Solar Roadways is raising at a $30 million valuation. This valuation does take into account the company’s ample room for growth and thoroughly-tested product. However, it is still extremely high, given recently-declining revenue and a lack of supporting infrastructure for commercialization. Therefore, Solar Roadways’ price score is very low.

One thing is certain — Solar Roadways’s obtainable market is absolutely massive. In 2020, the global smart cities market sat at $410.8 billion and is expected to rise at a 14.8% CAGR to $820.7 billion by 2025. Given that the product can replace all paved surfaces, provides alternatives to painted road lines and fossil fuel-based energy production, and can eliminate the need for cold-weather mitigation, Solar Roadways is primed to take advantage of future-minded infrastructure builders.

Solar Roadways is priming itself for the commercial market with the development of its first commercial model, the “SR5.” After securing three grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation (among other prominent promotions), it seems likely the company will secure government contracts for future infrastructure investment. The biggest challenge for Solar Roadways will be overcoming technological challenges to lower prices. This will be necessary to supplant traditional road materials — current consensus is that solar roadways are too gimmicky and expensive. Despite that hurdle, the market potential for Solar Roadways is quite significant. Therefore, the company’s market score is very strong.

Solar Roadways is headed up by a husband-and-wife team, Scott and Julie Ann Brusaw. The Brusaws bring valuable education and industry experience to the company. Scott, the company’s President and CEO, holds a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Dayton. He spent more than a decade as the Director of Research and Development for PDi Communications and owned Radiant Bridge Solutions. Scott left Radiant Bridge in 2006, and the company dissolved in 2013. Scott is a frequent speaker at international events, such as the International Parking Institute conference in 2013.

Julie, the company’s Vice President, has a less-traditional career path that offers the company a unique perspective. Julie holds an M.A. in Counseling Psychology and spent eighteen years in private practice. While she doesn’t have the same technical chops as her husband, she puts her soft skills to work managing the company’s significant international social media presence. The company has more than 85,000 likes on Facebook and is followed by more than 10,000 people on Facebook — including former US President Obama.

Alyssa Delbridge-Ramos serves as Solar Roadways’s Director of Science. Delbridge-Ramos holds a recent master’s degree in Environmental Science from the University of Idaho and worked for six years as an ER Tech prior to graduation. She brings youthful perspective and energy to the team. Mike Morris is another young team member, who has a Certified Solid Works Associate certification. This team, in addition to checking the technical know-how boxes on its own, is complemented by an assortment of advisors from the engineering and climate science sectors.

Overall, the Solar Roadways team brings a strong combination of industry experience, innovative thinking, and savvy social media skills. As a result, the team score for the company is very high.

Solar Roadways prides itself on being the first company to develop solar panels integrated into roads, opening up a new place in the market. As of now, its relatively few competitors — SolaRoad, SolarImpulse Foundation, Qilu Transportation Development Group, and Platio — are all based in other countries and don’t cover the same ground as Solar Roadways’s panels. To secure its place in the market, the Brusaws have secured multiple patents, and released two to the company.

While Solar Roadways has experienced its own stumbles over its 14-year history — a 2016 installation had several non-functional panels at opening — the product has been tested and brought ever-closer to perfection over those 14 years. Provided the development of its fifth model proves successful, the product will offer functionality and durability unmatched by any of its competitors. Due to these strengths, Solar Roadways scores strongly in the differentiators metric.

Solar Roadways has experienced huge success on the publicity front for years now. Its 2014 “Solar Freakin’ Roadways” video experienced a viral level of 22 million views, and it has captured the imagination of the American public, even receiving a shout-out in Barack Obama’s 2015 State of the Union Address. 

On a more practical front, the company has performed decently but inconsistently. Following up on three U.S. Department of Transportation contracts, Solar Roadways secured an SBIR contract with the U.S. Department of Defense and has received commercial requests from around the world even before scaling up production.

That said, hard numbers provide a more troubling outlook. Solar Roadways went from an impressive $419,838 in revenue in 2018 — resulting in a positive net income of $18,044 — to $211,392 in revenue in 2019. The company has yet to scale for commercial production, but this decline year-over-year is concerning. Because of these sliding financial figures, Solar Roadways’ performance score is its lowest across all five metrics.

Solar-powered roads — while attracting huge levels of public attention — have so far been little more than expensive gimmicks. The challenge is in replacing what have been cheap, simple, reliable road-building materials for literal millennia. In order to do so, the modules have to be sold as cheaply as possible — cutting into margins — while providing the same level of safety for drivers. Meeting these rigorous standards is an enormous challenge and requires buyers to have a long-term perspective. True, solar roadways won’t get potholes, but when it comes to replacing existing infrastructure, customers will be highly incentivised to go with what works in the short term: more asphalt, more concrete. Even the product’s major selling point — collection of solar power — has so far been far less efficient than other solar collectors.

In order to reach the levels of success that can turn a profit for investors and meet massive public expectations, Solar Roadways needs to meet several challenges. It needs to develop its own custom micro inverter that can more efficiently capture solar energy, undergo a $500,000 certification process from the Underwriters Laboratory and secure a $19,000 approval from the FCC. Furthermore, the company does not yet have the strong sales infrastructure in place to support commercialization and scaling — which will soon be an absolute necessity. Without cost-cutting tech innovations and powerful sales presences, Solar Roadways will remain little more than an expensive gimmick, shunned in favor of more reliable materials.

It’s never been a better time to provide infrastructure innovations. America has been beating the drum for restoring its crumbling infrastructure for years now, and Solar Roadways can capitalize on that priority. At the moment, panels are manufactured by hand, making them incredibly expensive. With scaling of the product, costs can be driven down. The company certainly has no shortage of consumer interest. It has a promising list of potential customers. If it can secure even a sliver of the enormous smart cities market, the company has a potential to make hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars in the coming years.

Solar Roadways has been rated a Deal to Watch as a possible road to the future of transportation and energy. The company’s tractioned tempered glass Solar Road Panels absorb energy from the sun, albeit at a less-efficient rate than other solar panels. The panels provide safe driving surfaces for vehicles, illuminate LEDs that can connect to wireless city management software, and heat roads to mitigate snow and ice buildup. The company estimates that if all paved surfaces in the U.S. were replaced with their panels, they could provide three times the current energy needs of the entire country.

The company has secured three successful grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation and a contract with the Department of Defense. It plans to use funds from its current raise to finance expensive certification processes and develop a custom micro inverter, to better the product’s solar energy absorption. The SR5, which is currently in development, will be Solar Roadways’s first commercial offering.

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Analysis written by Benjamin Potts.