Solar roadways: What you need to know

Innovation in the solar energy industry is happening constantly. While panels are typically installed on rooftops or large plots of land, some in the industry think that roads and highways are also suitable places for solar panels. Solar roadways have integrated solar cells generating power from the sun. This article will examine how feasible solar roadways are and their future.

Most roads in the U.S. are made from asphalt. A solar roadway is any road with solar panel technology attached to its surface, thus producing electricity while supporting the cars and trucks that drive on it. While an exciting and innovative way to generate solar power, solar roadways are far from a realistic, cost-effective energy production method.

One company in the United States, Solar Roadways, has raised money for prototyping and initial solar road product installations, but the company is still a long way away from scalable solar-power-generating road technology due to several challenges that come with altering highway infrastructure.

How much power could realistically come from a network of solar-powered roads? For the sake of example, let's assume that solar roadway technology is sufficiently advanced and cost-effective enough to install nationwide. Here's how the math works out:

According to the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, there are about 8,615,000 lane miles of road in the lower 48 states, which equates to approximately 18,000 square miles of land covered by roads. That's slightly more than three times the land area of Connecticut.

According to a 2008 National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) analysis, roughly 1,948 square feet per person of land is needed to supply enough electricity to run the country on solar power. Multiply that number by the U.S. population (about 325 million people), and a rough estimate of the total land area needed to power the U.S. with solar energy comes to nearly 23,000 square miles. Comparing that number to the square mileage of roads in the U.S., we see that covering the lower 48 states' roads in solar panels could generate a little less than 80 percent of the nation's energy needs (78.2 percent, to be exact). Adding in the huge amount of space covered by parking lots could probably get us all the way to 100 percent coverage.

These calculations are rough estimates. Factors like panel efficiency, panel angle and tracking capabilities, sunlight hours, temperature, and more all play into the production numbers. The number above gives a reasonable ballpark estimate, but we'll keep in mind that the calculations are oversimplified.

Recently, the first solar road in the U.S. was installed in Georgia. The road is located in the nation's first smart city and produces solar energy for an EV station situated in the city hall in Peachtree Corners.

Solar roadways sound like an innovative and effective way to expand solar energy use without taking up new land space. Still, there are a few significant roadblocks to solar roadway technology becoming widespread:

Cost

One of the biggest challenges for solar roadways is the high upfront and maintenance costs involved. Solar panels are much more expensive than asphalt per square foot, and repair costs are also high compared to filling in potholes or repaving road sections. One estimate puts the cost of replacing the country's roads with Solar Roadway's prototype product at $56 trillion. We'll need innovation to help lower production, installation, and maintenance costs before solar roads become a realistic and cost-effective solution.

Durability

Cars and trucks are hefty loads for roads to bear, so asphalt is a helpful road material - it flexes slightly with weight and won't shatter under heavy weight or significant impacts. Designing a solar roadway product that can let light through to the solar cells while being durable and resistant to damage is a complex engineering problem. Solar cells are typically covered in glass to protect them from the elements while letting sunlight through, but withstanding the weight of an 18-wheeler with a full load is an entirely different problem. Any solar roadway solution must be highly durable in weight and impact, which current prototypes have yet to solve completely.

Safety concerns

Imagine driving on a road surfaced with glass in a rainstorm. That's an accident waiting to happen, and it's another barrier to widespread installations of solar roadways. One solution to the safety problem on solar roadways is to texture the glass covering any solar cells used on roads, which will likely reduce the efficiency of the solar panels.

Energy production

The calculations above assume a lot, including reliable and predictable energy production from solar roadways, which isn't always a safe bet. Depending on where in the country they are installed, weather patterns, and tilt, solar cells produce highly variable amounts of energy. Specifically for solar roadways, cells would have to lie flat, which is not the optimal direction to capture the maximum amount of sunlight. This also means snow or debris covering the cells wouldn't simply slide off, as it usually does for rooftop systems installed at an angle.

Solar roadways are far from feasible in the U.S., but China may be much closer. Like the U.S. company Solar Roadways, a Chinese company called Pavenergy spearheads solar roadway development in the country. Pavenergy has benefitted from heavy government financial help, as they partnered with Qilu Transportation, a government-owned construction group, to open the first solar highway in the country in 2017.

In addition to financial advantages, Chinese solar roadway projects have a significant technological leg up: most roads in China are made with concrete, while roads in the U.S. are usually constructed with asphalt. Asphalt flexes slightly under pressure, meaning rigid solar cells will easily snap under the weight of cars and trucks. Concrete is a more sturdy foundation, and solar cells on top of a concrete road don't face the same durability issues as those on asphalt.

While solar roadways still have a long way to go, other ways exist to repurpose otherwise unusable areas to generate solar energy. Specifically, rooftop solar is a proven, cost-effective, and safe way to install solar panels at many scales. If you're interested in using your roof to generate power from the sun, the best way to shop for the right solar panel system is to compare quotes on the EnergySage Marketplace. Register your property to start receiving free quotes from qualified, pre-vetted installers near you.