crazy. Sounds expensive. Sounds impossible. And, in some ways, it’s all of that.
First, there are the technical challenges. Can glass bear the intense pounding of day-to-day traffic? Brusaw answers in the affirmative, noting that glass can have much the same strength as steel, and says that researchers at the University of Dayton and Penn State are working hard in that very area. He points to other issues that need to be grappled with. Top on the list are the questions of traction and glare produced by glass.
Second, the costs are phenomenal. Laying down one mile of solar-powered road is currently estimated at $4.4 million (US). With a standard road-lane width of 12 feet, the cost of “solarizing” the 25,000 square miles of roadway in the US would come to $50 trillion. Hardly economical or affordable by any measure. Total US GDP is $15 trillion annually. Even thinking about such a venture is, well, a little silly to say the least.
But, are these sufficient reasons to dismiss the idea?
No.
The reason is that productive and useful innovations don’t come out of the gate in one complete and massive application. Innovations emerge incrementally. They roll out in “steps and stages” and “starts and stops.”
Yeah, rebuilding the Trans-Canada with solar panels is way out there. Too far out there. But, solarizing a small parking lot is not so way out there. It’s here where the idea and the technology is tried, tested, and proved out. It’s here where the idea is developed, manipulated, and improved. From that humble beginning follows all the future steps. Sure, it might take 100 years for the solar road to come into its own. But, it has to start somewhere.
Brusaw agrees. “We’ll need to start off small—driveways, bike paths, patios, sidewalks, parking lots, playgrounds. This is where we’ll learn our lessons and perfect our system. Once the lessons have been learned and the bugs have all been resolved, we’ll plan to move out onto public roads.”
Brusaw says he hopes to have a working prototype installed in some parking lots of a national chain very soon—something like the local McDonald’s.
Hmmm. There’s 1,500 McDonald’s outlets in Canada.
By: Casey Vander Ploeg, Senior Policy Analyst