Can Solar-Powered Road Surfaces Be Made Durable?

If the idea of solar-powered roads makes hard-pressed city road superintendents giggle, it's understandable: we all know that real-world street surfaces don't last very long. Nonetheless, Scott Brusaw, the founder of Solar Roadways, thinks that things can change.

"He has high hopes for his series of electric roads — in fact, he believes that they may very well hold the key to solving global warming. Going off of an estimate made by Caltech solar energy expert Nate Lewis — who estimated that covering 1.7% of the U.S.' land surface with 10%-efficient solar energy converters would supply our current energy demand — Brusaw theorized that paving the country's interstate highway system (which incidentally covers close to 1.7% of the nation's land surface) with glass panels that could collect and distribute solar energy would accomplish that goal."

Roads cover about 1 percent of the nation's surface area (citey cite cite), so it's easy to see the appeal. But how on Earth will it cope with everything from 18-wheelers to oil spills without being replaced every three years? There isn't yet an answer to that particular question, but what's already figured out is amazing enough by itself, being derived from new understandings of how lotus flowers self-clean their petals.

This ain't your grandpa's chipseal, that's for sure.

Energy Producing Roads... [Azonazo via Treehugger]