IGM Solar Roadways

Inter-Galactic Memo
To: All Personnel
Fr: W. Leavitt, Crypto-Futurist
Re: Solar Roadways


There is an article in Physorg.com today entitled:
Solar Roadways Awarded DOT Contract to Pave Roads with Solar Cells
The US DOT has awarded a $100,000 grant to Solar Roadways to finance a prototype of a “solar road panel”. The 12x12 foot panels ($7000 apiece) would be embedded into roadways to collect solar energy and convert it into electricity at a rate of about 7.6 kilowatts per panel, per shiny day.
When pumped into the Grid, a section of four-lane highway one mile long would be able to power approximately 500 homes. That’s a lot of homes. The company estimates that covering the entire nations main roads would take 5 billion panels and cost approximately a bazillion dollars. But, it would produce three times more energy than we have ever used as a nation; which, embarrassing enough, would be almost enough to power the rest of the world.
There are a few other features the start-up company envisions, which include:
The Solar Road Panels also contain embedded LED lights that "paint" the road lines from beneath to provide safer nighttime driving. The LEDs could also be programmed to alert drivers of detours or road construction ahead, and can even sense wildlife on the road and warn drivers to slow down. The roads could also contain embedded heating elements in the surface to prevent snow and ice from building up on the road. Further, in the future, fully electric vehicles could recharge along the roadway and in parking lots, making electric cars practical for long trips.
Nice, right? And we wouldn’t have to clutter the planet with huge fields of ugly collector farms. We would use land already covered with ugly roads. And as photo-voltaic advances came on-line, we could replace the panels with better, more efficient ones, increasing our electrical output forever. This would reduce the need for fossil fuels, in case anyone hadn’t thought of that yet.
This is another in a continuing line of examples of doing more with less and of using technology within appropriate constraints. I will mention R.B. Fuller each time I cite one of these examples, because he is the father of “Doing More with Less” and of the concept that Homo Sapiens are designed, by nature, to do just that: create ever-increasing order, organization, and design-sophistication while using fewer and fewer resources to do it. Sort of the opposite of the “Green Movement” and its strident litany of doomsday scenarios.
Solar Roadways may or may not succeed. But someone will. Another company I’ve been following just announced the opening of their new plant dedicated to the manufacture of cheap, efficient solar collectors made in a process similar to printing presses making newspapers. They have been making these collectors (printing the circuitry onto rolls of thin metal) for industrial and civic entities for a few years. This new plant is for commercial and residential use. With their proprietary process, it is possible to cover an entire roof with thin panels of this stuff, cut from rolls, tie them together, and start making electricity. No heavy, bulky, costly glass-covered panels any more. Just thin sheets of printed aluminum.
The point is this. When certain organizations and or individuals start foaming at the mouth about imminent disaster, minutes away, the responsible, civilized thing to do is throw a pie in their face. Given time, we can and will solve every challenge and problem we encounter—if we are able to generate the political will and keep our senses. The most serious impediment to this is the “Doomsday Club”. Everyone who predicts imminent disaster and catastrophe based on spurious information, dubious data and—dare we say it—Computer Models—belongs to this club. (Unless they’re predicting a Zombie attack, in which case walk and hide.)
As the Boss says,
“Have a little faith/ there’s magic in the night.” (I belong to that club.)