Solar Road Panel coming soon

The US Department of Transportation has given Idaho-based Solar Roadways a cool $100,000 to come up with a working prototype of their Solar Road Panel, where the asphalt doesn’t just sit there all day long, growing potholes in the process after being abused by tons of metal going over it each day. No sir, this new kind of road will be made out of glass and solar cells, where the latter are meant to replace the standard pavement found on roads and parking lots. Each 12′ x 12′ panel is able to generate up to 7.6 kilowatt hours per day, and can be used to juice embedded LEDs for lane markings and warning signal purposes. While the initial cost is prohobitively expensive with each panel costing up to $7,000, a one-mile segment of a four-lane highway can possibly generate enough juice to power up to 500 homes.