It seems as though just about anything, if captured correctly, can be turned into clean energy. If you’re not a believer, consider the latest clean energy technology developments at the University of Rhode Island (URI), where researchers have developed four different ways to use roads to generate electricity.

One method would be to wrap the latest and most flexible photovoltaic (PV) solar cells around highway dividers to power those lights and boards. This method, according to K. Wayne Lee, leader of the study and professor of environmental and civil engineering at URI, can be used today because the technology is already available.

A second method includes workers digging under roadways to install water-filled pipes that would be heated by the sun. The heat would then operate steam turbines to produce enough energy to melt away salt bridges on icy roads. Another option to defrost highways consists of embedding thermoelectrics into the ground. Road workers could build an underground circuit using two different semiconductors, one at a cool spot and one at hot spot, to generate heated electricity.

The final and most drastic method entails completely overhauling asphalt roadways and replacing them with durable electronic blocks of LED lights, sensors and PV cells. URI’s research team is preparing an on-campus pilot program to test the first of these four methods. We’ll update you on the outcome of the project.

UPDATE: Solar-powered roads not doing it for you? Check out these electricity-generating speedbumps, which are being put to use in Britain.