The City made great strides in its first year of working toward sustainability, including the following:

° Creation of a volunteer employee committee “Green CDA Team”
° Completion of an energy audit and a performance based contract for energy savings programs with Johnson Controls
° Completion of a city facilities pilot recycle program and implementation of general recycling practices
° Identification of existing green practices
° Installation of motion sensor light switches
° Creation of sustainable section to the web-site
° Creation of a quarterly E-Newsletter with education and reminders to staff
° City Council approval for single stream recycling (community-wide)

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

The Solar Roadways – solving the world’s problems one road at a time

The Solar Roadways consists of solar panels that we drive on. Each Solar Road Panel (roughly 12’ by 12’) interlinks with neighboring panels to form the Solar Roadways system. The Solar Roadways generates electrical power from the sun and becomes the nation’s power grid, replacing our currently crumbling power distribution infrastructure.

The Solar Roadways distributes its electrical power to all businesses and homes connected to the system via their parking lots and driveways (made up of Solar Road Panels). In addition to electrical power, data signals (cable TV, high-speed internet, telephone, etc.) also travel through the Solar Roadways, which acts as a conduit for these signals (cables). This feature eliminates the unsightly power lines, utility poles, and relay stations we see all over the countryside. It also eliminates power interruption caused by fallen or broken electrical lines or poles.

Each Solar Road Panel uses some of its own power to light up embedded LEDs, which “paint” the road lines from beneath the road surface. This feature also allows messages to be spelled out on the road surface, such as “SLOW DOWN”, or “ACCIDENT AHEAD”. Road lines can be instantly “repainted” to direct traffic to a single lane or to detour. This eliminates the need for cones or flares. Better visibility at night: with the road lines illuminated, it will be like driving on a well-lit runway.

The Solar Road Panels heat themselves for snow and ice removal in northern climates. No more need for snow removal or school/business cancellations. These safer driving conditions (roads lit at night, no snow/ice, etc.) will prevent many accidents and allow for reduced insurance rates – both health and automotive.

All additional power (unused by the panels themselves) is sent “down line” to homes and businesses. By my calculations, just the contiguous 48 states (25,000 square miles of roads, parking lots, and driveways) could produce three times the total electrical power used by the United States and almost enough electricity to power the entire world. No more power outages, roaming or otherwise.

The Solar Roadways produces clean, renewable energy. No pollution, no greenhouse gases, no by-products, and the Solar Road Panels are completely recyclable or reusable. My understanding is that roughly half of all greenhouse gases are produced by fossil fuels used for the creation of electricity. The Solar Roadways eliminates this (half of the cause of Global Warming) entirely.

The Solar Roadways, being an “electric road”, will also make all-electric vehicles more practical: recharging stations can be placed in all parking lots and rest stops. This will allow the all-electric vehicles to have the same driving range of current internal combustion gasoline- or diesel-powered vehicles. Elimination of internal combustion engines, which would now be feasible with the Solar Roadways, would wipe out most of the rest of the causes of Global Warming.

There are many, many other features, including wildlife preservation, the elimination of impervious surfaces, law enforcement, DUI detection, counter-terrorism, etc. Most of these features are spelled out in detail on our website: www.solarroadways.com

What is the "Go Green Movement" about?

In its simplest definition, being green means taking into account the Earth’s wellbeing when making choices about how you live your life. This means considering the ecosystems that support all inhabitants of the planet. In the big picture, being green means making choices based on the impact they will have on our water, land, and air.

There are many components to a green lifestyle and many levels at which one can choose to participate. Some people look to make as little impact on the environment as they can. Others may choose to recycle when they are able to.