Tag: sustainability

How Does Clean Energy Help Us Grow?

Posted on by robbie

The foundation for a low carbon energy future, involving not only power sources like wind and solar, but also such wide-ranging industries as lighting and transportation, continues to strengthen. Renewables and clean technology are scaling up faster than expected, with advancing technology and significant cost declines drawing investors and accelerating growth. What’s more, substantial economic benefits have become more obvious, perhaps most significantly in the expansion of infrastructure and local jobs.
Goldman Sachs has been instrumental as both an investor and financier in clean energy development. Since setting our initial target in 2012 to deploy $40 billion over 10 years in the clean energy space, we have invested and financed $54 billion and expanded our goal to $150 billion in capital by 2025. This will ensure that we continue to play a key role, leveraging capital markets to aid in the global transition to greater energy security and sustainable economic growth.
The impact of our investment and expertise has been visible and substantial. From 2012 through May 2016, when we reached the initial $40 billion target, we helped 89 companies and projects scale up clean energy and renewables in 29 countries, helping facilitate 31 gigawatts of renewable electricity generation — enough to power 5.5 million U.S. homes. Our investments and financings have also fueled the broader clean tech ecosystem: the development of electric cars, smart grids and manufacturing capacity for solar components and advanced biofuels.
Together, these companies and projects have helped to employ tens of thousands of people and have had a significant positive economic impact on local communities. What’s more, they are helping to avoid millions of metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year.
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Clean Energy Impact Report

Clean tech and renewables are growing and are resulting in significant benefits, from reduced environmental impact to economic development in markets worldwide. What are the benefits of our own commitment to the clean energy space? We recently issued a report that gauged the impacts of our investments and financings across the globe. After conducting our analysis, here’s what we found.

The Three Drivers of a Low Carbon Future

Technology, capital and policy — all have a leading role to play in increasing energy security, reducing negative impacts and moving the global economy to a more sustainable energy system. Kyung-Ah Park, head of Goldman Sachs’ Environmental Markets Group, sees rapid technology innovation and convergence, catalyzed by capital and policy, driving a broader shift to a low carbon economy.
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This article is paid for by Goldman Sachs.

What Is Powering the ESG Investing Surge?

Posted on by robbie

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing, once a sideline practice, has gone decisively mainstream, and this is creating real opportunities for investors. These opportunities meet the interests of a wide spectrum of clients, from fiduciaries aligning their portfolios with the realities of a rapidly changing world to clients who are increasingly looking to have their investments express their values.
Better data, refined tools and improved methods have expanded the possibilities across all of those interests. As a result, ESG investing is no longer a carve-out within a portfolio — it is the portfolio for some investors. What was once the province of a small number of family offices and foundations has drawn sharply increased participation among pension funds, insurance companies, nonprofits and faith-based investors.
At Goldman Sachs, the growth of ESG investing has been significant in recent years. We have seen a virtuous cycle in which demand has driven product and service innovation, creating new models for success and driving further demand. As a result, our assets under supervision in dedicated ESG strategies have grown significantly, to $6.5 billion by the end of 2016.
Fundamental to this growth is an increased understanding that a disciplined approach to ESG investing can drive competitive risk-adjusted returns — just as with any other investment. Risk/return profiles of ESG portfolios now mirror the markets and span asset classes, fueling the evolution of impact investment strategies that meet conventional risk/return hurdles, but also include social and environmental impacts that are both intentional and measurable.

World Resources Institute

How does a research-driven, global institute focused on sustainability manage its portfolio for the long term? One way is by leveraging its own research on trends to more effectively steward their endowment while also using this work to create a model for other institutional investors. Here, the World Resources Institute’s President and CEO Andrew Steer and Head of Sustainable Investing Elizabeth Lewis discuss WRI’s objectives and investing approach with Goldman Sachs’ John Goldstein.
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Municipal Bonds: An Overlooked Impact Investment?

As interest grows in achieving positive impacts while generating market-rate returns, investors may forget about the opportunity in their own backyards: municipal bonds. Often focused on financing redevelopment, infrastructure and key community needs for education, health, housing and sustainability, municipal bonds can drive ESG impact in addition to providing clear tax advantages. Senior portfolio manager Ben Barber and research analyst Michael Kashani of Goldman Sachs Asset Management explain. Read the discussion.
This article is paid for by Goldman Sachs.
Social thumbnail by Tzido Sun/Shutterstock.

