ScienceURI Researchers Capture Solar Energy from City Roads to Melt Ice, Power Streetlights
Tiffany Kaiser - November 9, 2010 8:00 PM

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  (Source: Flickr)

Researchers have found four new methods of harvesting solar energy from roadways

University of Rhode Island researchers are looking to obtain solar energy found in heat radiating off roadways in large cities and use it to illuminate signs, power streetlights, heat buildings and melt ice. 

K. Wayne Lee, leader of the study and professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Rhode Island, along with his team, have studied different ways to harvest solar energy from cities, and concluded that there are four different approaches they can take to do so. 

"We have mile after mile of asphalt pavement around the country, and in the summer it absorbs a great deal of heat, warming the roads up to 140 degrees or more," said Lee. "If we can harvest that heat, we can use it for our daily use, save on fossil fuels, and reduce global warming."

The first approach is to divide highways by wrapping flexible photovoltaic cells around the top of Jersey barriers, which would provide electricity to illuminate road signs and power streetlights. Also, photovoltaic cells could be set in the roadway between the Jersey barrier and the rumble strip.