People driving down Interstate 95 near Lexington, Massachusetts, will soon pass rows of solar panels.
A company called Ko-Solar is working with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to attach the panels to a short stretch of the existing highway noise barrier.
The project is expected to generate enough electricity to power more than 100 homes. And it’s intended to demonstrate the effectiveness of adding solar panels to noise barriers.
Ko-Solar’s managing partner Koray Kotan says the approach helps increase clean energy with minimal land disturbance.
“The solution takes advantage of the benefits of solar energy and vast length of current and future noise barrier structures that crisscross urban and rural lands all over the United States,” he says.
Kotan says the highway administration invests a lot of money in these barriers. Adding solar to them could offset these costs or even generate funds for local, state, or federal agencies.
And it would allow the barriers to help reduce carbon pollution, not just noise pollution.
“So it has a lot of benefits,” Kotan says. “And we hope that we can actually expand this nationwide, maybe worldwide.”
Reporting credit: ChavoBart Digital Media