Route 66 Going Solar In Missouri - VIDEO

A section of Route 66 in Missouri will soon be covered in solar panels from Idaho startup, Solar Roadways. “It gets Missouri and MDOT prepared for 21st century innovations,” says Tom Blair, who heads the Road to Tomorrow initiative. “We expect them to be in place, I’m hoping, by the end of this year, maybe before snow flies.”

Combining road improvement with solar energy generation could be not only a boon for the Missouri but a model for other states as well. Blair says, “If [Solar Roadway’s] version of the future is realistic, if we can make that happen, then roadways can begin paying for themselves.”

Solar Roadways describes their tempered-glass roads as “a modular system of specially engineered solar panels that can be walked and driven upon. Our panels contain LED lights to create lines and signage without paint [and] contain heating elements to prevent snow and ice accumulation.”

The panels also contain microprocessors that make it possible for the panels communicate with each other and with a central control center. They can also communicate with the vehicles driving on them. Because the panels are modular, roads could easily be repaired without major disruptions of traffic.

Solar Roadways says it has already completed two contracts in partnership with the U.S. Department of Transportation. “Our goal is to modernize the infrastructure with modular, intelligent panels, while producing clean renewable energy for homes and businesses,” the company says on its website. “We’ll be able to charge electric vehicles with clean energy from the sun, first on our solar parking lots and when we have enough highway infrastructure, while driving.”

Solar Roadways is not the only company working on roads that are also solar panels. France is planning to pave 600 miles of roads with solar panels manufactured by Colas, which bills itself as the “World leader in the construction and maintenance of transport infrastructure.”

The Colas panels took 5 years to develop and consist of 7 millimeter thick strips glued to the road surface. The strips use a thin film of polycrystalline silicon to make electricity from sunlight. Colas says they have been tested extensively and can withstand the weight of a 6 axle truck. They are also said to be skid resistant.

Solar roads seem like a great idea. But real world engineering problems may get in the way. In winter, water can collect between the panels and freeze, damaging the connections between them. Traffic may scuff they so badly their ability to make electricity is greatly reduced. Frost heaves and other natural phenomena may cause them to break.

It’s an interesting idea, and one that deserves to be explored. Eliminating the need to plow roads in winter could certainly save cities and states huge amounts of money, more than offsetting the cost of  solar roads. Is this an idea whose time has come? “We’ll see,” said the Zen master.

Source: The Free Thought Project  Photo credit: Solar Roadways

As Solar Installations Soar, Utilities Confront Distributed Renewable Power

Photovoltaic solar power field at Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee

As electric-car sales continue to grow, major changes are expected to come to the electricity infrastructure used to power them.

As solar cells become more affordable, utility companies must ponder the impact of a larger portion of U.S. homes and businesses that either disconnect from the grid or buy only a fraction of their previous electricity consumption.

CHECK OUT: Residential Solar Competitive With Electricity In 25 States Next Year: NRG CEO

While potentially beneficial to the environment, this "distributed generation" model threatens the way utilities have done business for over 100 years.

The way utilities are responding to the possibility of U.S. energy going off the grid is the subject of a recent--and thorough--article in the Financial Times (subscription required).

Photovoltaic solar panels on roof of Honda Smart Home at UC-Davis, California

Going off the grid

Efficiency improvements and overcapacity of solar-panel manufacturing in China have made solar power reasonably affordable for more people.

While still often inherently more expensive than the grid, solar is also heavily subsidized by the Federal government, as well as state and local governments.

RELATED: In 10 Years, Electric Cars Make Home Solar Practical Without Subsidies: UBS

The author cites data from GTM Research showing that U.S. solar installations have increased fourfold for homes and threefold for businesses over the past four years.

In addition, the U.S. Energy Administration expects the country's large-scale power generators to produce less electricity in 2015 than they did in 2007--despite the recent economic recovery.

Electric power plant outside Ithaca, New York

Some analysts have predicted that this will cause a "death spiral," in which utilities are forced to charge higher rates to continue maintaining infrastructure with fewer customers, and in turn encouraging more customers to look for cheaper alternatives.

That's far from a universally-held view, but it's easy to see how even the possibility of such a radical shift in a relatively short time would make utility companies nervous.

ALSO SEE: Renewable Energy Won't Cause Electric Utility 'Death Spiral': Study

Utilities only want people using solar power to pay their "fair share," said David Owens--a representative of industry association Edison Electric Institute.

That's the impetus to lobbying efforts in states like Arizona and Oklahoma, which have agreed to levy surcharges on owners of solar-powered homes. A similar effort in Utah was shot down by state regulators last year.

BMW DesignworksUSA solar carport concept

The role of electric cars

Yet there is still likely to be room for both solar installations and a traditional grid.

Many users continue to view solar as less reliable than grid electricity. Even with (expensive) systems for storing electricity for later use, most are expected to stay connected to the grid.

That's where distributed generation starts to dovetail with electric cars.

Recent research projects conducted by the University of Delaware and the U.S. Air Force are investigating the use of electric cars for grid storage.

In these "vehicle-to-grid" (V2G) configurations, electric cars are used to store excess energy and discharge it during periods of higher demand.

MINI E electric cars used in vehicle-to-grid test. Photo by University of Delaware/Evan Krape

This could provide home owners with a convenient storage solution, and take some stress off the grid by balancing supply and demand.

As Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk--who also happens to be the chairman of solar company SolarCity--notes, more electric cars may also increase generation needs (though that depends greatly on what time of day they're recharged).

Musk expects electric cars to double the demand for electricity, leaving room for solar to grow while utilities' business essentially remains the same.

Other projections assume the bulk of recharging is done overnight, which cuts the impact enormously.

Whatever the numbers prove to be over the next few decades, it's clear that the development of electric cars and solar power will continue to be intertwined--in what appears to be a mutually beneficial cycle.