How many times have imagined yourself cooking an egg on the hot road of any big city when the heat strikes?
Road asphalt accumulates a lot of heat in summer
It seems that the old saying of 'it’s so boiling hot you could fry an egg on the street' might become a reality. No doubt you have realised that on those very hot summer days, the blacktop on the road seems to be melting. What is actually happening is that there’s so much accumulated heat that it can even cause a temperature rise of the area. Wouldn’t it be possible to use that heat?
For the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in England, the answer is yes!. A research team at that Institute, directed by Rajib Mallick, is studying the possibilities of turning the heat of the asphalt into an energy source, as if the asphalt itself was like a solar panel.
It’s just a project but, if it proves feasible, the results could offer several advantages. It not only constitutes a yet unsuspected alternative energy resource, but it would also contribute to reduce the asphalt temperature and thus the environment one.
It could be an interesting alternative for underground parking lots and small street facilities such as news-stand booths or bus stops, as it would allow them to become energy self-sufficient. Will we end up cooking in the middle of the city centre streets? For the time being, the first solar collector asphalt is being tested.
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Road asphalt accumulates a lot of heat in summer
