Spokane7
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October 19, 2010 in City
Sagle duo’s goal to change energy systems with solar roads
Federal contract, GE award fuel pair
Scott Brusaw, pictured, and his wife, Julie, own Solar Roadways, which has patented a way to make roadways out of glass solar panels, such as the prototype Scott is sitting on. The Brusaws won $50,000 in the GE Ecomagination Challenge.
(Full-size photo)
Spending an hour with Scott Brusaw, of Sagle, just might convince you that eliminating the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels is not only possible, but likely.
Brusaw and his wife, Julie, recently won General Electric’s Ecomagination Challenge, an innovation experiment seeking ideas on how to build the “next-generation power grid.”
Their big idea: replace the nation’s roadways with solar panels.
Scott Brusaw has been working on the concept full time for four years, and interest is starting to grow. Last fall, he landed a $100,000 Federal Highway Administration contract to build a prototype. Then he won the people’s choice award in the Ecomagination Challenge, which came with $50,000.
On Friday, a group of Japanese investors will visit his shop to explore the possibility of replacing parking lot surfaces with solar panels.
As wild as it may sound, it’s true.
A 12-foot-square prototype of the solar roadway sits in Brusaw’s nondescript shop east of U.S. Highway 95 on Sagle Road. Research is being conducted at an acclaimed materials research institute at Penn State University on the feasibility of using glass panels for road surfaces. And one of the country’s largest technology consulting firms is displaying 8-inch-square solar roadway panels at its future transportation lab in Virginia.
“We really think it could be a paradigm shift,” Brusaw said. “Doors just seem to keep opening. We hope it will just keep snowballing.”
Brusaw is low-key but intense and extremely optimistic. He’s thought through every aspect of the idea, even calculating how many solar panels it would take to cover the approximately 29,000 square miles of paved surfaces in the lower 48 states. At an April speech in Sacramento, Brusaw said ideas like fluorescent bulbs, carpools and high-mileage cars are important, but “are honestly putting Band-Aids on an open, gaping, gushing wound that is global warming. What we’re offering is a tourniquet.”
Within the solar roadway’s makeup, power lines would be embedded along the shoulder, giving utility companies easy access for repairs and upgrades. Solar cells, LED lights and heating elements would be hermetically sealed between thick layers of textured glass that would become the new road surface.
Additional electronics would be sealed beneath the glass panels. The panels would generate enough heat to eliminate the need to clear snow. The embedded rows of LED lights would be able to spell out traffic warnings or create a built-in flare system for accidents. The roadways would also include a system of pipes to capture storm water and direct it to filtration systems so the water could be reused.
If all the roads in the lower 48 states were replaced with solar panels, Brusaw said, they would produce three times more power than this country has ever used annually.
“Using the roads as a means to collect energy, I think that will go,” said Edwin Schmeckpeper, a civil engineering professor at Norwich University in Vermont who researched structural highway loads for Brusaw, designing some potential bases to support the glass panels. “Not necessarily all roads, but I think some roads, because it’s a large flat surface that’s collecting solar energy that can be tapped.”
It’s a tall order, but Brusaw is dreaming that big. Replacing all the roads with solar panels, he said, would require building five billion panels, demanding two factories in every state. It would generate 2.5 million jobs over 10 years, he said, and that doesn’t include the maintenance and installation or the manufacturing of the glass, LED lights and other components.
He also envisions the solar roadways connecting to charging stations for electric vehicles, making their use more feasible. Electric vehicles are limited by their range, due to the lack of charging stations, he said. If, for example, charging stations could be attached to the solar roadways in fast-food parking lots, that problem would disappear.
“This is the beginning of the end of fossil fuels, we hope,” he said.
To go into production, Brusaw said he needs $50 million, and he might just get it. Solar Roadways won the first round of the Ecomagination Challenge, a people’s choice award, garnering more than 74,000 votes from a contest that drew more than 3,500 ideas. In the next phase, five more prizes of $100,000 will be awarded and announcements will be made Nov. 16 of which projects will receive up to $200 million in investment funding.
The biggest challenge to making Solar Roadways a reality is twofold, Brusaw said: building glass panels strong enough to withstand the weight of 18-wheelers and texturing the glass to create enough friction for rubber tires.
“Scott put a new stake in the ground, a new idea people are talking about,” said Dr. Carlo Pantano, director of Penn State’s Materials Research Institute. “I believe new materials and new energy ideas will come out of it. Whether they’re solar roadways or not is a different question in my mind.”
Still, Brusaw is convinced any challenges can be addressed. He’s applying for a second round of funding from the Federal Highway Administration, which could result in a $750,000 contract to explore placing the solar panels in parking lots. He envisions first testing them in parking lots, then residential areas, then moving to the roadways.
