Background

Basic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_roadway
Video: http://challenge.ecomagination.com/home/Solar-Roadway-Home-Application
Video: http://vimeo.com/40095422

http://solarroadways.com/vision.shtml

The Vision
Our long range goal is to cover all concrete and asphalt surfaces that are exposed to the sun with Solar Road Panels. This will lead to the end of our dependency on fossil fuels of any kind.

We're aware that this won't happen overnight. We'll need to start off small: driveways, bike paths, patios, sidewalks, parking lots, playgrounds, etc. 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.

Imagine one major fast-food chain retrofitting their parking lots across the nation: an all-electric vehicle (EV) could now recharge in those parking lots when needed. This removes the range limitation for EVs (eliminating their need to be recharged at home every night) and makes them far more practical. People would be more likely to trade in their internal-combustion engine vehicles for all-electric vehicles.

Other businesses would see the advantage of retrofitting their parking lots: they could either go off-grid or put a huge dent in their monthly electric bill. They would also attract more customers, who would eat or shop in their stores as their EVs recharged in their parking lots. As more businesses jump on board, the EVs become more and more practical.

With businesses going solar (rather than using electricity created by burning fossil fuels) and more drivers opting for EVs (over gas/diesel engines), the beginning of the end of fossil fuel dependency would finally be at hand.

After the Solar Roadways technology is proven in parking lots, then the next logical step would be residential roads, where speeds are slower than highways and trucks are not as common.

The final goal should be the nation's highways. We're already investigating using mutual inductance to charge EVs traveling over the Solar Road Panels. While it may not (although we don't know this yet) provide enough electricity to completely charge the EV in motion, it would certainly extend its range.

The following images show our vision of the future of energy and how it will impact our lives and our environment.