Solar Roadways: Science Fiction Becoming Reality

Solar roads are entering a new test phase that will see them installed along a portion of the iconic route 66. Solar Roadways is the brainchild of Scott and Julie Brusaw of Idaho.  It all started ten years ago when Scott, an electrical engineer and his wife Julie began to imagine how solar panels could be embedded into the road. The concept eventually incorporated LEDs that could illuminate highways, and replace road lines. These solar panels can also be heated enabling them to melt snow and ice. The panels used in olar roadways are made out of recycled glass and in addition to collecting renewable energy, the panels can even redistribute storm water.

A Response to Critics of the Solar Roadways Concept

While there is an abundance of positive response to the Solar Roadways concept, there has also been an avalanche of negativity that completely misses the point. As reviewed in a recent Global Warming is Real article, the concept of embedding solar panels into American roadways represents a powerful new approach to green innovation and finance.

Without paying heed to the benefits, many critics are focused on what they perceive as the project’s technological imperfections. Among their comments, they suggest the surface of a roadway with embedded solar panels would not be able to handle the stresses placed upon it, or that vehicular traffic and debris would seriously inhibit the ability of such roads to harvest the sun’s energy. Other criticisms state that the concept is hardly new and therefore somehow less worthy of interest. Some lament that we should be using roofs rather than roads to collect solar power.

Still others rue the cost. The creators of the Solar Roadway project have estimated the cost of embedding solar panels on American highways to be under $5 billion, while others claim it will cost trillions of dollars.

Solar Roadways’ Innovative Sun Powered Technology and Finance

Solar Roadways is a grassroots company that is a stellar example of a powerful new approach to business. Their business model is a perfect marriage between innovative technology and innovative finance. Solar Roadways are spearheading a new reality that levels the playing field and gives us reason to believe that we will find a way to meet our energy needs without fossil fuels.

Solar power was discovered over 170 years ago, but it was only in the 1950s that it became a viable, albeit expensive, technology. However, the high cost of producing solar cells meant that the concept remained in limited use up until recently. The explosion of interest in solar power has brought investment and research that has vastly improved the technology.

Video - Solar Roadways: Crowdfunding

This is the story of the creators of the solar roadway. They provide a long list of issues that can be resolved with solar roadways. They present their prototype and review their grassroots operation. They also make their pitch for a novel crowd-funding program that has already surpassed their goal of $1 million by raising more than $1.5 million.

Video - Solar Roadways: The Concept Explained

Solar Roadways is a revolutionary concept that embeds smart solar panels (made largely out of recycled materials) into roads. This concept will not only generate power, it will light roads and melt any snow and ice. Through embedded LEDs it can provide safer travel by providing warnings to drivers as necessary. It will also bury conduits for all forms of data cables and clean storm water. Most importantly, for a modest investment of under $5 billion, it will provide jobs and substantially reduce our footprint from burning fossil fuels.

Green Innovation and the Economic Importance of Fossil Fuels in Canada

Fossil fuels are the cornerstone of the Canadian economy and many companies are developing technological processes to help minimize their environmental impacts. Fossil fuels and the tar sands in particular are powerful economic drivers of the Canadian economy. The tar sands generate $91 billion for the Canadian economy. Oil and refined petroleum products are responsible for 25 percent of Canadian exports. The oil sands have seen substantial growth in the last couple of decades and they have provided a corresponding number of jobs. As reported in the Financial Post, a February 2014, IHS CERA study, showed that in 2012, oil sands generated almost a half a million jobs in Canada (478,000) Canadian jobs or 3 percent of all jobs in the country and

We are seeing "green" innovation in the Canadian fossil fuel industry including investments in carbon capture and storage. This type of innovation could reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 20 percent or more, tailings could be reduced by 80 percent and river water could be diminished by 25 percent.

Examples of Renewable Energy Innovations in 2013

Renewable energy is one of the fastest growing and most interesting areas of innovation. The number of patents issued for renewable-energy technologies has risen sharply over the last decade. The number and size of investments in research and development, as well as in the growth of markets for these products is driving innovation. Here are some examples of renewable energy innovation from 2013.

