How much power can you expect to get out of a one-mile stretch of road? One mile = 5280 feet. Our Solar Road Panels are 12' by 12'. Therefore, it will take 5280/12 = 440 panels to create one mile (one lane, 12 feet wide). Each panel is expected to produce 7600Wh of electricity daily based on 15% efficiency and four hours of sunlight per day (for more details, see the Numbers page). 440 times 7600Wh = 3.344MWhr per lane per mile. So a typical four lane highway will produce 13.376MWhr per mile, based on four hours of sunlight per day. According to a 2007 study by the Energy Information Administration, the average American home used 936kWh per month. Dividing this number by 30 will give us an average need of 31.2kWh per day. Dividing this number into the 13.376MWhr per mile, gives us approximately 428. That's how many American homes can go "off-grid" for every mile of 4-lane Solar Roadway. We can wean ourselves off coal. Again, that's based on four hours of sunlight per day. Some of the roads in our neighborhood never see sunlight. Does that mean that we'll never see the Solar Roadways in our neighborhood? No. Every Solar Road Panel will have the ability to collect and store energy from the sun. Even the panels that never see sunshine can store the energy collected by nearby panels that are in the sun. We would install Solar Road Panels in tunnels and under bridges, knowing that they will never see sunlight themselves. Remember, we can produce three times more electricity than we have ever used. Theoretically, that means that only one-third of the Solar Road Panels ever have to see the light of day. The rest of the "shaded" panels will act as energy storage devices. They will still light up (nice for those tunnels!), melt snow and ice, report problems, etc., using the power that was collected by the panels in the region that did have access to sunlight.
One mile = 5280 feet. Our Solar Road Panels are 12' by 12'. Therefore, it will take 5280/12 = 440 panels to create one mile (one lane, 12 feet wide). Each panel is expected to produce 7600Wh of electricity daily based on 15% efficiency and four hours of sunlight per day (for more details, see the Numbers page).
440 times 7600Wh = 3.344MWhr per lane per mile. So a typical four lane highway will produce 13.376MWhr per mile, based on four hours of sunlight per day.
According to a 2007 study by the Energy Information Administration, the average American home used 936kWh per month. Dividing this number by 30 will give us an average need of 31.2kWh per day. Dividing this number into the 13.376MWhr per mile, gives us approximately 428. That's how many American homes can go "off-grid" for every mile of 4-lane Solar Roadway. We can wean ourselves off coal. Again, that's based on four hours of sunlight per day. Some of the roads in our neighborhood never see sunlight. Does that mean that we'll never see the Solar Roadways in our neighborhood?
No. Every Solar Road Panel will have the ability to collect and store energy from the sun. Even the panels that never see sunshine can store the energy collected by nearby panels that are in the sun. We would install Solar Road Panels in tunnels and under bridges, knowing that they will never see sunlight themselves. Remember, we can produce three times more electricity than we have ever used. Theoretically, that means that only one-third of the Solar Road Panels ever have to see the light of day. The rest of the "shaded" panels will act as energy storage devices. They will still light up (nice for those tunnels!), melt snow and ice, report problems, etc., using the power that was collected by the panels in the region that did have access to sunlight.
panels as batteries? ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
