green
FACTS
Based on U.S. Federal Highway Administration data, despite the seemingly expansive road system, public roads occupy less than 1 percent of the total U.S. land area, leaving a majority of land open for other uses.
electricity during the day. The electricity is sent to the grid for PGE’s use. At night, when the solar panels are not producing electricity, PGE returns an equal amount of power to ODOT to light the highway. Since renewable energy is initially more expensive to produce than non-renewable, the net metering partnership with PGE allows ODOT to get renewable energy without additional costs. The Solar Highway project currently powers about 28 percent of the I-5/I-205 interchange. A planned build-out of the current project would triple the initial size and generate 214,000 kilowatt hours per year.
The future of the Solar Highway
Because of the demonstration project’s success, ODOT has several other solar highway projects in the works. The $20 million West Linn Solar Highway project would be the largest solar highway project in the world. The project is expected to generate 3.2 million kilowatt hours per year, or about one-sixth of ODOT’s needs within PGE’s service area. A planned 1.6-megawatt project at the Baldock Rest Area between Salem and Portland would generate 1.8 million kilowatt hours each year. And Hamilton said she’s heard from 16 states and six countries interested in learning more about the Solar Highway, including Japan, Italy, Korea, Vietnam and Iraq.
Hamilton said, “Follow-on projects are already benefitting from what we learned from the demo. For example, we learned that bigger is better. Ideally you want at least a 1-megawatt installation to get the cost per installed kilowatt down. We will continue to learn and adjust based on experience.”
The project has received multiple awards, including a 2009 Federal Highway Administration “Judge’s Award for Special Recognition,” and a 2009 “Solar Business Achievement Award” from the Solar Electric Power Association. g&c
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The success of the demonstration project has spawned several other solar highway projects in Oregon.
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