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Implementing Solar Roadway panels at the

University of Idaho
Bailey Poitra, Ziyang Chen, Silas Connolley, and Yu Han, Solar Road Warriors - University of Idaho

Abstract – This paper shows the
specifications and acquired data by the Solar
Road Warriors regarding Solar Roadway
panels.
I. INTRODUCTION
The University of Idaho Facilities
Services Division proposed a Capstone
Design project to implement Solar Roadway
panels at the University of Idaho. Solar
Roadways is a company located in
Sandpoint, Idaho. They are working towards
building modular, easy to produce,
programmable solar panels that will
generate renewable energy and replace
asphalt.
Shown below is the LED and
microprocessor current usage with different
LED colors and intensities provided by Solar
Roadways.
Figure 2. SR LED Intensity and Microprocessor Current
Consumption
B. Solar Cells
The solar cells that are implemented in Solar
Roadway panels are from Motech Industries,
INC. Here is the current and voltage
characteristic curve of the solar cells.

Solar Roadway panels are solar panels with

these characteristics:

 Capable of withstanding thousands

of pounds of pressure
 Made with recycled glass
 44 W Solar panels
 Forty-eight LED display
 Microprocessor Figure 1. SR Solar cell Current-Voltage Characteristic Curve
 Heating and temperature sensing
C. Glass
capabilities
Starphire glass by Vitro Architectural Glass
 Electronics concealed inside glass
provides each Solar Roadway panel with a
within laminate
protective outside layer for the electronics from
the environment and able to withstand the
II. SPECIFICATIONS
weight of a semi-truck with the hexagonal
This section provides technical data sheets design. Shown below are the physical properties
that correspond to the Solar Roadway of the glass material.
characteristics shown in the previous
section.
A. Microprocessor
Each Solar Roadway panel includes a
microprocessor that allows for communication
between panels and programmable capabilities
to control the LEDs and heating processes.

Figure 3. SR panel glass specifics


Shown below are the properties regarding
solar performance of the glass material.
Figure 4. SR Solar cell performance with glass
D. Inverter
Enphase Energy provides the Solar
Roadway panel inverters to transform the DC
power generated from the solar cells to AC
power to be transported to the grid. The
specifications on the electrical aspects of the
inverters are shown below.
Figure 5. SR Inverter specifics
III. DATA ACQUISITION
The University of Idaho Electrical and
Computer Engineering Department purchased
two Solar Roadway panels for testing purposes.
This next section describes gathered data
regarding slips around the University of Idaho as
well as data acquired from tests involving the
Solar Roadway panels.
A. Safety
Between late November and early February,
winters around the Pacific Northwest are
typically below freezing and include many
snowy and icy road and sidewalk conditions.
Being able to melt snow and ice is a valuable
characteristic of any product. Because Moscow
Idaho is accustomed to long and cold winters,
Solar Roadway panels would be a valuable
improvement around the University of Idaho
campus.
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Listed below are the numbers of injuries
found around the University of Idaho provided
by Environmental Health and Safety.
Figure 6. University of Idaho accidents provided by EH&S.
Summing the total amount of only ice and snow
related injuries between 2014 and 2018 cost the
University of Idaho a total of $475,824.86.
B. Power
PVWatts industry standard calculator for
solar panels. It takes collected weather data and
price of electrical power of the Moscow, Idaho
area and extrapolates the amount of generated
power into a value based on the price of
electrical power. Looking at the amount of
energy produced in a full year, gives an annual
benefit for the University of Idaho. Included in
the PVWatts calculator is a 14% decrease in
electrical power produced because of the glass in
between the solar cells and inverter loss.
PVWatts includes the degradation factor of solar
cells as well.
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Results are shown below for a one hundred Testing steps for current – voltage characteristic
panel installation. curve formulation:
1) Place SR panel flat on UI Steam
Plant near direct sunlight exposure.
2) Connect SR panel to resistor.
3) Connect Digilent board to laptop.
4) Connect Vin pin to SR panel blue
wire and connect ground pin to SR
panel white wire.
5) Connect voltmeter pin to resistors
and measure voltage across resistor.
6) Sample voltage across panel (Vin)
and voltage across resistor (Vr)
using laptop and Digilent meter.
7) Calculate current by subtracting
voltage of Solar Roadway panel by
the voltage across the resistors and
divide that value by the resistance.
8) Calculate power by multiplying
voltage across resistor by the current
across the resistor.
Resistive components:
Resistor Resistance Power Rating
RA 214.75 Ω 50 W
RB 99.815 Ω 50 W
RC 51.313 Ω 50 W
RD 1.621 Ω 50 W
RE 1.614 Ω 50 W
RF 1.632 Ω 50 W
Figure 7. PVWatts data and MATLAB plot

Current – voltage characteristic curve

C. Power and Current – Voltage Characteristic formulation testing setup and circuit diagram
Curve shown below.
The Solar Road Warriors took it on
themselves to generate their own current and
voltage characteristic curve using different
resistive loads and testing them with the Solar
Roadway panels. The details of this test are
shown below.
Location: University of Idaho Steam Plant
When: November 8th, 2018 from 12-1 PM
Materials:
1) Solar Roadway Panel
Figure 8. Current - Voltage Characteristic curve
2) Digilent Board formulation set-up
3) Laptop for data sampling
4) Resistors of various sizes

