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Roads that Keep You Moving - Solar Roadways    Jetpacks that you can take to work. Teleporters that could move you across the country. Roadways that help power your car. These are just elements of science fiction, right? Not any more, here are three countries that are trying to create roadways that help charge your car as you drive.
In the U.S., the Department of Energy funded the company Solar Roadways $100,000 to help cover the costs of constructing solar panels that could be placed in roads. These 12-by-12 panels, or Solar Roads, would create 7.6 kwh of power per day, feature LED road warnings, and even have built-in heating elements to prevent roads from freezing. These panels are also equipped with individual microprocessors and energy management systems, so unlike Christmas lights, if one goes out the road still works. If these panels are created each one would cost $7,000 but the benefits are staggering.
This Fall in Japan, the auto company Nissan (NSANY) described their desire to have roads that would charge cars as the cars drove. This would be one way the company could extend the driving time of their all electric cars. Their concept consists of putting plates into the road that would use inductive charging. In theory, the cars would be plugged in over night, but as the driver went about his or her daily errands the inductive charging would continue to recharge the batteries.
Now Germany is taking a step towards rechargeable roadways. A company called IAV received a patent that would allow a strip to be embedded in the road, recharging an electric car wirelessly. The strips have achieved up to 90 percent efficiency with transmission. The technology uses a recessed electrical conductor that generates a magnetic field that is only activated when an electric car is over one. This, however, would not be a free service; a radio chips inside identifies the owner of each electrical vehicle so that he or she may be billed for the service. Perhaps we do not have jetpacks, but we do have Smartphone’s, hybrid vehicles, and a future where gas stations will be a place to only buy coffee and a rotten egg salad sandwiches.
Written by: J. Elizabeth Lawrence
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