Can it be done? Yes, says the Green Roadways Project (GRP). The Los Angeles, Calif.-based program hopes to install windmills, solar panels, smart grid technology, and other renewable energy-producing technologies on American’s roads to harness the energy produced there. The idea is that when you’re speeding along in your gas-guzzling SUV at 80 miles per hour, you produce wind energy as your non-aerodynamic vehicles cuts (or bursts) through the air. That wind could turn wind turbines on the side of the road, which produces clean, green electricity (almost making up for your car’s emissions). One more crazy idea: Our nation is crisscrossed by vast rivers of asphalt—what if we turned those road surfaces into electricity-producing solar panels? Then we don’t have to waste more land to produce “green” energy! The GRP is really pretty genius, though it is likely to be expensive. Even the rights to install these technologies along our roadways could be costly: in July, GRP is auctioning off the rights, state-by-state, to license their more than 300 patents. For more information, go to www.thegreenroadway.com.
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