Solar Roadways is one of five finalists for the Best Enabler Award for green Engineering category in the 2009 EE Times Annual Creativity in Electronics (ACE) Awards.
The main theme behind the evolution of solar road ways is to reinstate current petroleum based tarmac roads, parking areas, and driveways with Solar Road Panels. This will amass and stock up cosmological power to be worn by homes and businesses. Every Solar Road Panel generates its own electricity and has its own storage and sharing. Additionally, it heats up automatically during winters in order to avoid the accumulation of snow and ice on the surface of the road.
The structure of the solar road ways is elaborated in the subsequent section. Every distinct panel is composed of three basic layers:
- Road Surface Layer: The road surface layer is semi-transparent and is of high strength. It is rough enough to provide good grip. The sunlight can still pass through it to the cells where solar energy is collected. The road surface layer is constructed in such a way that it can bear heaviest loads under worst conditions. It is also equipped with weatherproof mechanism to protect the electronic layer beneath it.
- Electronics Layer: The electronics layer is composed of a hefty array of cells. Bulks of these cells have astrophysical cells collecting solar energy. These cells are equipped with LEDs used for painting the surface of road. A number of ultra capacitors are also fitted in this layer to store energy for future use.
- Base Plate Layer: As the electronics layer hoard and stores the energy from the sun, the Base Plate Layer has the responsibility of distributing the power being collected from the electronic layer and data signals. The energy thus collected is transmitted to homes and businesses linked to the Solar Roadway. The power and data signals are passed through each of the four sides of the base plate layer. This layer is weatherproof and protects the electronics layer above it.
If the average efficiency of solar road ways is 15 %, then solar road panels can produce approximate 7.6 kilo watt per hour in a single day. If we assume a one mile four lane road, then it requires 1,760 Solar Road Panels. This number of panels will be able to produce 13,376 kilowatt of electricity per day and about 4,882,240 kilowatt per year. Furthermore, this can supply energy to 500 homes and take them completely off the grid.
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