Lorraine Chow writes—Nation’s First Solar Roadway Coming to Historic Route 66:
Missouri’s Department of Transportation (MoDOT) has announced plans to install solar panels at a rest stop alongside the iconic Route 66 as part of the department’s “Road to Tomorrow Initiative.”
The Historic Route 66 welcome center in Conway, Missouri will receive the nation’s first solar roadway panels on a public right of way.
“… part of why we picked this location is because of the the historic Route 66 concept,” Laurel McKean, MoDot assistant district engineer, told KY3. “You know, here’s one of the main roadways that’s iconic for the United States, and being able to use the history to create potentially the future.”
The panels were developed by Solar Roadways, an Idaho-based startup founded by Scott and Julie Brusaw.
Their project received tons of attention in 2014 after the world caught wind of the couple’s ambitious plan to harness the energy being soaked up by the country’s roads and parking lots all day. Their viral video “Solar FREAKIN’ roadways” has been viewed more than 21 million times to date. [...]
Solar Roadways’ own 2014 crowdfunding campaign generated $2.2 million, doubling their $1 million target. The project has also received three funding contracts from the U.S. Department of Transportation, with their latest contract awarded in November 2015. In April, the Idaho Department of Commerce approved a $48,734 grant to set up a Solar Roadways demonstration project within the city limits of the Brusaw’s hometown of Sandpoint. [...]
SolaRoad has been in operation in the Netherlands since November 2014, and has been generating more power than expected. The French government also plans to pave 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) of its roads with solar panels in the next five years, which will supply power to millions of people.
“The maximum effect of the program, if successful, could be to furnish 5 million people with electricity, or about 8 percent of the French population,” Ségolène Royal, France’s minister of ecology and energy, said according to Global Construction Review.
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2003—Rumsfeld: 'really, we will find something!'
U.S. forces have not found any biological or chemical weapons in Iraq, and some Democratic presidential candidates have raised the WMD issue to criticize the current Republican administration.
"It's now less than eight weeks since the end of major combat in Iraq and I believe that patience will prove to be a virtue," Rumsfeld said.
Of course, patience was not a virtue for the UN weapons inspectors.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, we stumbled our way through Brexit news, with Greg Dworkin & Arliss Bunny. Trump factchecked again on his charitable giving. This time, all of it. And there’s not much to speak of. Plus a last-minute roundup of weekend reading what’s good fer soundin’ smart.
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