Bullcrap. Frozen temps are the reason roads turn to crap. Water expands when frozen. It gets down in all the grooves of the road. Freezes and un freezes, freezes and un freezes day to day in some cases.
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Solar roadways
- Thread starter carjakester
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Bullcrap. Frozen temps are the reason roads turn to crap. Water expands when frozen. It gets down in all the grooves of the road. Freezes and un freezes, freezes and un freezes day to day in some cases.
By the time this idea is technologically and economically viable, fusion power plants will be online and we wont need solar roads. Its just such a ridiculous idea on every level.
Concentrate on making a new road surface that lasts for decades with no problems and then put solar, wind and wave generators elsewhere!
Concentrate on making a new road surface that lasts for decades with no problems and then put solar, wind and wave generators elsewhere!
Actually, I think by the time this technology is economically viable, we won't need roads.
what about sidewalks and parking lots? we are always going to need energy and this is a clean way to do it while using already used space.
Maybe but when we have our gravity reversing Air Jordan shoes on we'll just float over it all. Of course, snow isn't an issue down here.
We can't keep up with our current infrastructure because it's a money pit. You pour money into fixing the infrastructure, and the day after the construction is finished, the deterioration and depreciation starts. The return on investment is very low as the only thing you're getting back might be a slight economic boost to the area because of the new infrastructure. The ROI from these solar roadways if they were implemented would be much higher with all of the energy that would be generated.
It's not practical in many areas, but could you imagine if a city like Las Vegas replaced all their roads with this? The amount of energy generated and ROI would be pretty huge.
But they have loads of desert next door, they can just have normal cheap roads and huge cheap solar power plants around them or on the buildings where they get more sun.
Watch and learn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H901KdXgHs4
There are more reasons why this won't work as planner other than what this person goes over. Lots of them.
Seriously people, this is a daft idea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H901KdXgHs4
There are more reasons why this won't work as planner other than what this person goes over. Lots of them.
Seriously people, this is a daft idea.
Great idea, we need to find ways to make it work. Unfortunately there's something to asphalt roads things like drainage for example. When it rains water seeps through the asphalt into the dirt below the road. Whatever doesn't usually drains to the sides of the road, and this is why we have something called road crown. I'm not an engineer, and I don't build roads, but I know that cars stay on the road through the friction of the tires to the pavement. So I'm also worried about ice and snow. Not to mention oil on the road from leaky oil pan gaskets, and bad rear main seals and all the other things that leak oil from cars when they get older.
If this could make the roads more safe and work better then asphalt and reduce accidents from happening great. If it means we can have electricity from it too and stop using coal, and Nuclear energy great. Less server farms polluting the earth because you need so much power to keep the AC running 24/7 .
Maybe we should start with a few public parking lots to see how well it does and go from there.
If this could make the roads more safe and work better then asphalt and reduce accidents from happening great. If it means we can have electricity from it too and stop using coal, and Nuclear energy great. Less server farms polluting the earth because you need so much power to keep the AC running 24/7 .
Maybe we should start with a few public parking lots to see how well it does and go from there.
This thread brought exactly what I thought. A lot of people saying "this could be a really interesting idea that should be tried", and the usual suspects saying "this is stupid, not even worth exploring."
Obviously. You're not going to start with interstates. That's what the "trying" part is about. Dismissing the idea upfront as stupid is pretty short-sighted.
Obviously. You're not going to start with interstates. That's what the "trying" part is about. Dismissing the idea upfront as stupid is pretty short-sighted.
Most large parking lots I can think of are occupied by cars during the day. They're only unoccupied at night. This seems like it would reduce the solar collection capability.
In my area, parking lots that are occupied during the day would benefit more from solar panels mounted above the parking spots. This would shade the cars (keep them cooler), and the cars wouldn't block the incoming sunlight. Unfortunately, this needs a substantial structure to hold the panels above the parking spots. The cost of erecting and maintaining that structure alone could easily exceed the cost of the solar panels and their reasonable return on investment.
Chris Martenson analyzed the idea.
As expected, he's not convinced:
http://www.peakprosperity.com/blog/85700/no-solar-roadways-anytime-soon
-t
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What's amazing is that people gave $2M through crowd funding.
There still seems to be no shortage of fools.
-t
As expected, he's not convinced:
http://www.peakprosperity.com/blog/85700/no-solar-roadways-anytime-soon
-t
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What's amazing is that people gave $2M through crowd funding.
