Solar Freakin Roadways

Well the math isn't hard to do, so it is easy to verify your self. I just think its a silly idea and the money and time would be better spent in other ways like putting solar panels on the roofs of buildings where they have far higher efficiency. Having the road as a solar panel is silly, roads are flat, when the sun is out the road is covered in traffic, roads get dirty, vehicles especially HGVs have a hard enough time getting traction on asphalt never mind glass/plastic and the cost of making a road out of solar panels will be way more than paving it with asphalt.

Saying he hasn't got a lot, he has 6 months of real world data from a solar road, that's not a bad sample considering it correlated with his previous idea of what the numbers would be.

We need real projects that will work if we are going to produce cleaner energy, saying you will make the roads out of solar panels is just going to end in disaster and disappointment.
 
rofl, there isn't just one type of solar road, it very much depends on cost, efficiency of pv etc.

so no he hasn't got a point, other than one type of solar pv in early prototype. that is a far cry from saying all road solar pv is rubbish. so no he doesn't have a lot, he has next to nothing.

also generation per square meter is next to pointless. because generation per square meter on something like a road network is meaningless, as road net works cover so much area. its not like a domestic house with a limited surface area. what matters of road solar, is installation cost, cost per kwh and repair/life expectancy.

and again rofl, they've passed all traction, noise and grip tests. and no, other than grid lock, cars block very little light on roads as there are far more roads than cars driving/ there is however some roads you might not make solar as they are peremenant congestion zones.

Going to end in disaster, by someone who cant seem to understand the basics, like saying lorrys have hard enough time getting grip. I'm sure france has done the calculations and when they install it we will have real world figures, by the way those 6months aren't real real world figures its a controlled trial.
 
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I never said all solar pv is rubbish i said solar roads are rubbish and the whole idea of solar roads is totally ridiculous.
 
OliP said:
I never said all solar pv is rubbish i said solar roads are rubbish and the whole idea of solar roads is totally ridiculous.
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which is my point and also what I meant, you can not say all solar road pv is rubbish as you claim, his video does not support that at al.

The end of yeah was 9800kwh for th 70m trial which at the cost was stupid. However it should have cost 25k and at that price is basically the same as roof pv.
 
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The idea behind this is perfectly sound, the only issue really is production cost, and the cost of connection to the grid + storing energy.

Does anyone have a non-youtube source for any of this?
 
You won't find such figures. Other than connection as that'll be similar to any other land based green energy of similar mw.
Storage isn't a cost factor at the moment as they aren't doing it.
And cost is hard to say. As it's a trial it's not in mass production and isn't made to be effecient. For example france has decided to lay these 1000km by hand. Which will vastly increase the cost. If it works and they rolled it out, you would design a machine to lay the.


Best you can do is look at what France expects it to cost and generate. That'll be closest you can realistically get. Once it's been running for a year or two figures will be much more pinnable.

This is the system france is using. http://www.wattwaybycolas.com/en/ 7mm thick,none of the smart led lighting and other costs, simply glued in top of existing roads. And is estimated to provide electrical needs for 5million people. Which is a fair bit considering how many thousands of miles of roads that could be paved. And designed to last 10 years on main routes and upto 20 on side roads. Cant find anything about cost, other than an increase in fossil fuel tax tp raise 200-420million € to pay for it.
 
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pitchfork said:
Pretty much this, energy companies don't give a **** about clean energy. They'd burn whale oil if it was most profitable to do so and they'll use their vast power and resources to lobby against anything which threatens their energy production.
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This is kind of true, look at how little money is being put into trying to discover nuclear fusion.

Fusion would basically = end of all energy problems, FOREVER. You'd think every govt in world would throw as much as they could spare at it.

But nope... lets keep burning fossil fuels, great idea!
 
CREATIVE!11 said:
This is kind of true, look at how little money is being put into trying to discover nuclear fusion.

Fusion would basically = end of all energy problems, FOREVER. You'd think every govt in world would throw as much as they could spare at it.

But nope... lets keep burning fossil fuels, great idea!
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You can't make a profit from what is essentially unlimited energgy.
 
CREATIVE!11 said:
This is kind of true, look at how little money is being put into trying to discover nuclear fusion.

Fusion would basically = end of all energy problems, FOREVER. You'd think every govt in world would throw as much as they could spare at it.

But nope... lets keep burning fossil fuels, great idea!
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Except loads of money is being spent and spending more money won't make the research happen much faster. These complex facilities take decades to build.

