What are the solar panel things on the side of the road?

August 19th, 2008 | by Michael |
solar
Ruth L asked:


I live in Chicagoland and along the tollways are the poles with what appear to be solar panels attached to them. The pole has 2 panels and usually if I had to guess, I 'd say that each is about 2 feet by 1 foot in size. don 't seem to be close to all the signs and I haven' t had identified a pattern of how they are placed (for example, don 't seem to be any "x" miles). What are they?

CLAIR

  1. 5 Responses to “What are the solar panel things on the side of the road?”

  2. By dansmith54321 on Aug 21, 2008 | Reply

    sometimes they put solar panels near bridges and overpasses…it is connected to a sensor that reads pavement temp in the winter so they can salt it if the bridges ice over

  3. By dulcrayon on Aug 22, 2008 | Reply

    I would assume they are solar panels; which are charging a battery;which is, probably, providing back-up power to something. BOY! did I miss my calling. I should have been a lawyer. All I ended up saying is “I don’t know” but that is what solar panels look like and what they do.

  4. By just-me on Aug 24, 2008 | Reply

    generally they are installed for emergency road side phones ( the little yellow box mounted on the same pole), or the new radar info plaques, to inform you of how fast you are going.

  5. By wzzrd on Aug 25, 2008 | Reply

    What you see is a panel to charge a battery that powers a traffic counter. There are usually lines in the road (not paint) from the counter being installed. These lines are the tar that filled the cuts in the asphalt made during the installation.

  6. By John K on Aug 27, 2008 | Reply

    It powers highway signs, mostly.

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