ADOT puts some of Arizona’s abundant sunshine to good use!

A top view of the solar panels

Solar powered emergency lighting is being tested on 50 ADOT vehicles

When prices at the pump started to spike a couple years ago, ADOT began looking at ways to cut fuel costs for the 4,200 vehicles in its fleet. And, believe it or not, the idea for a very promising solution came from the roof of a pretend cop car … well, sort of.

Around two years ago ADOT Assistant Director John Nichols was contacted by a company with a new product to demonstrate. It was a stand-in law enforcement vehicle touted as an item that could help ADOT save money. The premise was that it would alleviate the need for a real law enforcement officer at construction sites.

It wasn’t going to work for ADOT, but Nichols had a look and was intrigued by the lights on top of this fiberglass shell of a vehicle. They stayed on even though the car had no engine.

They were powered, he was told, by solar energy...read more at ADOT Blog.