The History of the Leaked Climate Report

Posted on by robbie

After a draft copy of the 2017 Climate Assessment Report leaked recently, people are left wondering exactly what it is and why it’s important.

THE CLIMATE REPORT: EXPLAINED

Under the Global Change Research Act of 1990, the U.S. Global Change Research Program, an inter-governmental agency, is required to research and produce a report that shows the impact of global climate change. The study is conducted by hundreds of scientists and reviewed by multiple government agencies, including NASA and the National Science Foundation.
Despite federal policy mandating an assessment to be released every four years, only three have been issued: once under President Bill Clinton in 2000 and twice under President Barack Obama in 2009 and 2014. (President George W. Bush’s administration was sued for delaying the report’s release.)
There’s speculation whether or not the current White House will sign off on the report’s official release (which is scheduled for the fall), given the Trump administration’s pullback from the Paris climate accord and its push to increase fossil fuel production.
The leaked version of the 2017 report, which was first published by the New York Times, repeats similar warnings of increased greenhouse gas emissions as earlier assessments. But it also uses extremely blunt language regarding the cause, stating that humans are “extremely likely” to be the dominant producers of this pollution.
And according to the latest report, global temperatures have risen 1.2 degrees, in the past 30 years — human involvement accounting for at least 1.1 degrees of that increase.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has publicly said that he does not think carbon emissions cause climate change, writing in the National Review that, “scientists continue to disagree about the degree and extent of global warming and its connection to the actions of mankind.”
Regardless of political actions or ideologies on global climate change, these reports are accepted by the scientific community as a whole and are used to inform policymakers.

PAST FINDINGS

All issuances of the climate report have been in consensus: Global greenhouse gas emissions and global temperatures have increased dramatically in the past century, due in large part to humans burning fossil fuels.
“The human impact on [global warming] is clear,” states the 2000 analysis — the first published report. “[Increased carbon emissions] resulted from the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas, and the destruction of forests around the world to provide space for agriculture and other human activities.”
The initial report gave warning that U.S. temperatures would rise by up to 9 degrees within the next 100 years if greenhouse gas emissions weren’t curbed.
The 2009 report echoed the same language, stating that human involvement was the largest contributor, but its findings were more dire as carbon emissions continued to rise during the years of the Bush administration. That report concluded that there could be an increase of up to 11 degrees by 2100.
By 2014, when the most recent report was officially published, the evidence was clear to scientists that action needed to be taken, as authors of the report found that certain areas of the U.S., specifically within America’s heartland, were going to experience 2 to 4 degree increases in temperature over the next few decades.

THE REPORT MAKES AN IMPACT

The Obama administration seemingly worked to make climate change policy its primary legacy. In 2009, after the second climate report was released, Obama pledged to reduce the U.S.’s carbon emissions by 2020 and reduce its carbon emissions levels 17 percent below 2005 levels.
Four years later, when the third climate report was under consideration by Obama, the Executive Office of the President released a broad action plan aimed at specifically cutting carbon emissions.
These reactions to the climate reports were dramatically different to actions taken by President Bush. That administration hastily exited the Kyoto Protocol (a global climate change treaty), partnered with Exxon-Mobil‘s leaders to craft U.S. climate change policy and cast doubt among the public that humans were to blame for global climate change.
In contrast, polls conducted during the past three years reveal that more Americans believe humans are to blame for climate change. Furthermore, a March 2017 Gallup poll found that more than 70 percent support alternative energy over traditional fossil fuels.
Which means that Americans are likely to continue curbing greenhouse gas emissions, regardless of whether or not the climate assessment report receives an official stamp of approval.
MORE: Can the U.S. Reduce Its Carbon Emissions?

4 Long Weekends That Have Long-Lasting Impact

Posted on by robbie

You just emptied the sand from your shoes and put the suitcases away in the attic, but you’re already dreaming of your next getaway. Why not take time off to have meaningful impact on others or the planet?

On the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Global Volunteers participants work on a labor project.

FOR THE ENTIRE FAMILY

Instill the importance of service in your children by taking them on a volunteer vacation. Global Volunteers helps families plan trips to a variety of destinations in the United States and abroad. Service trip participants can travel to Appalachia where they repair homes of elderly and disabled residents, rehabilitate run-down classrooms and work alongside local youth in community gardens. Or volunteers can head to Montana’s Blackfeet Indian Reservation (located next door to Glacier National Park). While there, they can teach teens and adults computer skills or assist with a summer day camp for Native American youth.

National Geographic Student Expeditions puts teenagers to work cleaning up beaches and collecting data on the Hawaiian coastline.

