Solar Roads: The Future of Travel Roads are useful and often necessary, but are limited to a single purpose in addition to being expensive, dangerous, and environmentally-unfriendly. What if I told you there is something better? Because there is. Welcome to solar roads, the versatile, cost-effective, safe, and green future of travel. Solarroadways.com, the main website about solar roadways, explains that solar roads are hexagonal boards that are an alternative surface/building material and act as a vast network of passive solar collectors. They replace standard asphalt roads with roads made of solar cells. Enormous measures of renewable energy could be created by these paneled roads. Unlike ordinary roads, solar roads are constructed of solar …show more content…
Solarroadways.com explains that even though solar roadways cost 70 dollars per square foot, unlike asphalt roads, solar roads are so efficient that, if installed nationwide, they would pay for themselves over the course of a year. Solar roads would convert the sun’s energy into electrical energy. The energy would be stored using “virtual storage", meaning that excess energy would be placed back into the grid during daylight hours and then could be drawn back out of the grid in the evening. The power generated by the solar roads is worth more than it would cost to replace our existing nationwide road infrastructure. In fact, according to Mr. Brusaw, a nationwide network of solar roads would generate over three times the electric power America consumes each year. This would result in tremendous energy savings for every American, plus the potential for profitable energy exports, in addition to covering the cost of the solar roads. Ordinary roads, on the other hand, just sit around and deteriorate. Ordinary roads constantly need to be repaired, repainted, and replaced. While solar roadways also need to be repaired and replaced every 20 years, they pay for themselves in the long run. Spending and Funding for Highways, an article about annual costs of roads by the Congressional Budget Office, says that the US spends approximately 57 billion …show more content…
Commonhealth.wbr.org, a website about health care, personal health, medical research, payment reform and more, says that in 2013 in the United States, about 33,804 deaths were from unintentional motor vehicle accidents. Since traveling by car is Americans’ main source of transportation, safe roads are needed. Solarroadways.com continues that solar roads can likely result in fewer collisions since the roads are pressure sensitive. For example, when a road hazard is present and one’s vehicle approaches it, a solar road can sense the hazard and alert the driver by displaying a warning message using the LED lights in the solar panel circuit boards. Another way solar roads promote road safety is by preventing obstacles such as potholes from developing. Solar roads are not susceptible to pothole formation since the solar panels don’t crumble. Furthermore, solar roads avoid problems associated with accumulation of water, ice, and snow by using heating elements to keep each individual panel above zero degrees Celsius and by draining excess water via integrated drainage channels. Also, solar roadways can be heated up to 257 degrees. Their ability to withstand heat keeps the roads from melting from friction, hot objects, and sunlight. Additionally, when panels themselves become obstacles, such as when they are damaged, they can be easily identified through the solar roads’ network of microprocessors, and can then be fixed or replaced.
To deal with the problems of Fossil Fuels that are exhaustible and not environmental friendly, an electrical vehicle that runs on solar energy have been designed. Conventional vehicles use combustion engines that burn a fuel/petrol or diesel in cars and boats, and in kerosene planes (“How Do Solar Vehicles Work”). However, solar vehicles uses energy that is stored in a battery during and after it charges from a solar panel; uses electric motors for driving and solar cells to generate the electricity (Yogesh Sunil). They use batteries to make sure there is a source of electricity available, even after sunset or on rainy days (“How Do Solar Vehicles Work”).
Preview: Today I will discuss the potential that solar power has to become this country’s main supply of energy and the latest research that can make solar power more efficient and cost effective. I will also present the environmental benefits that come with using solar power over other and more harmful forms of energy.
Everyone is looking for a better way to have power. Solar power has very dependable technology, with little to no maintenance. It can bring finical savings by making more power a home owner may need and you can resell back the power company. Lastly help the environment by having no waste so less pollution and takes up unused space by putting them on to the roofs of the houses. In the end Home owners should try looking pass the initial price of Solar panels and see that this is a great way to produce energy that does not produce any carbon foot print.
Imagine that you’re driving on an open highway in the middle of summer. All you see in front of you is asphalt for miles and miles. The windows are down and your favorite song comes on the radio. You’re behind the wheel of a Tesla Model S, the newest electric car that can go from zero to sixty miles per hour in 2.4 seconds. This will soon be the future of all motor vehicles. Electric cars are beginning to have colossal impacts on our society because of their energy efficiency, performance benefits, and the fact that they are less harmful to the environment. In the near future, electric cars will dominate the road and eventually the planet’s overall need for oil will decrease immensely.
...ts and roofs absorb sun’s energy, thus heating up the surface of an urban city, intensifying the UHI. The Berkeley Heat Island Team concluded that lighter asphalts, or ‘cool pavements’, reflected as much as 30 to 50 percent of sun light, which is significantly higher than 5 percent of new asphalt, and 10 to 20 percent of aged asphalt, and ‘cool roofs’ decrease temperature inside and outside the building. Such ‘Cool technologies’ also seem applicable to Seoul, in renewal and development of infrastructure continues. Government schemes to reduce energy consumption, initiate plans to raise efficiency of special areas, limit cars driving, encourage riding bicycles, create urban forests and gardens, rooftop greenery, and more. There are also methods of planning routes for wind, Blue Way, by planning infrastructures, to let wind swiftly flow in to decrease the heat.
