© 2024 KRCU Public Radio
90.9 Cape Girardeau | 88.9-HD Ste. Genevieve | 88.7 Poplar Bluff
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Missouri Department of Transportation to pilot solar paneled roadways

Roads paved with solar panels may sound futuristic, but people soon will walk and maybe even drive on them in Missouri. 

The Missouri Department of Transportation recently announced plans to build a walkway with solar panels at the historic Route 66 welcome center in Conway, Mo., which is about 180 miles southwest of St. Louis. Electricity generated from the panels would power the welcome center.  The pilot project will examine how feasible it is to use the technology before the department considers putting it on more roads and sidewalks.

Solar Roadways founders Julie and Scott Bursaw with solar panels.
Credit Provided by Solar Rodaways
Solar Roadways founders Julie and Scott Bursaw with solar panels.

The department will use hexagonal glass solar panels made by Idaho-based startup company Solar Roadways. They are equipped with LED lights to improve road safety and heat elements to prevent snow and ice accumulation. The company raised $2.2 million in startup funds from a crowd-funding campaign in 2014.

The project along Route 66 marks the first time the company has collaborated with a state department of transportation.  The effort is supported by MoDOT's Road to Tomorrow initiative, a program announced last year to research and implement innovative technologies to reconstruct Interstate 70. 

"If this becomes successful, then yeah, you could be ultimately talking about solar roadways we drive on, that melts snow and has the potential to pay for themselves," said Tom Blair, MoDOT's assistant district engineer in St. Louis. "I've been at this for a long time and I've never seen a road that's created its own revenue stream yet."

MoDOT is still negotiating the cost and construction plan with the company, but it hopes to install the panels on Route 66 by the end of the year. If all goes well, the state agency will consider a crowd-funding campaign to place solar panels on streets and sidewalks elsewhere. 

Copyright 2016 St. Louis Public Radio

Eli Chen is the science and environment reporter at St. Louis Public Radio. She comes to St. Louis after covering the eroding Delaware coast, bat-friendly wind turbine technology, mouse love songs and various science stories for Delaware Public Media/WDDE-FM. Before that, she corralled robots and citizen scientists for the World Science Festival in New York City and spent a brief stint booking guests for Science Friday’s live events in 2013. Eli grew up in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, where a mixture of teen angst, a love for Ray Bradbury novels and the growing awareness about climate change propelled her to become the science storyteller she is today. When not working, Eli enjoys a solid bike ride, collects classic disco, watches standup comedy and is often found cuddling other people’s dogs. She has a bachelor’s in environmental sustainability and creative writing at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and has a master’s degree in journalism, with a focus on science reporting, from the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism.