Asphalt is a generic commodity. There will always be someone selling it. That’s not necessarily so for solar road tiles.
There are restrictions for state agencies buying sole-source items, so as soon as other manufacturers come on line for the things you’re going to have a patchwork of differently sourced units in the roadway. I wonder what problems that will bring.
Yes, it’s impossible to construct any kind of complex system for the transmission of power over long distances. That’ why we don’t have a power grid right no … hey, wait a minute!
Allow me to fix that: It’s impossible to construct any kind of complex system for the creation and transmission of power over long distances that must also deliver acceptable driving characteristics and stand up to decades of pounding traffic.
There. No need to thank me.
If we used power transmission lines to carry tramways, they wouldn’t be one tenth as reliable and wouldn’t last a fraction of their current lifetime.
They now have $1.7 million dollars. Indiegogo actually encouraged them to extend their campaign. Between this and Indiegogo’s funding of the TellSpec, I think their business practices are… shady.
I like the premise. What would it take to work?
I’m guessing it isn’t a manufacturing and distribution company doing the research.
Asphalt doesn’t have proprietary connections. When a in-pavement LED lighted crosswalk maker goes out of business, the replacement parts become unavailable and as the units die they can’t be replaced. And those aren’t sharing data. These things aren’t just connected electrically, they’re talking to each other.
Sure someone could reverse engineer parts, but road repair crews don’t do that. Road crews order parts. Oh, and you know what’s more irritating than companies going bust? Oh, we don’t make that kind any more. This new model is much more. . . oh. No. It doesn’t interconnect with the old systems. Why do you ask?
And, oddly, I got a report on it today.
In case anyone is under the impression that Indiegogo sufficiently (or even insufficiently) vets their campaigns: Home Quantum Energy Generator
I’ll take eight!
Anybody know how much it takes to buy and install enough solar panels to provide full power to a house in the central valley of California? [Yes I know that it has to be hooked up to the grid for overnight or have a bank of batteries, I am just curious about the cost of the number of panels to provide 100% of the energy during daylight hours that would be used in the full 24 hours. One guesses that one would be pulling the night time juice from the grid, so during the day 150% or whatever would be the actual amount generated to allow for pulling from the grid at night. I tried rummaging around on one of those lease a solar roof companies, but all you can get is an appointment for them to come out to the house and give you a quote. I just want to know how much it would cost to pave a roof with enough solar for the average house with appliances and air conditioning, not get a quote for a house I don’t actually have…]
On a typical Sacramento summer day? About two of those ones Radio Shack sells for science experiments. :rolleyes:
Here? You’d need to own several houses in a row to have enough roof acreage get enough power to run a bathroom fan.
In my burg, I’ll settle for just a few potholes being filled before the rainy season. No way will they EVER have enough money to squander on something like this.
Oh, the IoT
Despite any misgivings I may have, I have to admit that the solar roadway idea is somewhat more practical than my plans to harvest static electricity by covering the roads in shag carpet and dragging balloons behind all the vehicles.
OTOH, in my view the backers are entirely overlooking the vast potential of electric-eel farms as a renewable power source.
I figured we could just bury infamous people with magnets in their pockets, and wrap their coffins in wire connected to the grid. Every time someone insults them and they turn over in their grave, profit.
Thunderf00t has posted a 28 minute rebuttal here:
TL;WW.
[quote=“coremelt, post:156, topic:689129”]
Thunderf00t has posted a 28 minute rebuttal here:
[/QUOTE]Thunderf00t does a good job, basically summarizing all the same points made in this thread, plus a few more. I like how some of the YouTube commenters are now accusing him of being a corporate stooge.
They’ve made a rebuttal:
http://www.solarroadways.com/clearingthefreakinair.shtml
I think they’re referring to the video above.
Frankly, if they can’t make a convincing rebuttal in 4-500 words and/or about 3 minutes of video, it’s telling. Not a matter of getting into technical specifics or financial detail; it’s a matter of answering about five basic questions with points more convincing than “WOW!” “You’ll see!” “Give us money…” or “We’ve impressed some Important people.” Facts, not misdirection and hand-waving, that is.