That was such a great article!:D:D:D:D
I’m bookmarking that site, right next to my Onion and Free Wood Post bookmarks.
Seriously, though, I would have figured the solarizing would be like canopies 20’ overhead with gaps between structures to provide alternating shaded and sunlit portions of road. That way the collectors would be above the cars and during daylight people could still look out and see the scenery beyond the road.
I think it would be easier to do the paving idea in a small community first, replacing the driveway of each home with these devices (and the rooftops with the traditional stuff, right?). They could include sensors and programming so they say
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Here’s the FAQ from their website. http://www.solarroadways.com/faq.shtml
It answers a lot of questions. But I’m not totally convinced of this as of yet. Certainly it could make sense on walkways and such, but for heavily traveled highways there are a lot of questions to be answered.
As others have pointed out, the roadside conduits raise a lot of issues.
If it can be made economical and able to withstand use, then maybe some percentage of our highway system could be paneled, but everything? I’m skeptical.
Their short-term goal appears to be selling to large chains for parking lots. That may be achievable.
I couldn’t watch more than a few minutes of that video. It was so damn annoying and patronizing/smarmy. It actually made me want to take those solar panels and throw them right INTO the sun.
You can make the same point about a lot of our current infrastructure and personal property, but the last time I looked it wasn’t being dismantled wholesale by insane teenagers. I don’t see teenagers going down the street with a sledgehammer smashing car windows. Sure, there are occasional isolated incidents, but not often enough to make car windows economically nonviable. Those concrete stop things at the end of parking spaces in lots can probably be broken up by teenagers with a sledgehammer. Have you ever heard of it happening?
Seems like a lot of light pollution. Do we really need every country lane and rural highway glowing like Tron? System seems impractically expensive for residential use, recovering the cost versus asphalt would likely take forever. Children will be deprived of a surface for their chalk drawings and will need to draw wangs using cold, impersonal LEDs. Parking lots don’t realistically need to change their layout pretty much ever (and can you really just add handicapped spots without the accompanying signage – wouldn’t anyone just say ‘It wasn’t a handicapped spot when I got here’) . Of course, a parking stall with a car on it isn’t generating electricity to recoup its costs.
I don’t believe for a second that they’ll be “snow proof” in a heavy snowfall and picture them covered in a slushy mess of half melted snow and water fenced in by the snow on the shoulders. The cost for the entire infrastructure thing is, of course, pretty much a nonstarter.
I could see it for some bike/walking paths or courtyards for offices, hotels and stuff like that. Probably be nice for trying to achieve LEED Gold status. Covering all the roads in America so we can generate a bajillion gigawatts for everyone is another story.
Highways get covered with all kinds of dirt from the cars that drive on them. Not a big deal with a normal road but I figure it’s going to knock the efficiency of solar panels to hell.
Driving conditions will also go to hell because you’re increasing the cost of road maintenance by a big factor.
You’ve given roads a whole new way they can stop working. Up to now, the only consideration of whether a road is functional is if you can drive on it. Now a road can stop working and need to be repaired because it’s not generating power.
And while using solar panels is “green” making them is definitely not. Lots of energy and all kinds of highly toxic chemicals are used in the manufacture of solar panels. The Not-So-Sunny Side of Solar Panels
I saw that too. There is no way one of these panels is going to produce $7k worth of electricity in three years, which is the claimed “pay for itself” time.
Could we maybe keep the argument on something more factual than “something someone posted on Facebook”? As stupid and seemingly illogical as this innovation seems, we can at least stick to facts and reasonable inferences and not social media pharts.
This is no doubt impractical, but people are really reaching for things to criticize. I just can’t see teenagers attacking parking lots with sledgehammers. If that’s really a concern, security cameras are cheap as are signs warning of fines or jail time.
Light pollution? The LEDs aren’t required for the things to work. You could just not use them or you could make models that don’t even have them. And who’s going to worry about LED light in a well illuminated McDonald’s lot or a highway illuminated with sodium lamps and car headlights?
The LEDs are how all the road markings are displayed. All of the shoulder lines, lane lines, turn arrows, etc would be illuminated. It was sort of a major selling point for the narrator. Everything from a thousand “Tron” references to glowing moose hoofprints. They sure weren’t saying “Lay these down and then paint on them!” which is probably a good thing since I bet paint wouldn’t stick real well to glass under road wear conditions.
As for parking lots, I explicitly mentioned currently dark areas. You know, the sort of places people go to escape light pollution.
I think sidewalks or small bikepaths is a better place to start with this tech. Or perhaps you engineers out there could reverse heat flow from asphalt back to electrical current.
Another downside?
“Roving bands of criminals, armed with car batteries, stealing power.”
Sounds like Nigeria!!:eek:
I made that up.