Two Fernwood residents dead after Monday accident 
scaleram on October 19 at 6:24 a.m.
A standard solar panel with no installation, no LED lighting, no super strong textured glass panel to support trucks costs about $300 per square foot. Throw in another $200 for all of the aforementioned goodies plus installation and the transmission lines, we now have an installed price of $500 per square foot. Using the 29,000 square feet of highways mentioned in the story the cost of this boondoggle is now approximately $566 trillion dollars. Didn’t anyone think to run the numbers on this before they decided it was worthwhile? Only an idiot like Al Gore could love this idea.
polistra on October 19 at 6:31 a.m.
Fantastically stupid idea. Its only “electrical” value is as a subsidy magnet.
IHike4Fun on October 19 at 7:38 a.m.
Al Gore WOULD love it. He probably has financial interest in the concept and would continute to make big $$ of it.
All that aside it is an interesting concept. The initial cost is one big limiting factor. The other is the life expectancy of solar panels. Given direct sunlight (like in Arizona where I am from) they last a max of 10 years and then need to be replaced.
There was an engineer in Tucson who installed some prototype panels he got from Germany about 20 years ago. He developed some automatic louvering device to shade the panels during the most intense times of the day/year. His battery barn was airconditioned. He’d been off the grid for 20 years and produced more than he needed so Tucson Electric Power had been paying him the whole time. Now he HAD something there. But in general the installation of an off-grid solution down there ran around $45,000. And in 10 years it will have to be replaced. That would cost you WAAAAAAAAY more than it would save you.
Personally I think nuclear power holds more promise (if we can figure out a long term solution to the spent rods).
misjustice on October 19 at 8:32 a.m.
This type of innovative thinking is what is good about our nation.
Press on, Scott and Julie!
SpokaneLiberal on October 19 at 8:43 a.m.
Mike Scalera
Your calculations are a little off. Solar panels no longer cost $500 per square foot, and It isn’t 29000 square feet of roads it is 29000 square MILES (which it looks like you used for your calculation). Each square mile is 27878400 square feet. This means there are 808,473,600,000 square feet of paved surfaces (which I find unlikely - I bet it is way more than that). This means it would (at your figure) cost 404,236,800,000,000 to pave all that road.
I found a different figure - 12.50 per square foot (you can find a 84X24 solar panel for under 300 bucks including the wiring/connectors using google but the 12.5 is from another google search). This still yields 10.1 trillion. The key here is cost over replacement. Asphalt according to the DOT is 6.50 per square ft. (which seems high to me). The question really is does the electricity generated justify 6$ more per square ft. when we replace the road anyway? This is caveatted with how does the rd. stand up to driving in comparison to asphalt.
scaleram on October 19 at 9:02 a.m.
SpokaneLiberal: I did notice that I typed feet instead of miles but I had already posted and couldn’t revise it. I figured that anyone that would take the time to run the numbers would figure it out. You obviously did run the numbers, something that the inventor of the idea did not. The $500/square foot is probably very low because it is the installed price. Solar panels produce direct current. To get it on the grid it needs to be converted to alternating current. That will require a massive number of inverters that will have to be installed and paid for as well. Government never does anything that doesn’t run over budget. You may be a liberal but I think we can agree that this idea is a bit whacko. Nuclear power is much more cost effective and is the only clean energy alternative. Hydro power is also clean but you probably want to rip out the dams.
bdr on October 19 at 9:08 a.m.
Ive seen this guys (mock road and presentation), There is no possible way we can afford green board sandwiched road path.
The Solar idea is great but best installed where 80,000 pound trucks don’t roll over it. Its best suspended overhead on power lines.
The current panels we have anaphoric, multi,mono crystalline are extremely fragile glass products.
This guy should spend his cash figuring out how to implement Tesla coil Idea of RF electrical transfer and rare earth magnets powered by suspended solar over the road way.
The Tesla idea is to transfer electricity totally wireless to automobiles which Mr Tesla was successful, but the auto only went 200 feet beyond the power source.
recent rare earth magnets were applied to Tesla idea, with even more success (powering all household items without wires).
Tesla’s coil plasma balls are at (Spenser’s).
Here is a video of totally wireless plasma lights.
Just imagine a day of totally wireless /batteryless electric vehicles Powered by early 1900’s Tesla coils.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTGsM9pplUs
carisa on October 19 at 9:13 a.m.
OMG, what a brilliant idea! This is definitely worth investigating. American ingenuity and can-do attitude on display in Idaho!
Scalera, did you have a better idea/solution to reduce our dependence on oil? Sounds like you’re good at name-calling, but not so good at math…
SpokaneLiberal on October 19 at 9:22 a.m.
