Multimedia

Research on Extracting Energy from Asphalt Proves a Hot Story

When WPI researchers traveled to Switzerland recently to discuss their studies about the potential to extract usable energy from hot asphalt, the media took notice. Stories about the research have appeared on dozens of news sites that cover new developments in sustainability, alternative energy, and environmental issues.

The story has also been posted on sites all across the blogosphere, including the highly trafficked Huffington Post. Interest in the story has come from as far away as New Zealand, where a radio news show carried an interview with principle investigator Rajib Mallick, associate professor of civil and Environmental Engineering.

Here are a few examples of this widespread coverage:

• Interview on This Way Up on Radio New Zealand
•  Discovery News (on the Discovery Channel website): “Just Follow the Solar Brick Road”
•  This story was picked by the Huffington Post
•  Science Daily: “Solar Collector Could Change Asphalt Roads into Renewable Energy Source”
•  CNet News: “Tapping the hot asphalt jungle for energy”
•  Renewable Energy World.com: “Renewable Energy Collectors May Be Right under Our Feet”
•  Better Roads Magazine: “Research team discovers way to turn highways, parking lots into solar energy source”