Pyroelectricity

A new type of electronic circuit was developed in 2013 that may help to improve the performance of solar panels. Typically cooler, slower, mellower electrons don't have enough energy to produce a usable electric current. Ultrasolar has developed an electronic circuit (ideally built into an inverter) that passes a very high frequency signal backwards through the DC wires into the solar module and cells. The slower electrons catch these waves and are turned into hot and fast electrons for long enough to escape the crystal matrix and generate a useful current. This could lead to inverter efficiencies of over 100 percent.

Event - INNOVA-CON 2014 Conference

INNOVA-CON 2014 will take place on January 14-15, 2014 in Brooklyn, New York. The first conference by the International Association of Innovation Professionals (IAOIP) featuring world-class innovation experts. The INNOVA-CON is a great opportunity to meet in person and connect with luminaries in the innovation profession. Content will focus on how to use strategies and methods of innovation to create value.

IAOIP is a professional membership organization that is the world's only independent innovation certification body, providing members with the knowledge, skills and opportunities to deliver real change in their industry or field.

Event - Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Celebration

This event will take place on Friday, November 15, 2013 at
IAC HQ, 555 West 18th Street, NYC. Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Celebration in New York City will honor C2C leaders and present the winners of the Cradle to Cradle Product Innovation Challenge, sponsored by the Schmidt Family Foundation and the Dutch Postcode Lottery, with a shared cash prize of $250,000.
Aveda, Method, PUMA, Shaw, Steelcase among Innovators to be Honored.

Across the globe more than 200 companies are transforming product design and leading a new, green industrial revolution. Come see their product innovations first hand.

Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute (C2C) is celebrating manufacturers of everything from clothing and furniture to carpets and cleaning products who have committed to “remake the way they make things” - transforming product design and leading a new industrial revolution. Following the lead of the green building industry, manufacturers from fashion, beauty, home and lifestyle brands are striving to make every product that touches our lives adhere to the highest standards of environmental and human safety.

Innovation is Key for Sustainability: Best Companies are Getting Better According to Tomorrow’s Value Rating 2013

Sustainability strategy company Two Tomorrows', tenth Tomorrow’s Value Rating 2013 (TVR), shows that the best companies are getting better. The rankings recognize companies that increasingly demonstrate “clarity of vision and innovation in their pursuit of a sustainable business model,” that is likely to likely to drive sustainable value in the future. This rating assesses the performance of the 50 companies in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI).

In order of their performance here are the top ten.

Event - Nexus Conference: Innovative and Sustainable Solutions

The Nexus Conference, will take place March 4-7, 2014, in Chapel Hill, NC, USA. This event will bring together leaders in business, government, NGOs and research to discuss innovative and sustainable solutions that address the intersection of the world’s water, food, and energy needs and uses in a changing climate. The Nexus approach requires systemic thinking and a quest for integrated solutions to guide our decision-making about resource use and development and move to a more sustainable planet.

Event - Inspiration 2013

Inspiration 2013 will take place on the 31st of October at the Royal Geographic Society, London, UK. Inspiration is about what we've deemed the life cycle of ideas, from having an idea, testing it, shaping it and delivering it as a successful commercial venture. The event is premised on the notion that ideas and innovation can make the difference between success and failure in uncertain times.

Event - Wind Farm Data Management & Analysis 2013

This event will take place on September 23-25, 2013, at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Hamburg, Germany. Wind Farm Data Management and Analysis 2013 will focus on implementing an effective data management strategy to reduce O&M costs.

Windpower Monthly’s Wind Farm Data Management and Analysis Forum is the ONLY event focused on understanding how to optimise wind data to reduce O&M costs and improve turbine performance.

Topics covered include R&D from leading industry heavyweights including: OWI-Lab, ECN, RWTH Aachen, DTU Wind Energy, Fraunhofer Institut (IWES) & Durham University.

Course - Wind Power Planning School

Wind Power Planning School will take place on September 9-13, 2013. This course is presented by Green Power Academy / London. These three integrated courses combine to provide a comprehensive introduction to the Resource, Technology & Planning Aspects of the Wind Power Business, for business people and non-engineers.

For more information click here.

Video- Energy Storage Technology for Offshore Wind Turbines

A new technology employs concrete spheres to generate electricity when there is no wind to turn the blades.