I am not going to say it is a good idea yet, but who knows - I thought printable solar was crazy, but it is now legit. If he can get the sustainability to close to asphalt and the cost down it would be really nice to be able to get something positive out of all that road.
spokanecougar on October 19 at 9:49 a.m.
This is a great Idea!!! I love people saying we cannot afford this idea….but yet we can afford going to war and killing our youngest and brightest people to get our current fossil fuels that fuel our country?
We can afford this, it just depends on were peoples priorities are.
meelee on October 19 at 9:57 a.m.
No good idea goes un-mocked.
Good luck, narrow-minded, self interest rules our ass-backwards world. This definitely represents a challenge to the status quo.
Don’t forget to factor in cost reductions due to the enormous scale of the project.
How easily we forget WPPS. Your nuclear option is really only good in the long term for making waste and killing things.
How about the total cost of the business as usual. Our planet is literally smothered in oil.
scaleram on October 19 at 10:02 a.m.
I stand by my math and I stand by my description of Al Gore.
Regarding reducing our dependence on oil; there is plenty of oil and when it becomes too costly under a free market system an alternative will be developed. If there is a market for something an enterprising capitalist will offer it. We already have clean alternatives for electricity. Nuclear and hydro are both available now. Wind power only exists because of huge government subsidies but solar power does have some promise. Both wind and solar are not reliable so we need a conventional power source to back them up.
Regarding Tesla’s wireless transfer of electricity; I recommend that you don’t stand between the power source and the receiver. I think that is what happened to Al Gore.
monkeyman on October 19 at 10:13 a.m.
I will make an electric car that gets juice via my snow studs.
spokanecougar on October 19 at 10:18 a.m.
Mike Scalera, do you work for the oil companies? Just about everything you said in that last statement is false.
There is NOT plenty of oil and it has been proven over and over again that we WILL run out of oil. This is evidence by the largest oil producing countries like the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and even Saudi Arabia all trying to diversify there economies because they know the oil will run out soon and they will fall if they are not prepared.
Both wind and solar power are unreliable? Those are about the most reliable and clean forms of energy you can have, there will ALWAYS be wind and the sun will always shine.
We already have the need for other forms of energy and thankfully we have millions of people around the world working on things to help get this world off its dependence on oil. This while people like you and the oil companies try and spread false lies about oil never running out and how good it is for everyone and the planet, just like the Gulf Oil Spill I am sure was great for the planet.
Also, I believe anything Al Gore tells me over what uninformed people like you post in newspaper forums.
bdr on October 19 at 11:10 a.m.
Hey Mike Scalera do you stand between your radio or tv and the translator source?
Thats all that needed for RF transfer. is virtually the wattage they already put out for tv’s and radios.
only amplified RF inside Plasma gas is visible.
((people think itll barbecue your body))
People have no idea that RF fields are invisible.
Check out RFID on the web and you will be absolutely amazed how well it works. ((Spokane airport has working RFID on all of its gates))
Checkout rare earth magnet generators on the web!
this stuff is way beyond solar 12 hour limitations .
scaleram on October 19 at 11:11 a.m.
To the cougar: I was up late last night and there was no sun. I look out my window now and the trees are not blowing, there is no wind. Much of the winter there is an increase in cloud cover, obscuring the sun. When these things occur we must have an alternative energy source that can come on-line quickly to make up for the loss of the un-reliable solar or wind power. Interestingly enough, coal fired plants are able to respond quickly.
As far as the remaining oil. My earlier post stated that when oil becomes too costly an alternative will be developed. That is called “supply and demand.” I would have thought that would have been mentioned at WSU. Why not explore additional sources like ANWR or the Bakken oil fields where there are around 4 billion barrels that could be recovered. Additional drilling in the Gulf of Mexico where China and Cuba are already drilling would likely yield considerable oil.
I too am thankful that there are people working on alternative energy sources. I want that research to come from the private sector instead of wasteful government spending. I know that wasteful and government is redundant but I thought it needed to be mentioned. Do your own research instead of believing Al Gore.
scaleram on October 19 at 11:26 a.m.
BDR;
The RF used to run an RFID device as is used at the airport or the RF that is broadcast to your radio or TV is amplified at the receiver to make it useful. The amplification requires more energy than is received. If it takes more energy at the receiver than you are receiving from the transmitter your net energy will not run your refrigerator and you won’t be able to keep your beer cold. I think that is pretty important.
The rare earth magnet thing is a scam and isn’t worth addressing.
Scoutster on October 19 at 12:37 p.m.
Whoever would have imagined you could talk to people on your desktop!
Schopenhauer’s threephases of a new idea:
1) Ridicule
2) Opposition
3) Self-evidence.