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SAGLE, ID. -- A North Idaho inventor and engineer hopes to change the world by turning the nation's roads into solar power plants.
Scott Brusaw has worked on his plan for three and a half years. He's so devoted, he recently received a $100,000 federal grant to continue his research.
"We're not reinventing anything, really," says Brusaw. "Solar panels have been around for decades. We're just putting a whole lot of technology together to make something enormous."
According to Brusaw, the U.S. has 25,000 square miles of road. He believes 5 billion solar panels would be needed to cover them, turning the sun's light into energy to power the nation, producing three times more energy than the U.S. has ever used.
"This would become the nation's energy grid," says Brusaw.
The question is whether or not it can be carried out. Brusaw says yes.
"I've talked to power engineers, power transfer engineers, all kinds of engineers, making sure this can be done. The answer keeps coming back, 'Yes.' "
Strong, abrasive glass would cover the solar panels, which would also be heated and made of recycled material -- meaning no snow plows. And in a perfect green world, Brusaw says electric cars could repower right from the road.
The solar roadway reality is still years and millions of dollars away, but Brusaw has his first real-world test in just two years when he is expected to convert a parking lot into drivable solar panels.
