Friday 11 October 2013

'Solar Road' generates electricity from solar power right under your feet

The solar walkway developed by talented engineers at the George Washington University is capable of generating electricity from solar power right under your feet. The 'solar road', as we'd like to call it, is first of its kind in the world and available for demo at the Virginia Science & Technology campus. As you'd imagine, the road comprises of special solar panels developed by the engineering team as a part of the sustainable 'Solar Walk' project. These solar panels were made using PV flood panels manufactured by Onyx Solar - a Spanish company known all over the world for their expertise in design & manufacturing of photovoltaic materials. 

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The demo road is about 100 sq.ft rectangular path capable of bearing loads up to 400 kg. Take our word that it is skid & slip proof and you won't require special skills to walk on it. A total of 27 semi-transparent solar panels that make up this road are capable of generating 400 watts of energy - just enough to power about 450 LEDs that would light up the path at the night. 

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We believe solar roads would solve a very important problem - mounting the solar panels on roof tops and at places they are difficult to install. We hope the technology matures fast for mass adoption so that in future, our roads will power the streetlights and maybe our homes as well! We'd like to seek opinions of our engineers on the feasibility of solar roads and the commercial aspects of mass adoption.

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