FOR TEENS

National Geographic Student Expeditions has several options to entice kids to get off the couch and into service. In Hawaii, for example, kids will put in 35 to 40 hours working alongside environmentalists, digging up invasive species, collecting data on the Kohala watershed and conducting beach cleanups.  

American Hiking Society volunteers assist in the restoration of the Grandview Trail in Grand Canyon Nation Park.

FOR OUTDOORS ENTHUSIASTS

Those that want to spend their time off caring for America’s great outdoors can learn how to rehabilitate hiking trails by volunteering with the American Hiking Society. Or sign up with the Sierra Club. You can learn to give backpacking tours of Arizona’s Galiuro Mountains and the giant saguaro cactus forests of the Sonoran Desert.
For information on more volunteer vacations, check out Elevate Destinations, International Volunteer Headquarters, Global Vision International  and Globe Aware.
MORE: 5 of the Best Ways to Volunteer This Holiday Season
 

Your Great-Grandma’s Public Transport Is Making a Comeback

Posted on by robbie

When Elon Musk announced his plans to build a Hyperloop that would travel between New York City and Washington, D.C., in 29 minutes, Twitter had a field day, with users imagining the ways the technology could be used in their cities (take a bow, NYC subway).
But in the more immediate future, there are a number of cities that have taken up something old as a way to bring about the new: streetcars.
Streetcars — which differ from light-rail systems in that they share the right-of-way with cars, pedestrians and bikes — were used heavily post–WWI in cities like New York, San Francisco and Philadelphia. These urban hubs found that the electric wiring of cars for mass transportation was more effective than the mechanical cable cars of the the previous century. But after General Motors financed a national campaign in the 1930s for the use of buses, streetcars went the way of the buggy. By the mid-’50s, they were considered obsolete.
But then something strange happened: Since 2000, streetcars have seen a resurgence in popularity. Cities like Portland and Seattle set off a national trend by using streetcars less for tourism, as they are in San Francisco and New Orleans, and more for general public use. Most are currently financed by federal and state grants. And the benefits have been measurable, from rejuvenating formerly blighted neighborhoods to offsetting carbon emissions.
But President Donald Trump recently argued to cut federal funding for streetcars, saying they should be built using local dollars. As more cities plan to lay tracks and federal funding appears uncertain, here’s what to consider before ordering a whole fleet of streetcars.

Neighborhood Renewal

For any government official interested in implementing streetcars, the gold standard can be found in Portland, Ore., which launched its system in 2001.
There, streetcars connect two major universities and hospitals, and have been credited with building up the artsy Pearl District, a former industrial neighborhood that saw millions of private-investment dollars pour into the development of mixed-use buildings along the streetcar line (though PolitiFact pointed out that a sizable chunk of those buildings were already in the works).
Former Portland Mayor Charlie Hales paid tribute to the streetcars’ effect on the Pearl District’s popularity in 2013, saying that the city “no longer [has] to provide subsidies for downtown development.”
Other cities have reaped similar rewards. Since announcing the launch of its KC Streetcar system, which began operations last year, Kansas City, Mo., has seen an increase in businesses, such as hotels and restaurants, that line the route, along with a sales tax growth of 58 percent.
Kenosha, Wisc., built its system in 2000 with a $6 million grant, and has seen its downtown perk up in the years since. A hotdog shop owner told the Associated Press in 2013 that before the streetcar, the area “was very dark. Now it’s lit up more, there are businesses,” with shops, bookstores and cafes bordering one side of the line.

Not hailed by all

Despite their popularity and proven economic benefits, not everyone is on board with the streetcar.
Less expensive than putting down light rail systems, a Federal Transit Administration report found that Portland’s streetcar system — the one lauded by transit advocates — cost $60 million per mile to build. The same study, though, gave an example that Little Rock, Arkansas’ streetcar helped spur $800 million in development between 2000 and 2012.
Jeffrey Brown, a Florida State University professor and public transit researcher, told Future Structure that investing in streetcars is “just the latest variance of that downtown revitalization agenda” and that buses — though not as trendy — would be more effective in keeping transportation costs down.
Another study done by students at the Florida State University found that compared to other modes of public transportation, streetcars underperform in bringing in transit revenue.
And streetcars are also more expensive to operate compared to buses. The Federal Transit Administration in 2014 found that streetcars cost $1.50 per passenger for every mile they ride. That cost is cut to $1.05 for buses. Another FTA report said that “regular bus service improvements are likely to be the least costly of all measures to increase transit capacity.”
So why the appeal? In Kansas City, for example, they were cheaper to build and more environmentally friendly than traditional buses. When its LEED certified streetcar started service, the system was lauded by local and state press for bringing an “eye-popping” edge to the city’s developing downtown area, and for being part of a larger city infrastructure plan committed to eco-friendly design and development.

