CatholicsAreKewl Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/solar-roadways Anyone hear about this? It sounds stupid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ice_nine Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 Lol the other day I was talking to someone about this. We didn't know why they hadn't had heated roads yet. Figured it had to be in the making somewhere. Is the traction better/worse than asphalt though? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatholicsAreKewl Posted June 23, 2014 Author Share Posted June 23, 2014 I have no idea. It's a cool idea but something smells fishy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatherineM Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 Might work better for parking lots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ice_nine Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 Might work better for parking lots. I know heated driveways are a thing now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fides' Jack Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 I read all about this. It's actually a brilliant idea. And from what I understand, the traction is better than you would get with asphalt (http://www.solarroadways.com/faq.shtml#faqTraction). Like so many other projects, this has huge potential but requires serious investor/government financial support. I can't even imagine how much it would cost to convert a major roadway to this technology. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anomaly Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 Very interesting. I've been in roadwork / intelligent highways for decades and can imagine the hurdles they have to overcome. Accommodating rain is a huge issue. High speed roads are semi permeable. Handling large volumes of water in the design is huge, while also maintaining traction..... Protecting the system from lightning, storing the power generated. That is the Achilles heel of large scale solar power production. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blazeingstar Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 That looks like it would be great in flat, hot cities, and not something that would work well in say, Seattle, where it rains alot, or Maine where it's all mountains. We can't even keep asfault nice...I don't see how we'd ever manage to keep solar pannels safe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrossCuT Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 I read an article about this a few months back and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the idea! Might need a little more time to work out some additional kinks but I think its fantastic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatholicsAreKewl Posted June 24, 2014 Author Share Posted June 24, 2014 (edited) Cool! Maybe we can have a discussion on this. Since I get all of my information from youtube videos, I've saved you all the trouble by posting it directly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H901KdXgHs4 If it's too long, just watch the first 10 minutes. Edited June 24, 2014 by CatholicsAreKewl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arfink Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 (edited) I'm pretty sure the tech is perfectly real, but they haven't had the opportunity to test it large-scale. These kinds of applications usually look extremely promising on the electronics test-bench and then have some kind of problem when they're installed. For solar that can include power storage and the fact that they usually require regular cleaning in order to maintain their rated efficiencies, which is hard enough when they aren't installed in a road. That said, you can't learn to overcome that without trying it out and seeing what works and what doesn't. I hope they do it. :) Edited June 24, 2014 by arfink Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrossCuT Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 I hope they get the opportunity to test this large scale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatholicsAreKewl Posted June 25, 2014 Author Share Posted June 25, 2014 (edited) My feeble attempt to throw this into the debate table hasn't worked yet. I'll bring up some unoriginal concerns I have with this project: 1. Covering all of our roads with this stuff will costs trillions and trillions of dollars. 2. Solar panels might work better on the side of roads instead of under them. That way they can move around to match the position of the sun instead of laying flat. 3. If the LEDs are built into the panels, won't it be needlessly costly to replace a few broken bulbs? 4. LEDs can't be seen in sunlight, meaning they'll be only useful as lane dividers at night. 5. You need a bunch of energy to melt snow. They made it seem way too easy in their videos. Edited June 25, 2014 by CatholicsAreKewl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anomaly Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 My feeble attempt to throw this into the debate table hasn't worked yet. I'll bring up some unoriginal concerns I have with this project: 1. Covering all of our roads with this stuff will costs trillions and trillions of dollars. 2. Solar panels might work better on the side of roads instead of under them. That way they can move around to match the position of the sun instead of laying flat. 3. If the LEDs are built into the panels, won't it be needlessly costly to replace a few broken bulbs? 4. LEDs can't be seen in sunlight, meaning they'll be only useful as lane dividers at night. 5. You need a bunch of energy to melt snow. They made it seem way too easy in their videos. 1 It's awful expensive to build roads anyway, the bulk of the cost is the drainage and roadbed structure. Benifits of power production could easily outweigh the cost of the panels themselves. 2 solar panels are still productive, though not optimally in a flat orientation. Most panels are fixed orientation because cost to mobilize isn't offset by inreased power generation. 3 current LEDs have incredible life, I wouldn't think it is a big issue 4 current LEDs are day visible. Most traffic signals are LeD and you see them every day. 5 I have no concept of melting snow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatholicsAreKewl Posted June 25, 2014 Author Share Posted June 25, 2014 1 It's awful expensive to build roads anyway, the bulk of the cost is the drainage and roadbed structure. Benifits of power production could easily outweigh the cost of the panels themselves. 2 solar panels are still productive, though not optimally in a flat orientation. Most panels are fixed orientation because cost to mobilize isn't offset by inreased power generation. 3 current LEDs have incredible life, I wouldn't think it is a big issue 4 current LEDs are day visible. Most traffic signals are LeD and you see them every day. 5 I have no concept of melting snow. 1. Asphalt still seems much cheaper than the materials used in solar roadways. I think we could get more benefits by putting the solar panels on our houses instead. 2. But are we sure that the cost of using solar roadways to power the country will be offset by increased power generation? It's a good idea but do we actually know how much power we'll be getting out of this? 3. Good point. It all would depend on how study the roads are and whether the LEDs could get damaged in some way. 4. Yes, but we see them because they have a cover over them. The traffic lights without those covers are very hard to see. Paint seems like a better option imo. 5. You've never tried it? It's loads of fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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