There are countless efforts underway to bring more green energy into the world, and some of them are in some unusual places.
Like a project in Massachusetts that’s going to try mounting solar panels on those sound-absorbing barriers on the sides of the highway.
As Energy News Network reported, the trial phase will install a solar array along a half-mile stretch of Interstate 95 near Boston.
The state Department of Transportation is partnering with an energy company called Ko-Solar, which focuses on adding solar in and around existing infrastructure, like the sides or roof of a parking garage, or along a rail line.
They plan to add a metal grid to the concrete sound barriers that will hold enough solar panels to power 100 homes starting around spring 2022.
The test phase is small on purpose; the state wants to make sure adding solar doesn’t hurt the barrier or its ability to block highway noise.
And they want to make sure the solar panels don’t end up creating extra glare for drivers.
But if it works, it could become a big avenue for adding more renewable energy.
As one of the partners in Ko-Solar put it, there are a lot of highway sound barriers out there.
Today in 1859, a big baseball game in New York City.
The Henson Base Ball Club of Jamaica, Queens beat the Weeksville, Brooklyn Unknowns, in what is thought to be the first baseball game between two Black teams.
The score was 54 to 43!
Massachusetts to test highway barriers that absorb sound and solar energy (Energy News Network)
10 Black Baseball Sites in NYC (Untapped New York)
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Photo by Oregon Department of Transportation via Flickr/Creative Commons