Solar Power Use on Freeways

Solar power is used in Australia to power up those emergency telephones dotted along our freeways. Between the Gold Coast and Brisbane they are strategically and conveniently placed so any motorist who has a breakdown doesn't have to walk any huge distance for help if needed.

These days many people have mobile (cell) phones but there are still a lot of people who don't have this convenience so emergency phones are still urgently required. The traffic moves very fast along this motorway and particularly at peak times there is a lot of traffic on that motorway. Many people live on the Gold Coast and commute to work in Brisbane every day, so any breakdown along the motorway needs to be removed as soon as possible.

Solar Panels are also used to power up emergency phones in the outback of western Queensland particularly along the Barkly Highway heading towards the Northern Territory. Here the distances are hundred's of kilometres between road houses so it is life saving to have access to emergency assistance.

Years ago, I was travelling on the Nullarbor Highway between Perth and Adelaide when we came across a road train accident. A road train is a semi-trailer pulling one or two extra trailers and they can measure 50metres long. This road train was pulling three trailers and they were all full of Kimberley baby Nappies (diapers) being transported to Perth from Melbourne. There were white nappies littering the red soil for 100 metres in every direction.

Unfortunately the driver was badly injured. Luckily for him though that another road train was not far behind him and he had a Satphone and was able to call for help. This probably saved his life because there were no solar powered emergency phones anywhere along these desolate stretches of outback roads in the early 90's.

The use of solar power on our highways, freeways and motorways has probably saved countless lives. And to think that now solar panels can be made in a trade contractors shed is a wonderful step towards energy efficiency.