Two people who believe this are reporters at the Breit Bart News Network. Julian Morris and Victor Nava believe that, “‘Green’ energy subsidies benefit the politically connected while harming future generations as hundreds of millions of dollars are added to the country’s debt burden with each green failure.” In a way Morris and Nava are correct. According to Mathias Aarre Maehlum, “Residential solar systems are typically sized from 3 to 8kW and end up costing between $15,000 and $40,000.” This can add up to become very expensive when implementing solar energy throughout the country. However, with the advancements in technology growing every year the cost will decrease over time. The cost of implementation can in fact go down as well through the use of community solar gardens. This helps the homes that are shaded and cannot absorbs the Sun’s energy. The energy from the community solar gardens are shared through out those homes. Switching to solar energy can also save money over time. Rhone Resch, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association confirms this. Resch says, “Today, the solar industry employs nearly 175,000 Americans and pumps more than $15 billion a year into the U.S. economy – and we’re just scratching the surface of our enormous potential” (qtd. in
Today, people use their own personal vehicles to travel more than ever before. Personal transportation is no longer considered a luxury; it is now considered a necessity. The number of cars in the United States has been growing steadily since the 1970s. The number of miles traveled by cars has risen nearly 150 percent, yet the United States population has only grown roughly 40 percent during that time (hybridcars.com, Driving Trends). Although it may seem like we are advancing into the future, in reality, we are moving backwards from the effects these vehicles have on our bodies and the environment. The pollution produced by these vehicles has brought us to the day where we must find other modes of transportation that cause less harm to the world in which we live. Advances in technology have developed hybrid vehicles to try and slow down the amount of pollution. Driving a hybrid vehicle, instead of a conventional gas powered vehicle, can reduce the amount of pollution that affects our lives and the environment around us.
It is estimated that there are roughly 700 million automobiles that are currently traveling the highways recurrently. Karen D. Povey (Reference), who is the author of many environmentally focused books, estimates that by 2025 the number of vehicles on the road will be well over a billion. This kind of reality makes one think about the amount of carbon pollution prod...
Solar energy is the practice of converting direct sunlight into energy that can be used for many different purposes. Solar energy is clean, efficient and environmentally safe. There are many forms of renewable energy, but the most powerful is solar energy. Solar Panels can transform solar light into electricity. Solar energy is environmentally conscious, and can help rejuvenate and rebuild local economies in communities worldwide. A successful transition will lead to a cleaner environment, decreased dependence on major power conglomerates and more jobs for residents in any community.
For example, people may charge their electric cars in the morning with the sunlight, and during the night the electric cars will work by saving the power from the morning; as a result, solar power runs for a long time, and people may do their work without doing any problems for the environment. Furthermore, solar energy does not use any equipment to work such as wires or cords unlike other sources like wind energy. For instance, solar power can be at the roof of the house without using any equipment, and without taking any space. On the other hand, Louwen, Sark, Schropp, Turkenburg, and Faaij (2015) stress that solar cells need to replace the material that is used or decrease the amount of the equipment used such as silver and indium since they are used in silicon cells. This might negatively impact the environment and the production cost (p. 1407). Overall, solar energy can be used as a renewable energy to reduce the pollution and protect the environment from the harmful gasses, and can be used without access to power
... and monthly water filling. Solar energy is the cleanest and purest form of energy, allowing for cleaner air overall in our environment. There is great hope for a lot more solar panels to be installed worldwide. Solar is a viable alternative energy with solar panels becoming more affordable and more efficiently designed.
Solar energy is that energy which is gets by the radiation of the sun. Solar energy is present on the earth continuously and in abundant manner. Solar energy is freely available. It doesn’t produce any gases that mean it is pollution free. It is affordable in cost. It has low maintenance cost. Only problem with solar system it cannot produce energy in bad weather condition. But it has greater efficiency than other energy sources. It only need initial investment. It has long life span and has lower emission. The sun is the original source of almost all the energy used on earth. The earth receives a stock ring amount of energy from the sun, as much energy falls
There are over 550 major solar projects across the US. Now under the Obama Administration, 16 more projects have been approved and they will provide 6,000 megawatts of power. (SEIA) However, the concentration of the biggest and most powerful plants are located in the Southwest. (SEIA) In fact, the oldest solar energy plant, the SEGS thermal power plant resides in California and generates about 354 megawatts of power. (SEIA)
Have you ever thought about helping the environment and make it healthy? Solar cars can save your money, help the environment and change the future transportation more easier. People call these cars their best friends because they use only the sun's energy to move. Solar cars are important these days because it’s a way to save money instead of paying for gasoline and it doesn’t harm the environment. You might think solar cars are really good and have really good advantages, but there is disadvantages with these types of cars too. Now lets begin.
This paper will explore the many aspects of solar energy. From how it was discovered to what it is used for, how it is used, and the many benefits of it. Solar energy is defined as, radiant energy emitted by the sun. Solar energy has been used for many years and also has been used to generate a number of things that we use today, from solar powered cars and cell phones; solar energy is a huge aspect of human life as we know it. If it weren’t for solar energy, many things may not be able to operate and many other things may not have been discovered because of it.