![]() FROM a distance, the driveway of Julie and Scott Brusaw in rural Sandpoint, Idaho, does not seem like anything special: it is a collection of greenish hexagonal tiles. But a closer look reveals that these are sheets of hardened glass with solar cells The idea seems to be clicking with a lot of small investors: the Brusaws will soon have raised $2m on Indiegogo, a crowdsourcing site—a record for such projects and twice their initial fund-raising goal. And one of the videos on the Brusaws’ Indiegogo page has gone viral, with nearly 15m views. “When the phrase ‘global warming’ began gaining popularity, we started batting around the idea of replacing asphalt and concrete surfaces with solar panels It is strong enough, he claims, to support a truck weighing more America is covered by 75,000 square kilometres of roads: paving only part of them with solar tiles could generate a lot of electricity. But the Brusaws want their tiles to do much more: they could include heating strips to melt snow and ice, LEDs to replace lane markers as well as road signs and communication systems to make roads smarter. Some tiles could even be used wirelessly to charge electric cars parked above them—just like many portable toothbrushes, shavers and (soon) mobile phones are charged today. Despite all these advantages, Solar Roadways, as the Brusaws’ company is called, won’t stretch to the horizon anytime soon. One issue is cost. The firm calculates that it would be anywhere between 50% and 300% more expensive to use its tiles rather than asphalt to pave a roadway. According to one estimate, the cost to cover all of America’s interstate highways would be $1 trillion. This doesn’t seem a cost-efficient way to harvest solar energy Yet the Brusaws are not going to give up easily. They have been promoting their idea for years. Before turning to Indiegogo, they already received several grants Posted from:http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2014/06/crowdfunding-solar-roadways Our portals dedicated to CrowdFunding Promotion, Education and Consulting www.PromoteMyCrowdFunding.com (pre and during CrowdFunding promotional services) www.CrowdFundingPlanning.com (Knowledge Sharing) www.CrowdFundingHelpouts.com (Cloud CrowdFunding Consultation) www.LearningCrowdFunding.com (CrowdFunding Education and Promotional Services) www.CrowdFundingFrameWorks.com (CrowdFunding E-learning and Learning Management ![]() www.CrowdFundTank.com (CrowdFunding Think Tank) www.OriginalInvestors.com (Fundraising - Bootstrapping) www.CrowdFundingSoftLaunch.com (pre launch sand box - beta version - see a sample http://goo.gl/M8BdY). Your portals Pre crowdfunding candidates. www.CrowdFundingCrowdFunding.com (a Crowd Funding global contest and video portal) www.CrowdFundinghardLaunch.com (www.CleanMyBay.com) www.CrowdfundingConferenceSeminar.com/ (Conference and seminars) www.CrowdFundingMentorsCoachesConsultants.com/ (Expert sourcing CrowdFunding Mentors Portal) www.CrowdFundingBestPractices.com (CrowdFunding: best practices) www.CrowdFundingELearning.com (Intranet E-Learning ![]() www.CrowdQualifier.com (Compliance and regulation) www.CrowdFundingDailyNews.com/ www.CrowdFundingPsychology.com www.CrowdFundingCrowdFunding.com ( a Crowd Funding global contest ![]() www.WhatIsTheCrowdFunding.com/ (CrowdFunding) www.CrowdFundMadeEasy.com (CrowdFunding Project & Campaign Development) www.CrowdFundingInboundMarketing.com (CrowdFunding Marketing for Small & Medium Sized Projects) |