The Silk Road Built by Solar

Scott and Julie Brusaw have known each other since they were three and four. Now married and business partners, their relationship is still going strong. “I come up with dreams, ideas, concepts, and designs,” Julie told Nationswell. “Scott makes them tangible and real.” Where have their business ventures led them, you ask? To something that could (potentially) save the world. After reading Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, they both felt a strong need to do something to help the quickly deteriorating planet. Julie had a thought: solar panel roads. So Scott — an engineer — got to work. Not only did these panels need to generate energy, they had to withstand immense weights – enough for semis to drive over the panels safely. Many folks thought Julie and Scott had bitten off more than they could chew.  

This bright and delightful homeschooled boy and his mother traveled from Oregon to visit the #solarroadways installation here in #sandpointidaho and to meet with us to learn more. We love to support homeschooling families. He pronounced our panels “revolutionary “! #homeschool #STEM #future #climatechange

A post shared by Scott Julie Brusaw (@official_solar_roadways) on Jun 6, 2017 at 1:23pm PDT

  But since it’s founding in 2006, Solar Roadways has raised over 2 million in crowdfunding and has received three rounds of funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation. By engineering specially formulated tempered glass (much of it from recycled materials), they created a panel that can withstand more than 250,000 pounds of weight without shattering. “Our panels have solar cells for energy collection, heating elements to prevent snow and ice accumulation and LEDs to illuminate roads lines and provide graphics,” Scott told Nationswell. They hope this panel will eventually be able to charge in-transit electric vehicles and actually control autonomous vehicles. As in, you could tell your car, “Take me to the grocery store,” and promptly take a snooze while the road brought you to the destination.  

  “Scott estimates there are nearly 33,000 miles of impervious surfaces in the United States. Transform them into solar facades, and they could generate three times the electricity the nation needs. Greenhouses gases could be slashed by 75 percent,” Julie told Nationswell. Once they raise enough money to produce these panels in mass, they hope the roads will become a ubiquitous part of our infrastructure. The energy created will actually generate capital and pay for themselves. “In the beginning, when it was just an idea, half the people thought we were crazy and half the people thought we were genius,” Scott told National Geographic. Our take — absolute genius. Feature photo: Inlander