Green Flamingobecause I said so

Yesterday I was reading up a little on the green auto industry, I came across what they call a Solar Roadway,  which now has been funded by the Department of Transport to create their first 12′ by 12′ slab or panel of road. When I first saw the title, I had a completely different idea in mind than what they are proposing, but either way this is a great project.

In the three different layers used to make this new road they have included power and datalines on the bottom, plus in the middle they would keep the actual solar cells, plus LED’s to light up the road as if it were painted. The top layer would be glass that would protect the electronics below and also provide traction for the cars as asplhalt does. All this is estimated to provide 3 times the power that was used in the US in 2003.

You can read up about it more in detail on Autoblog Green, or Solar Roadways.com. And here is a video with Scott Brusaw talking about his idea and how it was formed.

My idea was a bit different, I thought that they might collect the solar energy, then use it power cars, somehow make it so vehicles could absorb the power through their tires and use to run or at least partially power their cars. It might be easier if the cars also had solar panels on the roof, because if there was a lot of traffic blocking the sun from getting to the road, or  it might seem that the power is not distributed evenly along the road, then there would have to be some kind of back up plan.

Of course there is a catch to all of this: for the real idea, then rain and snow could take an effect, plus it was mentioned about hackers, and then they would access to the whole roadway across the country, but it still seems like a good idea. For my idea, going off road would not be an option, and I am not sure how the supercar owners would like it if power to their cars was maybe restricted and those V-12 engines could only do so much at that point. So both ideas have to be worked on.

But what I am most happy about here is that people are actual trying to do something, trying to find alternate ways of power and transportation, even if some things are a little far fetched. But again, just a few minutes ago I saw this sleek BMW hybrid that could do something too. I am just glad that people are keeping an open mind and coming up with different plans everyday.