Solar roadways



its neat to see something on facebook, and then on Wickedfire a few hours later.
 
Looks pretty cool but i don't think it's very practical. But, i guess where a paved road just costs money the solar roadway could maybe pay for itself over time.
 
Fucking stupid.

I would hate for roads to be replaced by this techy crap as I don't want to live in a world that looks like Tron.
 
microphone head said:
its neat to see it in the local paper and be pissed off when the city is talking about doing the entire City Beach parking area (spending millions of taxpayer dollars) to not seeing something on reddit, then facebook a few days later, and then on Wickedfire a week after that.
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FTFY


Props on em going viral tho, this shit is fucking everywhere now. Good marketing.
 
BigWill said:
Solar freaking roof's is a lot more practical...
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Exactly. The Japanese are all over that shit. Use what you need, sell the rest back to the grid.

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It's a great idea if only they could figure out how to stop the theft of it. As it is I think they'll try to beg the government to pass laws that say it's illegal for the private sector to own these... So I'd be against them in that case.

If they could be anchored down extremely well somehow, perhaps with a mechanism that destroys their value if just ripped up with a crowbar... Maybe then they could be useful.
 
LOL.

We've done such a great job of maintaining our regular asphalt roads that now we feel like we'll be able to handle this?

Cool concept, regardless. Private sector will nail it in a subdivison long before any municipality gets close to doing anything, I bet.
 
Cool idea but "let's start a Kickstarter project to TURN ALL ROADS IN THE US INTO TRON" sounds funny to me
 
IceToEskimos said:
LOL.

We've done such a great job of maintaining our regular asphalt roads that now we feel like we'll be able to handle this?
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In fairness this would be much easier to maintain after the initial shit ton of work to get it going in the first place. You could even have them self report faults or degradation.
 
CitizenSmif said:
In fairness this would be much easier to maintain after the initial shit ton of work to get it going in the first place. You could even have them self report faults or degradation.
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We've done a very shitty job of maintaining the roads we do have, which basically consist of flat surfaces. I'm unconvinced that adding wires and electrical current to the mix is going to simplify things, regardless of the self-reporting possibilities.
 
Won't this be idea be killed (and maybe the inventor too) by the mutli-national oil megacorps, just like they killed the GM EV1? Asphalt is a petroleum product after all.

Seriously though, assuming this technology can even work and be maintained on a large scale, I don't think the economics ever will. Governments aren't going to rip-up enough existing pavement and replace it with this to bring the price down far enough to make it a financially viable alternative to asphalt.

I can see this maybe going on people's driveways instead of interlock, but that's just about the extent of it.
 
lukep said:
It's a great idea if only they could figure out how to stop the theft of it.
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Theft is only one problem with these things. I'll make a short list of why this will never work.

1. Theft.
-People would tear the copper out of these for scrap if nothing else.

2. Foundation.
-You need to build a deep foundation for these or they will start to move apart and open up. That means digging down below the frost line which is about 3ft. where I live.

3. Lifespan.
-Solar panels degrade over time. Estimated lifespans are 10-20 years on most commercial grade solar panels. With people driving on these, the lifespan would be much shorter.

4. Efficiency.
-Being flat on the ground they're going to collect dust, dirt, oil and road grime that will turn these as black as CEO Sam's ass in no time.

5. Cost.
-Too damn high.

So many stupid people supporting this, I can't believe they've raised over a million already. Meanwhile there's a kickstarter for a fusion project that is barely getting any attention:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/focus-fusion-empowertheworld--3

At the very best solar power is just a transitional power source until we figure out something better like fusion.

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_poto_ said:
Theft is only one problem with these things. I'll make a short list of why this will never work.

1. Theft.
-People would tear the copper out of these for scrap if nothing else.

2. Foundation.
-You need to build a deep foundation for these or they will start to move apart and open up. That means digging down below the frost line which is about 3ft. where I live.

3. Lifespan.
-Solar panels degrade over time. Estimated lifespans are 10-20 years on most commercial grade solar panels. With people driving on these, the lifespan would be much shorter.

4. Efficiency.
-Being flat on the ground they're going to collect dust, dirt, oil and road grime that will turn these as black as CEO Sam's ass in no time.

5. Cost.
-Too damn high.

So many stupid people supporting this, I can't believe they've raised over a million already. Meanwhile there's a kickstarter for a fusion project that is barely getting any attention:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/focus-fusion-empowertheworld--3

At the very best solar power is just a transitional power source until we figure out something better like fusion.
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Good list, agreed on all points.

I don't want power to stay centralized however; Fusion would certainly seem to be something you can't keep at your house. Personally I'm hoping we find ways to turn waste into energy efficiently, but it looks like improvements in solar efficiency is what's going to get us to a truly decentralized power system first.
 
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