Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumArticle: Solar roads are more practical than they sound
I'm still skeptical myself, and didn't contribute to their Indiegogo campaign, but I have to admit their FAQ does cover all the bases, and it's just possible they might have something here:
Solar roads are more practical than they sound
...
But the really strange thing about a lot of this rampant criticism is that Solar Roadways aren't really dependent on unproven technology, the way the Wright brothers' attempts at powered flight were. It's not like Scott and Julie Brusaw have claimed they can invent human teleportation. Tempered glass technology already exists, and many large companies beside Solar Roadways are already spending lots of money researching even stronger glass technologies, like Sapphire Glass. The solar cells also already exist, and are rapidly decreasing in cost and increasing in efficiency. Advanced and highly efficient battery technologies for energy storage are emerging.
So this isn't some wild utopian fantasy founded on untested or undeveloped technology. This is a bringing together of existing technologies. Ambitious, yes, but the Brusaws' small protoype built as part of a contract with the Federal Highways Agency is already generating electricity. Their pictures show a tractor being driven over it, and load testing at civil engineering labs showed that the panels can handle more than 250,000 lbs, over three times the legal limit (80,000 lbs) for a semi-truck. Tests have shown their textured glass can stop a car going 80-mph on a wet surface. In that sense, their invention is already a success.
In our conversation, Scott Brusaw came across as a realist, not as someone who thinks the road (pun intended) will be easy. He tells me he expects there will be "issues to iron out" along the way. He expresses a sincere gratitude to everyone who donated to the campaign, telling me how excited it was to have "donations from all 50 states", and is quick to add that "the next phase is to hire engineers" to advance the project further. He knows that there's a heck of a lot more work and refining to be done such as durability and safety testing, and, perhaps more importantly, developing manufacturing techniques to lower costs and increase efficiencies.
Good article that makes the case to give them a chance and see how this develops.
brush
(53,764 posts)Since asphalt is cheaper, much cheaper, why not make solar panels a priority for roofs new and already existing, and the millions of square miles of open land, especially in the west?
Roads just don't seem to be the ideal place to do this especially in cold climates with the salting and sanding and plowing that has to be done in the winter.
Benton D Struckcheon
(2,347 posts)Their answer to the north is heated roadways. I'm not convinced either, but the two of them seem to have sat and thought a long time re all the practical stuff they have to get past. Their also realistic about the fact they'll have to revise even more as they go along. As inventions go, not the craziest idea in the world.
brush
(53,764 posts)Last edited Tue Jun 3, 2014, 08:01 AM - Edit history (1)
heated (thereby no icing or snow plowing) and there is enough left over energy for the power grid to make it worth it that would be good on new roads I guess.
I did read the FAQ and on one question was about the direct current generated by the panels, they go into how most household appliances actually run on DC but have a small converter inside of them, as will their system a much larger one of course but the converter cause a loss of energy. They then go on to suggest that eventually everything could be switched over to direct current avoid the energy loss of conversion.
I don't know about that. Tesla solved the problem of Edison's direct current approach (very dangerous, shocks, electrocutions, et al) decades ago by coming up with alternating current. I don't think it would be a good idea to go back to DC.
I didn't get from the post that one of the reasons for the roads being targeted was to heat them in colder climates to prevent icing and snow build-up. The FAQ page explains that. That's worth looking into, but in warm climates there are millions of acres of unused land that just waiting for solar panels. I live in Nevada and we have so many sunny days that just beg for solar panels to harvest the wasted energy that just pours from the sun and goes into the ground unused. Wish they've branch out and come this way and they wouldn't have to re-invent the solar energy wheel around roads just set those panels up in the acres of desert and get the energy flowing, and without those pesky cars taking up space that could be generating energy.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Believe me, asphalt isn't cheap. Properly laid asphalt is even less cheap.
It is better to do it right, than to waste money on inadequate and unsatisfactory "cheap" solutions.
I am hoping that when the next resurfacing comes around, we can go solar. It would have to be a commercially available, warrantied product...not a test site.
If we could eliminate our plowing, salting, and the cost of streetlighting, it would truly be an innovation worth pursuing.
Benton D Struckcheon
(2,347 posts)If this does make it commercially, first thing I'm doing is getting the sidewalk in front of my house replaced with it. At minimum, that eliminates having to do the entrance to the driveway (always the worst) and the sidewalks themselves. The electricity it produces would almost be a side benefit.
OnlinePoker
(5,719 posts)From the FAQ:
"There is a very common natural element called titanium dioxide, which turns substances like oil and grease into a powder that would be blown off by wind or washed away by rain. It's currently used on building facades to keep them clean. Spraying a road surface with titanium dioxide or a similar coating may solve the problem."
Only problem is titanium dioxide (a molecule, not an element) is classified as possibly carcinogenic to humans, not something that should be sprayed throughout the urban environment.
http://www.ccohs.ca/headlines/text186.html