One of the best ideas ever (solar roads)

[n3vrmind]

Incredibly bad idea, i can just see them lasting with the amount of road traffic that passes over the M6 every day

 

[Disco Boy]

It's not so much the cost but the lack of materials I'm thinking of.

There's a big scarcity of mirrors and water nowadays is there?

 

[thedoc46]

umm how are these gonna work when there's NO SUN in England ?

 

[Narj]

umm how are these gonna work when there's NO SUN in England ?

Really? Could you explain to be what that big yellow thing in the sky is, then?

 

[Tefal]

There's a big scarcity of mirrors and water nowadays is there?

AS these are photovoltaic cells you need substantially more than that.

Unless you're planing to turn all the roads into a giant mirror, which may have some safety aspects.

 

[Dmack]

Excellent mental image

Traffic jam occurs, road vanishes

haha

 

[Angilion]

Nope solar power isn't ever going to be major here (aside from minor water heating for homes).

If we have to use renewable tide/wave power is our best bet.

I agree, though I think wind power is also promising if it's done far enough up. Windmills don't really cut it, but there are interesting proof of concept devices using kites. Only little ones generating kilowatts, but it does prove that the concept is sound.

 

[Tefal]

I agree, though I think wind power is also promising if it's done far enough up. Windmills don't really cut it, but there are interesting proof of concept devices using kites. Only little ones generating kilowatts, but it does prove that the concept is sound.

would it be safe though?


Cabled going that high could be quite a risk.

ignoring say a plane etc hitting them can you image the kite breaking and the whole thing falling down?

 

[Angilion]

[..]
That seems to state, added to the other numbers, that the plant in Seville took some 4-5 years to build, and another 2 years to get online, at a decent expense, to power 6k homes, and another much bigger plant is being built, to add 20MW, which will take I believe another several years to complete.
[..]

It's already complete. It went online over a year ago. They are apparently on target for the full 300MW station by the end of 2013.

It's not brilliant or cutting edge. The latest small-scale facility in the Mojave cost less than a third as much as the 10MW Seville tower alone, generates 64MW and took a year from empty desert to going online. Generating costs are ~11 cents/KWh, which is not dreadfully high. The 500MW station should be done next year.

Solar power does work in certain places. Only deserts really, because you need a lot of sun and a lot of space.

 

[Angilion]

Lol to the person who said do it in the middle east.

All well and good till some bunch of morons comes n blows up our solar facilities n criples our country rofl.

I wasn't saying do it in the middle east. I was making a point - we are already dependent on other areas for energy requirements and it's far from being the most stable area in the world. So switching from the middle east to north Africa isn't necessarily a bad idea. Or not any worse than what we're already doing, anyway.

 

[Angilion]

I agree, wind is a joke really. Spoils the countryside too. IIRC further investigations into tidal power were canned because of cost. I think that's extremely short sighted, personally. Unless someone nicks the moon, it's got to be the most renewable source there is!

The investigations into tidal power were allegedy canned because of lobbying from nuclear. The cost figures stated were, according to the people who actually sent the data to the government, 10 times the actual cost figures.

 

[Tefal]

I wasn't saying do it in the middle east. I was making a point - we are already dependent on other areas for energy requirements and it's far from being the most stable area in the world. So switching from the middle east to north Africa isn't necessarily a bad idea. Or not any worse than what we're already doing, anyway.

but we're not totally dependant on the middle east there's Russia America, south America the north sea, and many many other places.


plus there s a big lag between say a government cutting off oil supply and us running out (enough time to rectify the situation normally), but if they just turned off 90% of our electrical power, well then we're *****ed.

 

[Angilion]

Wind farms are even mroe flawed, would require a huge area of the country to converted solely to their use and even then you have to keep gas power stations running for when the wind drops (unless you want to cover 2/3's of the countries land mass in them to produce a half decent base load)

That's true of windmills, but not of kites.

It's not as daft as it sounds. There is proof of concept - Laddermill, in the Netherlands. It's far from being usable, but the idea is sound and it's far better than windmills (which are rubbish in so many ways).

 

[Angilion]

would it be safe though?


Cabled going that high could be quite a risk.

ignoring say a plane etc hitting them can you image the kite breaking and the whole thing falling down?

That is a problem. You could make no-fly zones that would solve the collision problem, but a broken kite is just going to come down...somewhere. A broken cable could well be worse - thousands of feet of cable falling to earth with some of it at terminal velocity would be seriously destructive.

 

[Tefal]

That's true of windmills, but not of kites.

It's not as daft as it sounds. There is proof of concept - Laddermill, in the Netherlands. It's far from being usable, but the idea is sound and it's far better than windmills (which are rubbish in so many ways).

but kites have other problems don't they?

iirc the useful ones have to reach the jet stream or at least very high up, what if something hits them/ they break that amount of cable + kite falling from that high will do some damage.

That is a problem. You could make no-fly zones that would solve the collision problem,

Wouldn't really though would it?

Accidents happen if navigational restrictions always worked you wouldn't need beacons on any tall building etc.

Also i wonder how it would affect radar (like the windmills)

 

[Angilion]

but we're not totally dependant on the middle east there's Russia America, south America the north sea, and many many other places.


plus there s a big lag between say a government cutting off oil supply and us running out (enough time to rectify the situation normally), but if they just turned off 90% of our electrical power, well then we're *****ed.

You could spread it across different countries to reduce the risk, but good point about the timescale. I hadn't thought about that.

 

[bloodline76]

The biggest flaw I see is.....curved roads; the sections come in squares.

If only they had some kind of cutting device that could cut glass in curves

 

[knowledge123]

If only they had some kind of cutting device that could cut glass in curves

Ah ha, let me expand; the glass would have to be custom cut, shaped and bent to fit the road it is going on, as there are some very unique roads out there, even on major though-routes. If customisation for a tile increases, so would ££££.

 

[Tefal]

Ah ha, let me expand; the glass would have to be custom cut, shaped and bent to fit the road it is going on, as there are some very unique roads out there, even on major though-routes. If customisation for a tile increases, so would ££££.

Or just made in a variety of wedge like segments which could be assembled to different situations.

Or just use them on the straights and use tarmac on the bends

although this really is the least of it's problems

 

[UFX]