Solar Roadways Seeks $1M to Replace Streets with Solar Panels

[Skeleon]

Good idea, but I can already see them being misused to flash advertisings at people driving over them, distracting folks from the road...
Still, it is a pretty damn good idea, considering how little use roads are besides transportation. Wasted potential. Less complex, less nifty would be solar panels "on stilts" if you will, spanning across the road in intervals?

 

[Tsaba]

I just want to know.....
all joking aside, what's its weight tolerance?

 

[Avaholic03]

yeah i do get all that , but whatever energy we take from the system , be it solar wind tide whatever, means that energy isnt going where it used to that has to have an affect?

sticking this solar powered road surface downs isnt going to magically make the sun shine brighter is it? no its going to redirect that energy from where it currently goes.

butterfly wings... but sucking enough energy out of the weather system to power a country np! i just dont see it.

The sun delivers more energy to the Earth in an hour than humans use in a year. The relative amount of energy we'd be taking even if we were used 100% solar energy is still insignificant on a global scale.

Besides, humans have already caused much more significant impact on global climate by releasing millions of tons of CO2 and affecting the greenhouse effect. If anything, going to solar would mitigate these effects and lessen humanity's overall impact on the Earth.

That being said, I still think this idea is fundamentally flawed because of the economics of it (there's very little chance each section of road would generate enough energy to pay for its initial cost AND ongoing maintenance). Without a plan to make it profitable, it just isn't going to happen.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

I get the feeling these will cost way to much and also could be dug up by thieves. These people would be better off have solar panels on top of roofs of buildings than the road.

 

[Korzack]

If this works out, I'll be happy to take this as a sign of "The future's here, guys. It might not be flying cars like in the Jetsons, but it's still pretty fricking sweet!"

 

[Chaos Marine]

I can't help but cringe at the idea of trying to ride a motorcycle over that.

 

[TheWanderingFish]

heh once again i get all that , all im saying is every joule amp or whatever you measure raw energy in goes somewhere. and renewable energy gathering methods do alter it.

i also know very small changes can have very massive impacts. hurricanes only become possible with a certain sea temperature for an example.

The amount of energy lost is on such a minute scale that it won't have an effect. Compare this to oil. We remove millions upon millions of barrels from our Earth every day. Even more of it is burned, turning mass into energy, adding heat, light, and kinetic energy to systems. This, on the whole (barring the effects of greenhouse gas, which is another discussion entirely), has no effect on the Earth because the planet is not a closed system and this energy is lost, or transferred to other things.

 

[braincore02]

Sounds great in theory, but what about upkeep? My city can't afford to keep the roads paved with regular asphalt. I don't expect we'll be seeing this ever.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

In between damage from being driven on, dirt and grime, snow and lack of sunlight in the northern areas of the US, I have to wonder if this system will ever manage to break even. I think it'd be better to incentivize homeowners to install their own solar panels, and try to devise a way to use the heat from asphalt to generate power with a system you could bury beneath the street.

 

[direkiller]

snip

I think you're thinking about this a bit too hard. But hey!

heh once again i get all that , all im saying is every joule amp or whatever you measure raw energy in goes somewhere. and renewable energy gathering methods do alter it.

In this case it's heat energy that radiates off into space at night. And after we used the electricity it will still be heat energy radiating out into space, it just takes a little longer.

On the other hand, it is not like it takes zero energy to construct regular asphalt. So it is not entirely implausible this could work out when comparing to regular roads. More likely in limited areas, though, since silly imaginary money does matter so much to us.

Funny enough asphalt is one of the greener tech's out there

When they repave a road they are required by law to used about 80% recycled material from the road.
Asphalt is also a byproduct of oil. It's not the reason we go looking for it so it will be produced in roughly the same amount it will just be waste. So in terms of construction it's up there with Drywall for near neutral energy impact while still being cheep.

 

[immortalfrieza]

Zip

Ah, no no, I mean like stuff getting all over the panels. They wouldn't let people drive on it if they didn't think it could remain intact. I mean more like all the crap of the world getting all over it and inhibiting the process.

True, but I think it will make up for that with sheer surface area. I mean, think of how much energy would be produced by just a few blocks worth of road solar panels not to mention an entire city or even the entire country if it ever got that far even if a large percentage of it were covered up. Besides, it will just mean they'll have to clean the roads more often while apparently at the same time having to fix it less, and that's definitely a plus in my book.

 

[truckspond]

If they roll this out on every road in major cities then electric cars suddenly become a LOT more viable as a means of transport! This could be the major stepping stone towards a fossil fuel free future

 

[Weaver]

I'm curious how they melt snow. I mean Canadian levels of snow.

If you still had to plow them I guarantee a snowplow would rip the little bumps right off the road. I've seen a snowplow remove a speedbump so I don't think it would have a very hard time.

I'm also curious why we should put all our solar panels on things that have cars blocking the surface area of the road all day and the time they're generally vacant is when it's pitch black out. Yes, I wager there's always some area of the road unobstructed by cars, but I have to wonder if it would be simply more prudent to put a bunch of conventional solar panels on the side of the road raised up that could rotate to face the sun. That way snow will fall off it and we don't have to worry about rigorously constructing it for driving purposes (or putting LEDs in it).

Also, have you been in a city at a time that wasn't noon? Generally skyscrapers block a lot of light.

I'd also like to see how they hold up in a -40 degree Celsius winter.

 

[pokepuke]

Way too many people here that feel the need to comment when they have NO FUCKING CLUE about solar tech. Nor can they imagine how it would function at all because... cars always are on top of reads! Yes, the cars always cover up nearly 100% of the roads! .....my god, the imaginations of these people....

What really sucks is how the R&D budgets for solar advancement is extremely tiny compared to the amount of money wasted on perpetuating oil and gas usage. Once solar cells can capture enough energy, everything will change very quickly. Plus I would bet the disinformation campaigns would start, trying to convince us how solar panels are the devil and oil is way the truth and the life.

 

[Tumedus]

A lot of the doubts raised in this thread are actually covered in their FAQ.

http://solarroadways.com/faq.shtml

They clearly don't have everything figured out and a couple of the answers are a little too handwavey for my taste, but they certainly seem to have considered most of the different issues.

I don't think this project has legs because I think they are shooting too high with the initial offering and that always makes people wary. That and the oil lobby is just way too powerful. That said,if they can convince some commercial business to do up their parking lots with this stuff and its successful, it could gain traction (intended, sorry).

 

[misg]

I think this could be a good idea, although for this I think first working on sidewalks would be a better place to start then main road ways. As you can work on getting rid of the issues that will show up from this. Also I doubt they have thought of this yet, but the damage that comes from the freeze thaw cycle. People always seem to under estimate the power of ice.

 

[Shaidz]

It is an awesome idea but roads are...well dirty, give it a month and them panels wont be able to absorb enough sun to power an LED. Why not make the footpath out of them, sure footpaths get dirty too but would be much easier to maintain/clean i would imagine.

 

[Flutterguy]

Seems like a huge waste of time and resources for unnecessary convenience. Whats new.

 

[Something Amyss]

It is an awesome idea but roads are...well dirty, give it a month and them panels wont be able to absorb enough sun to power an LED. Why not make the footpath out of them, sure footpaths get dirty too but would be much easier to maintain/clean i would imagine.

What makes you think these would be particularly difficult to clean?