Figure 9. Current - Voltage Characteristic curve formulation
circuit diagram
Using different resistance combinations gave a
unique current and voltage characteristic curve.
The results of the current and voltage
characteristic curve test and resistive
combinations are shown below.
Figure 10. Current-Voltage characteristic curve formulation
test results.
Figure 11. Current-Voltage Characteristic curve
Figure 12. Resistive combination for Current-Voltage
Characteristic curve
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D. Infrared Camera Test
Using the IR FlexCam Thermal Imager
provided by the University of Idaho Electrical
and Computer Engineering Department and the
Solar Roadway panels, the Solar Road Warriors
tested and captured multiple thermal images to
show the heating capacity of the Solar Roadway
panels. In addition to using the thermal imaging
camera, additional testing was performed to
measure the amount of power consumed for the
heating and LED capabilities of the panels.
The details of the infrared camera test are shown
below.
Location: University of Idaho Steam Plant
When: November 8th, 2018 from 12-1 PM
Materials:
1) Solar Roadway Panel
2) Digilent Board
3) Laptop for data sampling
4) Fluke IR FlexCam Thermal Imager
5) Pool
6) Ice and Water
Infrared camera testing steps:
1) Plug in heating and LED boxes
connected to SR panels.
2) Weigh the amount of ice used in
test.
3) Fill up pool with water and ice.
4) Place panel inside pool.
5) Plug in and place thermal imaging
camera above panel.
6) Connect ground V+ and V- wires
from Heating and LED box to
Digilent board.
7) Sample voltage across pins and
voltage across resistor (Vr) using
laptop and Digilent meter.
8) Calculate current by subtracting
voltage of Solar Roadway panel by
the voltage across the resistors and
divide that value by the resistance.
9) Calculate power by multiplying
voltage across resistor by the current
across the resistor.

The setup and results from the infrared camera
test and infrared image captures are shown
below.
Figure 13. Infrared Camera testing results
The captures above are pictures taken by
the thermal imaging camera of the Solar
Roadway panel submerged in ice water. Notice
that the temperature of the ice water is right
around 32℉.
Prior to performing this test, the Solar
Road Warriors assumed that the Solar Roadway
panel heating element turned on automatically
when the outside temperature reached 32℉ or
below. In addition, team assumed that we could
use the LED power and heating box wires to
measure the power consumed during heating,
LED, and microprocessor operation.
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During the infrared camera test, the
Digilent board failed to save the data captures
from the test. This test showed that the heating
element did not turn on as explained on the Solar
Roadway website.
Discussing the heating element design
for the panels purchased by the University of
Idaho with Solar Roadways showed that the
panels LEDs and heating element can be
controlled by the software provided by Solar
Roadways. A similar test will be conducted to
show the effect of the heating element with
snow/ice conditions.
IV. SR PANEL COMMUNICATION
AND HEATING ELEMENT
OPTIMIZATION
The Solar Road Warriors visited the
Solar Roadway manufacturing facility located in
Sandpoint, Idaho towards the end of the spring
semester. Solar Roadways gave us the task of
optimizing the heating element of their panels.
A. Engine Boards
Solar Roadways provided custom made
engine boards that have the exact components as
the microprocessors located inside the Solar
Roadway panels and have the same functionality
as the panel communication between other
panels implemented in the field.
Shown below is the engine board
schematic and component list.
Figure 14. SR Engine Board Circuit Diagram

Figure 15. SR Engine Board Component list
Understanding the communication
between the microprocessor board and the panel
components, any design can be implemented on
the engine boards provided by Solar Roadways.
Thus, the optimized heating element design can
be implemented onto the engine boards and
programmed.
B. Optimization of Heating Element
Currently, Solar Roadway panels have a
heating capability that operates any time the
outside temperature is 32°F or below. To
improve this design, the Solar Road Warriors
propose to add a humidity sensor and barometric
sensor in order to sense the amount of moisture
in the air and atmospheric pressure. By adding
these sensors, one could program the heating
element to operate only when given specific
moisture content and pressure and’ed with
temperature. This added logic would decrease
the amount of heating because the heating
element would only operate given all specifics
are met. These specifications would be modified
to account for certain locations if they have
significant differences in moisture and pressure
contents.
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V. ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
This section describes the benefits from
a monetary standpoint that Solar Roadway
panels can theoretically provide for the
University of Idaho.
A. Power Generation
One-hundred panel installation generates
48,476 kWh using Moscow Idaho residential
rate of electricity at 9.56¢/kWh gives a total of
$4,132 annually. Per panel, it would generate
484.76 kWh at $41.32 annually.
B. Cost per panel
Solar Roadway panels cost $2000 per panel
(includes installation, inverter, wiring, etc.)
C. Optimized Heating Element
Using humidity sensor along with
temperature sensing capabilities of Solar
Roadway panels could reduce heating element
power consumption by 30%.
D. Safety
Summing the total amount of only ice and
snow related injuries between 2014 and 2018
cost the University of Idaho a total of
$475,824.86.
E. Environmental
The University of Idaho Facilities Services
Division provided information regarding the
cost of snow removal and asphalt repair around
the University of Idaho campus for the parking
lot next to the University of Idaho Steam Plant.
Asphalt (Parking lot near U of I Steam
Plant)
Snow removal cost - $22-$48/space, or
about $3500 annually.
Labor and materials associated with
crack repair, seal-coating, and striping -
$4500 every 3 years.
Full rebuild cost - $190k should be
factored in every 25 years.
Overall, there are many benefits of Solar
Roadway panels that the University of Idaho
could use. The high price of the panels makes
the investment difficult to offset with the
benefits. But with the right price and some
improvements to the panels, it could be a solid
match.