Liquidfox said:
You can't make a profit from what is essentially unlimited energgy.
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Off course you can, as the equipment to make it costs billions and isn't unlimited in the sense of what a fusion power plant can produce.
 
MadMossy said:
Brilliant idea, makes me wonder why no one has thought of it before.
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People quite likely have thought of it before, it may not have been feasible to implement - it is still to be seen how feasible this iteration of the idea will be.

But the general idea in principle seems like a nice one.

arknor said:
Energy companies won't let it happen
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Energy companies don't build roads and it isn't like they've stopped wind farms or other solar. In fact they've tended to invest in green energy recently and could easily partner up or try to get rights for something like this. The reason you're likely not seeing anything like this is that no one has come up with a feasible solution (yet). Not some CT nonsense about 'the energy companies'.

arknor said:
Maybe stop subsidizing green energy and other crap that only really benefits the energy companies and use the money to slowly convert city centres
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this literally is green energy
 
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OliP said:
I just thought i would resurrect this thread, great news they have installed a solar roadway in america.

https://youtu.be/GtkbioiQHmA
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The basic concept is nice. There is a lot of paving around the world and that itself has been shown to contribute to global warming slight and is a major contributor of urban heat islands.

the problem is cost is just never going to work out in favor or this. The reason pot-holes exist is purely down to costs. Its too expensive sending people around to fix pot holes, or as a poster above said, changing a blown lightbuilb.

Under no realistic scenario is the cost ever going to work out. There is already been a lot of research in materials sciences and the like to designed better asphalt that lasts longer, reduces braking distance, increases efficiency etc. but increasing the asphalt cost by 20-30% is just not even feasible so these new road surfaces still rare;y see the light of day. Glass tiles ill never, ever be that chap to create, let alone install.




It is shame because PV technology is well proven to be cost effective energy solution when used in solar farms. The state of the art allows solar energy product at lower costs than nuclear or clean coal/oil/gas. Only hydro, wind and geothermal can be cheaper.

Solar arrays on the roofs of buildings is what is required.
 
But asphalt doesn't generate money, other than toll roads. Solar does, so it depends if it is her hits a point where it pays for the cost or makes a profit.
 
Thunderf00t has posted a few videos about this, one recently titled First AMAZING Solar Roadway UNVEILED! and people are still buying into this...
 
arknor said:
It's an investment which pays for itself by providing energy ?
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Dude, people can barely afford a sandwich from warrens right now, and you're asking them to crowdfund vapourware?

Great idea in principle, but I have so many questions about "solar freakin roadways" it's unreal. And the most obnoxious, condescending youtube presentation I've seen all week doesn't help me want to say bugger off any less either.

G J said:
Thunderf00t has posted a few videos about this, one recently titled First AMAZING Solar Roadway UNVEILED! and people are still buying into this...
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The problem there being that Thunderf00t is a treenecked buffoon.
 
pitchfork said:
Pretty much this, energy companies don't give a **** about clean energy. They'd burn whale oil if it was most profitable to do so and they'll use their vast power and resources to lobby against anything which threatens their energy production.
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There are two things that will basically lead to us not reacting in time to prevent catastrophe at this point:

1-vested interests who hold all the power
2-apathy from everybody else

Either way, we are headed for some kind of catastrophic event with possible mass human die-back, as we rapidly bleed the planet dry.

There are lots of token initiatives and loads of people paying lip-service to "eco" matters. And all of it barely amounts to scratching the surface.

We don't live sustainably, and we aren't going to in my lifetime. I don't think anything can be done realistically, because 99% of the population just don't care enough to make *real* changes to their lifestyles. Lip-service, yes, token gestures, yes. Anything more... no thanks.
 
FoxEye said:
There are two things that will basically lead to us not reacting in time to prevent catastrophe at this point:

1-vested interests who hold all the power
2-apathy from everybody else

Either way, we are headed for some kind of catastrophic event with possible mass human die-back, as we rapidly bleed the planet dry.

There are lots of token initiatives and loads of people paying lip-service to "eco" matters. And all of it barely amounts to scratching the surface.

We don't live sustainably, and we aren't going to in my lifetime. I don't think anything can be done realistically, because 99% of the population just don't care enough to make *real* changes to their lifestyles. Lip-service, yes, token gestures, yes. Anything more... no thanks.
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Enlightened self interest will always be the great motivator of humanity.
 
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