In Defense of Solar Roadways

If you haven't been living under a rock in the past month or so you may have heard of this new company called Solar Roadways, founded by Scott and Julie Brusaw.  They purport to have the miracle answer to solve our antiquated roadway system.  They propose to do this by replacing our asphalt roads with modular, tempered-glass units embedded with solar panels and electronics.  That's the short answer.  Watch their video below if you haven't seen it: 

Visit their indiegogo campaign page for even more detailed information.  Pay special attention to their FAQ as it goes over a lot of the nitty gritty details.

  By nature, I'm an optimistic skeptic.  When I hear something that sounds too good to be true I tend toward the axiom that it usually is, but I leave room for the possibility that I could be wrong.  On the internet we should be skeptical of any amazing claims... but it shouldn't end there: Fact check, research, ask questions, and above all be aware of your own biases.

Before seeing this campaign I had never even heard of Indiegogo and I was skeptical about the whole situation, so first I did some research to make sure Indiegogo was a legitimate and respected crowdfunding company.  Apparently, they are.  At this point, I have to have faith in Indiegogo's trustworthiness and competency to not allow scams on their site.  But after watching the videos and reading through the Brusaws' website, it's hard to question whether it's real.  If it is a scam, these people sure went through a lot of trouble to create it and they have earned whatever money they get.

After being satisfied that everything was on the up and up, I wanted to hand my paycheck over to these people.  Don't worry, I'm not homeless, I did manage to resist the temptation.  I don't normally donate to charities or crowdfunding campaigns or anything of that nature, but something about this campaign really resonated with me.  For years we've all been told that the global environment is crumbling around us due to human activity.  We haven't lacked for decent ideas to ameliorate the situation so much as we have felt powerless, at the individual level, to push these ideas forward.  Solar Roadways presents us with a painless way to help push green technology innovation that could, in principle, actually work.

Principle and theory are great, but will it actually work in practice?  Detractors say that Solar Roadways will never work because of unknown variables like initial cost, maintenance cost, electrical infrastructure incompatibility, noise pollution, solar blockage from dirt and grime... the list goes on.  And when you read these articles it can be very disheartening, particularly if you were excited about the possibilities for the future.  Fortunately, however, unknown variables will not mean that a project is not possible, just that it may be challenging.  If it becomes too challenging it might not take off, but that hasn't stopped the Brusaws yet.  They've already pushed the physical boundaries of what's possible and are asking for our help to do more.  I, for one, think they deserve a chance to prove they can keep pushing those boundaries.

Here are what I see as the top three hurdles Solar Roadways will have to clear and ways in which I think they might approach it.

PROBLEM #1: HUGE COST

The elephant in the room is the possibly multi-trillion dollar budget needed to get this project from dream to reality.  There are A LOT of roads out there.  But who said they have to do it all at once?  The whole idea of a decentralized power grid will lend itself to a piecemeal project.  Maybe only certain cities will use it.  Maybe it will be for highways only.  Maybe it will become cost effective once the cost of oil rises so drastically that it outpaces the cost of the Solar Roadways.  The point is that, although our dreams may be for perfection, in reality we do usually settle for what will work.  Why should Solar Roadways be any different?

PROBLEM #2: SOLAR BLOCKAGE

Yes, dirt will inevitably cover the shiny new roadways which will undoubtedly reduce the wattage output of the solar panels over time.  Here is why I think this is not as big a problem as people think; we already have street sweepers that wash and clear the roads at night, why not beef up that system already in place and make those streets shine anew each day?  Too naive?  Perhaps, but no one really knows for sure how much impact the dirty roadways will actually have on the panels or how easy they will be to clean until this is fully tested on a stretch of heavily trafficked roadway somewhere.  Until then, I'm fine being labeled with naiveté.

PROBLEM #3: NOISE POLLUTION

Even the Brusaws have admitted on their FAQ page that they do not know how loud the roadways will be at full highway speeds.  Lots of detractors say they will easily exceed FHWA sound regulations for interstate highways and the like.  This may very well be the case as the prototype exists now.  The Brusaws are looking to hire materials science engineers which, quite possibly, may be due to a need to address this very issue.  Maybe the foundation needs to be spongy, or perhaps the roads will have to come with some kind of noise cancelling technology, or it could be as simple as putting up sound barriers next to the highways.  I'm no engineer, so I can't tell you what the solution will be, but engineers are expert problem solvers and the Brusaws now have over two million dollars with which to hire the best engineers they can find.


Can this whole thing work?  I believe it can.  Will it work?  Only time can tell.