Want more? Check out these reads on the challenges and rewards of streetcars:

All-American Streetcar Boom Fuels Urban Future
Tram wars! Why streetcars are back — whether you like it or not
Homepage photo courtesy of Courtesy of Portland Streetcar

Bike-Sharing Systems Cost Money, But Make Money Too

Posted on by robbie

In the past decade, several midsize cities have launched campaigns to attract young professionals, and as millennials move in, they’re embracing more and varied ways to get around town. Ride-share companies like Uber and Lyft are making having your own wheels less important, even in car-reliant cities like Los Angeles, where more alternatives to public transit have been a focus for legislators and public transit advocates. And the same is true for bike-sharing programs, which have skyrocketed since the first one was introduced in Washington, D.C., nearly a decade ago. Today, there is an estimated 119 systems nationwide.
As Bill Dossett, executive director of the Twin Cities’ bike share program, Nice Ride Minnesota, said last year, “It’s no longer a novelty. To be a world-class city, you need to have a bike-share program.”
For cities still debating their benefits, here’s what to know — both the good and the bad — about building out a bike-share program.

You Have to Spend Money to Make Money

Bikes cost money, but they also bring it in. The University of Iowa found that bike commuters in 37 of the state’s counties contributed $41.5 million to the local economy through jobs and spending. Fort Worth, Texas, spent $598,000 last year on its first bike share program, and immediately made it back and then some when ridership surged 34 percent more than expected.
But reaping those benefits can come with a hefty price tag.
In New York, for example, the city council requested $12 million this year to fund an additional 2,000 more bikes for its Citi Bike program, the nation’s largest. That comes on top of the bike-share’s rocky — and expensive — start, which was delayed after flooding from 2012’s Superstorm Sandy resulted in $10 million in damages to bike equipment.
And with more bikes comes the need for more bike lanes. To fund them, some cities have turned to tax increases, like in Portland, Ore., where voters recently agreed to a temporary 10-cent gas tax that would raise $64 million over four years, 44 percent of which is earmarked for more bike lanes and safety improvements.

Different Cities Require Different Approaches

There’s no debating that bike shares have been a smash, with the number of bike-share rides exploding from 2.3 million in 2011 to 28 million last year, according to the National Association of City Transportation Officials.
But not every system has been successful. Just this year, Pronto in Seattle shut down operations in March after posting poor ridership numbers. The culprits: Hilly terrain, inclement weather, a mandatory helmet law and few bike lanes in the congested downtown area. (The city is giving bike shares another whirl, however, recently announcing it will see two new companies launch operations later this year.)
L.A., too, is similarly struggling with low ridership compared to other cities, according to an analysis by the Los Angeles Times. In that instance, city officials limited the bike-share system to downtown blocks, making the program out of reach for many who live in L.A.’s sprawling outskirts. Still, officials defend the nascent program. “We’re not New York, we’re not Chicago,” Laura Cornejo, a Metro deputy executive officer told the newspaper. “For every city, you need to look at what the culture is, what the infrastructure is, and what the political and community dynamic is.”

Address Gentrification Controversies Head-On

But not everyone loves the bike-share craze. In some neighborhoods, activists and legislators worry that the bike racks add to congestion and help usher in gentrification.
After New York’s CitiBike program proposed an expansion of bike stations last year in Harlem, a historically black and Latino neighborhood, community leaders called the initiative a “gateway to gentrification” and harmful to local businesses and food trucks.
But research has shown that investing in bike infrastructure and bike shares are actually good for neighborhoods and property value.
In 2013, officials in Indianapolis invested $63 million in grants and private funding to build the Cultural Trail, eight miles of interconnected bike and pedestrian pathways. Two years later, Indiana University’s Public Policy Institute found that properties within 500 feet of the trail increased in value 148 percent, to $1 billion.
“As with anything, some of the pushback is within the community itself, and a lot of it is due to misunderstanding or misinformation,” Jolie Lemoine, president of the board of directors for New Orleans’s Bike Easy program, tells NationSwell. “People think that it will put small businesses out of business, but it’s just not true.”
For Bike Easy, which is currently in the testing phase in parts of New Orleans’s popular tourism areas, such as the French Quarter, the message has been to include the community in deciding where bike docks will go and how they will be used.
“We want people to have the opportunity to get bikes without owning one, so that they can see this is an effective system,” Lemoine says. “It can make areas of town more valuable to residents. I think [the challenge is] changing sentiments, attitudes and desires of what we want our city to offer us.”