Wind Energy Storage Solution Employing Concrete Spheres

Offshore wind holds tremendous promise, however the intermittent and unpredictable presence of wind imposes limits on this technology. However a new approach from researchers at MIT may have solved this problem with an approach that stores energy to be used when there is no wind.

This concept employs huge concrete spheres which would anchor wind turbines to the sea floor. When a wind turbine produces more energy than is needed, power would be diverted to drive a pump attached to the underwater structure, pumping seawater from a 30-meter-diameter hollow sphere. Then when there is no wind the water would flow back into the sphere through a turbine attached to a generator, producing energy.

A 25-meter sphere could store up to 6 megawatt-hours of power. One thousand spheres attached to wind turbines could produce as much coal or nuclear plant.

The system could also operate with shore based renewable sources of electricity like solar plants. Preliminary estimates indicate that one such sphere could be built and deployed at a cost of about $12 million but as the spheres are mass produced costs would come down. This could result in an estimated storage cost of about 6 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Harnessing Wind Energy Without Blades

Wind turbines are a large and growing source of energy but the turning blades have led to concerns about sound and impacts on bird populations. People have also complained that such wind turbines are an eye-sore. A new structure designed by Dutch architecture firm Mecanoo and installed at the Delft University of Technology convert wind to energy without any moving parts.

The new technological innovation was developed by the Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science faculty at Delft. It uses the movement of electrically charged water droplets to generate power.

Event - Offshore Wind Economics & Finance Europe 2013

Offshore Wind Economics & Finance: Europe 2013 will take place on Wednesday 16 October - Thursday 17 October in London, United Kingdom. ACI’s 2nd Offshore Wind Economics & Finance: Europe will take place on 16-17 October 2013 in London, UK. Bringing together 50-80 of the industry’s leading experts and executives from across the entire value chain (banks, international financing institutions, VC/PE companies, offshore wind farm owners/operators, utility companies, offshore wind farm developers, wind technology suppliers and R&D, government and regulators, lawyers and insurance firms) for two days of interactive discussion, excellent networking opportunities and the very latest updates from project investment activity around Europe, ACI’s 2nd Offshore Wind Economics & Finance: Europe will present you with the knowledge, experience & contacts you need to drive your business forward.

Event - Offshore Consenting Conference 2013

The second edition of the Offshore Consenting Conference 2013 will take place on 26 June 2013, in London, United Kingdom. This event encourages industry-wide coordination to optimise processes through consenting regimes. As the first Round 3 projects come closer to being consented, it is important to assess and learn from the challenges that have been encountered throughout the process in order to look forward to consenting future offshore wind schemes.

To see the conference agenda for 2013 click here.

Highlights will include:

• The latest interpretation of the Habitat Regulations and progress of developments since Defra’s Implementation Review Future-proofing consents – strategies for incorporating R&D unknowns into applications
• Approaches for defining cumulative impact constraints and best-practice methods for assessments
• An update of on the Planning Inspectorate’s consenting regime one year on and what challenges the first projects through the system have faced

Event - Global Wind Power Finance and Risk

The 4th annual Global Wind Power Finance &  Risk conference and exhibition will take place on 19—20 June 2013, London, United Kingdom. This event is the premier annual wind finance gathering, it brings together c-level representatives from leading utilities, developers, financiers and investors, providing not only outstanding scope for networking with decision-makers, but also targeted and in-depth conference sessions.

Who Attends Global Wind Power finance? Previous attendees have included:

• A word about wind • ABB • ABO Wind • Ackermans & Van Haaren • ADB • Aephoria capital • African Development Bank • Alatec Ingenieros Consultores y Arquitectos • Alstom • Alterra Power Crop • AMSC • ArcLight Energy Marketing • AREVA Energietechnik • Areva Renewables • Argus Media • Augusta & Co • Availon Holding • AWS Truepower • Bank of America Merrill Lynch • Bank ofIreland • Barclays • BBC Chartering • Belwind & InControl • Beten International • BEWAG • Blackrock Lntemational Limited -renewable Power Group • Bloomberg NEF • BNP PARIBAS • Boralex Inc • BTC • California Independent System Operator • Campbell Lutyens & Co • Cape Wind