Solar Roadways builds ruggedized glass modular panels intended to replace asphalt by harvesting solar power, melting snow and ice with built-in heat, and illuminating surfaces with embedded LEDs. The panels connect via a mesh network so failures can be detected and flagged for repair crews. The founders, Scott and Julie Brusaw, have developed prototypes and deployed panels in a driveway while producing videos demonstrating how the system works. The team completed a Phase II prototype with funding from the Federal Highway Administration and plans to begin productizing and deploying panels in real-world settings. They also raised more than $1 million through an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign (the campaign was still running with about a week left at the time of reporting). The company acknowledges significant cost and deployment challenges given the scale of U.S. road infrastructure but is moving toward commercialization. Solar Roadways develops textured, glass solar panels intended to replace asphalt roads or be deployed in places like parking lots to collect energy and provide LED-powered signage. The company’s core product is modular 12'x12' textured glass solar panels that Brusaw envisions linked end-to-end as a coast-to-coast network. Solar Roadways won a $50,000 community award in GE’s Ecomagination Challenge, an amount the article equates to five 12'x12' panels, and has secured $100,000 from the Federal Highway Administration while applying for a $750,000 FHWA contract. The team cites technical hurdles to scale including glass design, traction, durability testing, and large-scale manufacturing, and expects full deployment would take decades and be costly (Brusaw estimated $4.4 million per mile). The company is pursuing smaller, pragmatic deployments such as powering adjacent stores from parking-lot installations and has seen about a 5x increase in website and social-media traffic following the award.

Total raised

$1M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

May 2014