Want more? Check out these reads on the challenges and rewards of bike shares:

“Bikes Aren’t Just Good for You, They’re Good for the Economy, Too,” Fast Company
“Have You Heard About That Awesome New Bike-Share Diet?” Next City
“What Keeps Bike Share White,” CityLab

Homepage photo courtesy of Los Angeles Metro Bike Share

California Is Going to Use Toilet Water to Grow Your Vegetables

Posted on by robbie

By the end of 2017, toilet water and other wastewater will be used to irrigate a large swath of Central Valley farmland near Interstate 5, an area that is known as California’s agricultural hub because it produces more than 360 products.
“As long as we keep taking showers and flushing toilets, we can guarantee you water,” Modesto Mayor Garrad Marsh said to farmers at an August 2015 news event.
Treatment facilities in the two inland cities, Modesto and Turlock, will collect the water from sinks, showers, washing machines and toilets, and process it into what’s commonly referred to as “gray water.” Once the not-quite-drinkable H2O is clear of all solid waste, it’s completely safe to be used to water plants or siphoned off to natural wetlands.
By 2018, a $100 million pipeline is expected to transport the processed water to 30,600 acres of farmland roughly 40 miles south.
Two years ago, drought cost California’s state economy an estimated $2.7 billion, according to a study done by UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences. Water shortages resulted in $247 million in lost crop revenue in 2016.
The gray water should help drought-stricken farmers in the future, as new population growth in this region of California puts increasing pressure on the water supply and scientists predict that climate change could cause future droughts to be more drastic.
“Without something like this, the future for my son and grandson and family — we’re into this third generation — I don’t know if we can keep our business going,” Jim Jasper, owner of Stewart & Jasper Orchards, tells KQED.
California has been recycling water for more than 100 years. Los Angeles County first used treated wastewater in 1929 to water golf courses and parks, and the state has been irrigating farmland with it for more than three decades, according to the Pacific Institute. A 2009 survey (the most recent available) reported that 669,000 acres of California land was irrigated using gray water.
MORE: The Counterintuitive Solution to California’s Drought Crisis
Homepage photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

NYC’s ‘Green City Force’

Posted on by robbie

Growing up in Brownsville, Brooklyn, Edna McKay never expected she would one day have a full-time job in the sustainable energy industry.  She lived in public housing where crime was very high…and opportunity very low.
But now McKay has a full-time job installing free, energy-efficient light bulbs for Franklin Energy to people in her neighborhood. “With this position, I’m earning more money than I ever did in my life,” says McKay, who earns $17 an hour.
In this episode of NationSwell’s 8-part mini documentary series on service years, watch how McKay transformed her future by participating in a program called Green City Force, which empowers young adults from New York City’s public housing developments with the highest crime rates.
“We started Green City Force in 2009 with the idea of connecting the dots between two major issues, youth employment and the need to transition to sustainable cities,” says Lisbeth Shepherd, founder of the organization.
The organization’s mission isn’t lost on McKay, who is now considering options that she previously viewed as unrealistic: “In the next few years, I would really love to earn a bachelor’s degree, because I feel like I’m capable of doing it,” she says.
NationSwell asks you to join our partnership with Service Year Alliance. Watch the video above. Ask Congress to support a service year. Do one yourself. Together, we can lead a national movement to give young Americans the opportunity to help bridge the divides in our country.

5 Good Governing Mayors

Posted on by robbie

Focused on the issues most important to their constituents, mayors have to ensure public resources get used wisely and in a way that achieves results while respecting the law and democratic values.
As mayors from across the nation gather for The United States Conference of Mayors’ Annual Meeting this weekend, here are five that are practicing good governance in small and mid-sized cities.

Mayor Mick Cornett supported a one cent sales tax to fund projects that enhance the quality of life for Oklahoma City residents, such as the construction of RIVERSPORT Rapids.

Mick Cornett, Oklahoma City

Once dubbed one of the five most innovative mayors in the country by Newsweek, Cornett has been credited with helping his city shed a collective 1 million pounds through an ambitious health campaign. He’s also invested nearly $2 billion to improve schools and infrastructure and boosted civic engagement by including residents on various subcommittees. Cornett, who’s been mayor since 2004, is now the longest-serving leader among the 50 biggest cities in the U.S. and is hoping to take his changemaking ways statewide by running for governor.

