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philo

Trad climber
Is that light the end of the tunnel or a train?
May 14, 2014 - 08:57am PT
philo

Trad climber
Is that light the end of the tunnel or a train?
May 14, 2014 - 09:42pm PT
ENDLESS ELECTRICITY: Here's A Way Of Turning America's Roads Into Gigantic Solar Panels

ROB WILE

MAY 14, 2014, 4:32 AM 60,114 80
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Solar Roadways
Julie and Scott Brusaw.

There are about 31,251 square miles of roads, parking lots, driveways, playgrounds, bike paths, and sidewalks in the lower 48 states. If Julie and Scott Brusaw have their way, they will all someday be replaced with solar panels.

For the better part of a decade, the Idaho couple has been working on prototyping an industrial-strength panel that could withstand the weight of even the largest trucks. They now appear to have cracked the formula, developing a specially textured glass coating for the panels that can not only bear tremendous loads but also support standard tire traction.

By their reckoning, at peak installation their panelized roads could produce more than three times the electricity consumed in the U.S.

The material could power electric vehicles through a receiver plate mounted beneath the vehicle and a transmitter plate is installed in the road.



Solar Roadways
The project has already received two phases of funding from the U.S. Federal Highway Administration, and last year featured in Google's Moonshot series. They're now incorporated as Solar Roadways.

Right now, they're looking to raise $1 million on IndieGogo to move beyond the prototype and into production. Since announcing the campaign three weeks ago, they've received $112,000.

If you're wondering why they're choosing crowdfunding given the potentially large interest from investors, so have many others. Their reason for doing so is rather noble. As they explain on their website (via John Aziz):

The idea to launch a crowdfunding campaign came to us from so many supporters that we looked into it. We have always been concerned about protecting our vision to implement this in the way that we think will have the most benefit: creating American jobs rather than outsourcing and then adding manufacturing facilities in other countries. That way we could help the economies everywhere providing many thousands of jobs. We have a vision for the way our facilities will be - campus like - with a positive atmosphere. We want to use as many recycled materials as we can and keep our manufacturing process as green as possible. We could go on, but you get the picture. If we can raise enough funds here, we won't have to take on an investor and we won't have to worry about losing our focus. If you like our vision and want to help, we'd be honored to have you in our corner.

Here is an artist's rendering of what it someday could look like:


Solar Roadways
It could also be used in parking lots:


Solar Roadways
Definitely something you wish you'd thought of first.

SEE ALSO: How Solar Surged In America



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/solar-roadways-profile-2014-5#ixzz31kCqn8B2
Sanskara

climber
May 14, 2014 - 10:16pm PT
My local REI do that to the parking lot. Pretty cool.

I see more and more solar going up on relatively normal working class homes in my area every year. I can't drive more than a mile in a 10-20 mile radius without seeing residential solar.

Sh#t Home Depot has someone peddling the technology just inside their front door just about 365 days a year.

philo

Trad climber
Is that light the end of the tunnel or a train?
May 14, 2014 - 11:29pm PT
Germany is producing over 70% of it's electricity from clean green renewable energy.
And that is from a country a fraction the size of the US and with substantially less solar gain.
philo

Trad climber
Is that light the end of the tunnel or a train?
May 15, 2014 - 10:44am PT
Nine mind-blowing facts about wind energy


May 10, 2014 By TakePart Staff

Climate change is here to stay.

That is the key takeaway from the National Climate Assessment, a major report released last week on the state of global warming in the United States.

“Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present,” the authors declared.

Burning fossil fuels has led to water scarcity in arid regions, torrential downpours in wet regions, extreme heat waves, and larger and longer-burning wildfires.

Unless we are prepared to condemn our descendants to a world that could be 10 degrees warmer on average by 2100, we need to dramatically wean ourselves off fossil fuels.

That means embracing renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power—which generate virtually no emissions and displace carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that would otherwise be released by, say, the coal plant that’s also giving you asthma and cancer.

Herewith are nine awesome facts about wind energy.


Leave the Gun, Take the Turbine: Italy Seizes Mafia-Run Wind Companies

1. As early as 5000 B.C., ancient Egyptians used wind energy to propel boats up and down the Nile River.

2. In 1941, Palmer Putnam, an MIT-educated geologist, unveiled the Smith-Putman Wind Turbine in Vermont. The device was the first to send wind-sourced alternate-current power to an electric grid. “Slowly, like the movements of an awakening giant, two stainless-steel vanes—the size and shape of a bomber’s wings—began to rotate,” gaped the Sept. 8, 1941, issue of Time.

3. A modern wind turbine usually has three blades, which can reach rotational speeds of more than 200 miles per hour.

4. Around 70 percent of turbine equipment used at U.S. wind farms—that includes blades, gears, and generators—are made in America.

5. The United States has 60,000 megawatts of installed wind energy capacity. This powers the energy needed by roughly 15 million American homes.


Weirdest Apartment Ever? These Guys Will Live Inside a Wind Turbine

6. America has barely scratched the surface of its wind energy potential. “The land-based wind energy resource in the United States is over 10,000,0000 megawatts, which could produce enough electricity to power the entire country 10 times over,” reports the American Wind Energy Association.

7. Wind energy accounted for less than 0.1 percent of the world’s electricity usage in 1997. This increased to 1.5 percent in 2008 and 2.5 percent in 2010. That’s progress, but there’s still a long way to go.

8. The U.S. generated 168 megawatt-hours of wind energy in 2013—or roughly the equivalent of removing 16 million cars from the road for an entire year.

9. In January, the world’s “largest and most powerful wind turbine” went online at an energy-testing center in Osterild, Denmark. The prototype is enormous: 720 feet tall, with 260-foot blades. It can generate eight megawatts of power, or enough to power 3,000 American households for an entire year.
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