There still seems to be no shortage of fools.
-t
Most of the people on this thread seem to be very strongly against this idea, and condemn the hopeful as idiots.
I doubt that this idea would be implemented in this decade, nor possibly the next. But I can certainly see a future with this technology. There are many issues with it, but there are a comparable amount of issues with what we have now. I think that in due time, and with much effort, this could be the way of the future. As for the Northeast, with the snow, yes, runoff could be a problem. But do you not have sewer grates to aid with flooding? Certainly that system could be advanced as well to handle all the runoff. And yes, it can handle the 24 inches in three hours. It is a warm surface that would heat the water enough to melt. It would not waver. This project makes very good sense to me, and it needs to be nurtured and worked on. Start small, and see how it works? I think it is very doable.
I doubt that this idea would be implemented in this decade, nor possibly the next. But I can certainly see a future with this technology. There are many issues with it, but there are a comparable amount of issues with what we have now. I think that in due time, and with much effort, this could be the way of the future. As for the Northeast, with the snow, yes, runoff could be a problem. But do you not have sewer grates to aid with flooding? Certainly that system could be advanced as well to handle all the runoff. And yes, it can handle the 24 inches in three hours. It is a warm surface that would heat the water enough to melt. It would not waver. This project makes very good sense to me, and it needs to be nurtured and worked on. Start small, and see how it works? I think it is very doable.
There is no future for this idea.
It will only make sense once we run out of roof tops and other space to put dedicated solar panels on.
When will this happen ?
E.g., why put it on roads, if the field next to it is not being used ?
-t
I'll never give up petrol cars for solar / electric unless there was absolutely no other option - and that would never happen in my lifetime.
I like the old fashioned American muscle horsepower on pavement. I'll let the folks who want to use solar / alternative energy cars to have their car provide the energy and not the road.
There's a nostalgia of driving a powerful muscle car, which I intend on enjoying my entire life. Good ol rubber on the pavement. I look at cars as being a lot more than getting from point A to point B. Especially since my classic cars get less than 10MPG - and I love it.
I like the old fashioned American muscle horsepower on pavement. I'll let the folks who want to use solar / alternative energy cars to have their car provide the energy and not the road.
There's a nostalgia of driving a powerful muscle car, which I intend on enjoying my entire life. Good ol rubber on the pavement. I look at cars as being a lot more than getting from point A to point B. Especially since my classic cars get less than 10MPG - and I love it.
Have you ever traveled the region?
The roads look like this:
The water flows down (to the lowest point) in ditches beside the roadways, then run into...
The "sewer grates", which look like this (we call them "creeks"):
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There is science and engineering, then there is a practical usage. We are not there yet.
Engineers think they can build anything anywhere because it is doable. But is it feasible.
I hope you're not thinking I'm a supporter!
I have - for a very long time, and at increasingly higher levels - worked at giant concerns that have a mixture of marketeers, engineers and scientists.
With scientists, we'd have to instill some idea of practicality. They'd be off thinking of stuff that really couldn't be built, nor would there be a market.
With hard core engineers, the main thing we'd have to say - and this was very very common - was "just because you can, doesn't mean you should."
Marketeers would have ideas that might get the marketplace excited, if they were doable. Usually not doable though.
Turns out, the intersection of the venn diagram between these three groups (not to mention all of the other groups at play) is pretty small.
From what I can see of this couple, the guy is an engineer and he hasn't thought of the practical reasons why this isn't going to work.
No one had the opportunity to show him all of the problems associated with the project - they look like they work in isolation. No input, either that or they only listen to the happy bits and ignore the ugly bits.
I figure they convinced themselves they had something, ignored any negative feedback, got a couple of really tiny government grants ($1000 or so) and they're off and spinning. It's not anything I haven't seen before, but usually it's behind closed doors when someone shows them of the errors of their ways. This time it's public, and it turns out the public can be pretty gullible.
Sad, really.
TL;DR: The solar roadway king has no clothes.
You realize that he's been working with GE, MIT, the Federal Highway Association, and several of the world's leading glass research institutes right?
I'm not saying we have a silver bullet here, but it is amusing to see online posters point out a potential issue as if no one has thought of such a thing, without watching one of the many talks the guy has given (where insight as to his partnerships shows that many people are making strides on the various fields that make up such a project).
If this was a crackpot with a hair brained scheme he wouldn't have gotten through two funding rounds from the Federal Highway Association, and companies like GE engineering and MIT wouldn't be associated with him.