July CCL Call: The Ray Crushes The Preso!

Today’s national zoom call with Citizens’ Climate Lobby had a presentation that will likely be of interest and value to all of you.

The speaker was Allie Kelly, Executive Director of The Ray, an NGO dedicated to public-private partnerships for “regenerative transportation.”

The Ray has created a “living highway test bed” to demonstrate ways to capture solar and wind energy and charge electric vehicles by using the rights-of-way along highways.

By building a solar farm on empty and underutilized land around exit 14 on I-85 between the highway and the on- and off-ramps, The Ray has commercialized barren land. The solar farm generates 1 megawatt of DC generating capacity on 4 acres of land using 2600 solar panels. Developing solar farms along roadways also takes pressure off of building solar farms on environmentally sensitive land.

Beyond just proof-of-concept, she’s working with Iowa, Texas, Georgia and other states to show scalability, economic feasibility, political acceptance and collateral benefits like preserving soils and viewscapes.

Ms. Kelley also gave a quick report of a technology that uses wires buried in the pavement to wirelessly recharge the on-board batteries in long-haul trucks!  This could make heavy duty EV trucks feasible.

She’s an impressive and deeply informative presenter — lots of great ideas, concisely shared.

Two big thumbs up from your Editors!