Mayor Svante Myrick takes a selfie with the Child Development Council after his proclamation of Child Development Council Day in Ithaca, N.Y

Svante Myrick, Ithaca, N.Y.

First elected at age 24, Myrick – now 30 – is known for hanging an LED sign in his office that displays text messages from constituents. But more importantly, he’s tackled the heroin epidemic by proposing a detox center, methadone clinic and supervised safe injection site. “It’s a great example of good governance because although it’s experimental, there are early signs of success where it’s been done (like Vancouver, B.C.),” says Alex Torpey, former mayor of South Orange, N.J., and visiting professor of governance and technology at Seton Hall University. The idea may seem counterintuitive, but Torpey says Myrick’s team “brought in all possible stakeholders, did appropriate research and made a really brave decision to try something to help attack this problem.”

Local Louisville high school seniors discuss their post-graduation plans with Mayor Greg Fischer.

Greg Fischer, Louisville, Ky.

This Bluegrass State inventor turned businessman turned politician was elected mayor in 2010. Last year, he was voted the country’s “most innovative” mayor in a Politico survey and credited with driving the creation of a new economic development agency and an innovation office. One of his administration’s top goals includes making the city more compassionate, as well as improving education and creating “good-paying” jobs. “Throughout this tenure, the city of Louisville has moved from an old industrial town without a lot of industry to a modern creative class magnet in the Midwest,” says William Hatcher, associate professor of political science at Augusta University.

Mayor David Bieter congratulates new enlistees in the United States Navy at Boise City Hall.

David Bieter, Boise, Idaho

This fourth-term mayor – the longest in Boise’s history – has expanded access to childhood education programs and affordable housing while taking a bold stance to protect immigrants and refugees. His city does better than many others at ensuring the safety of residents and providing them access to hospital beds and certain health outcomes, helping Boise rank at the top of the America’s best-run cities study.

In Washington D.C., Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed participates in a panel discussion on the economy and job opportunities for Americans.

Kasim Reed, Atlanta

Under his leadership, the local government of this bigger city has strengthened its economy and developed urban amenities “in a manner that is effective, efficient and fair,” notes Hatcher. The second-term mayor established a bike share program to help with traffic congestion and pushed for new transit infrastructure. Recently, Reed pledged to uphold the Paris climate accord and joined the Global Parliament of Mayors, which is tackling local issues resulting from worldwide problems. “Mayors need to be at the forefront of global challenges like immigration, social mobility, climate change and resiliency,” Reed has said.
MORE: America’s Youngest Mayor

The Solar Highway of the Future

Posted on by robbie

Off Interstate 85 along the Alabama-Georgia border, an area of asphalt the size of two SUVs parked nose-to-nose is soaking up the sun. But unlike traditional blacktop, it’s capturing solar energy and using it to power a nearby information booth and electric car-charging station.
This bright idea to cover a roadway with solar tiles stems from the notion that highways should be dual purpose.

This solar road is the first of its kind in the U.S.

“Roads are an extremely underutilized resource right now. They’re just asphalt that takes us from Point A to Point B,” says Anna Cullen, director of external relations for The Ray, the Atlanta-based project that installed the tiles. “We don’t have anything in our lives today that is just one purpose. A road should be the same.”
Solar roads have already been installed in the Netherlands and France. Georgia’s patch is the first in the United States.  
But cost is a significant roadblock. The tiles — which are thankfully skid resistant — are composed of expensive materials imported from France. Plus, they must be laid on top of existing pavement, which is labor intensive.
MORE: Building the Future: Sustainable Infrastructure
And there’s the question of whether the tiles will generate as much energy as is projected. In Sandpoint, Idaho, a company called Solar Roadways paved a town square with hexagonal solar panels that were meant to generate electricity for nearby restrooms and a fountain. The multi-million-dollar project collects just a fraction of the energy it intended — only enough to operate a hairdryer.
“Aside from road dust, particularly black tire dust and diesel exhaust, which will quickly cover a portion of each panel, the continuous traffic covering panels will reduce their solar output,” Stanford University Engineering Professor Mark Jacobson told National Geographic last year.
If successful, however, Georgia’s project could become the model for the entire United States, where hundreds of thousands of roadways are in need of repair.
Homepage photo courtesy of The Ray.