Road Power Grid that does stuff

[LOST TALE]

-Can sustain 250 000 pounds

-Can heat snow and Ice out

-Generates solar energy

 

They claim needing 1M to enter mass production

 

This thing lacks information. I aint searching more, but if someone finds out more, il update this post.

 

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/solar-roadways#home

 

"A small US-based company called Solar Roadways are developing a solar road surface that, if installed nationwide, has the potential to produce more renewable energy than the entire country uses. In fact, they’ve actually already developed a working prototype that’s been installed in a parking lot, and they’re now crowdsourcing funds in order to tweak the design and move towards production.

Solar Roadways, which was started by Scott and Julie Brusaw in 2006, designed and developed hexagonal glass solar panels studded with LED lights that could be installed on a variety of surfaces such as roads, pavements and playgrounds. These panels would more than pay for themselves and would benefit both businesses and homeowners as the energy generated from driveways and parking lots could be used to power buildings, and any excess can be sold back to the grid.

The panels also contain heating elements to melt ice and snow so are ideal in winter conditions, and LEDs to make road lines and signs which have been previously shown to reduce night time accidents. The surface could also be used to charge electric vehicles as oppose to fossil fuels, and future technology could even allow for charging whilst driving via mutual induction panels. Amazingly, the team also found that car headlights can produce energy in the panels, so cars driving around at night would be producing some electricity."

Read more at: http://www.iflscience.com/technology/solar-roads-could-power-entire-country

Indiegogo: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/solar-roadways#home

 

Seriously, why are we not all funding this? Or better yet, Obama, WHY ARE YOU NOT FUNDING THIS

 

Edited May 22, 2014 by WoodenMarker
merged duplicate threads

[Imabigmac]

My problem  with this idea is that it will have to heaters to melt snow off the road in order to produce any energy, my logic would suggest any amount of energy gained in that scenario would be lost to the heaters. So it doesn't work in Northern climates, not to mention what happens when  of these things breaks you have shutdown at least a lane of road to repair it. 

[Jaybird]

cost/output/lifespan. no since in the population's taxes going to something that you will never recoup cost from because the lifespan is too short. the idea is there but this age is not ready for it. 

[ShiverMePenguins]

My problem  with this idea is that it will have to heaters to melt snow off the road in order to produce any energy, my logic would suggest any amount of energy gained in that scenario would be lost to the heaters. So it doesn't work in Northern climates, not to mention what happens when  of these things breaks you have shutdown at least a lane of road to repair it. 

individual panels about 5x5 i believe. and it is only a matter of time till there is other tech that increases the life span, even though each individual panel will recoup its own cost after 9 years and the life span is around 15...

[Imabigmac]

individual panels about 5x5 i believe. and it is only a matter of time till there is other tech that increases the life span, even though each individual panel will recoup its own cost after 9 years and the life span is around 15...

then this tech is not ready yet. Maybe as small pilot project in a southern Cal city, but funded partly by local gov and the creators. 

 

Then there is the question why bother using attaching solar panels to roads? why not roofs of homes? or large plots of deserts? You would partially eliminate the need to be made super high strength plastic/glass and not cause road delays when something fails. The other problem is the government owns the roads and a private company now wants to build on the road and profit from it  and I'm sure the creators end goal is to have the government pay them to make solar roads, when the government is not a utility company selling electricity. The government either has to give up the road land or sign an agreement giving solar roads rights to the surface of the road. Making solar roads responsible for the maintenance of roads which would normally be done by government employees. Now Solar roads has control over roads and maintenance and the cost associated with it, these aren't going to be maintenance free, so some how they will have to find the money to maintain the roads keep the cost of electricity down and build new roads. I would also like to see what these look like after thousands of cars and semi trucks have driven over them combined with rain, and cold weather which is miserable combo for asphalt roads now. This is really only relevant if they want to become a utility and not a just sell the idea and have governments run the show and pay for the road. Even then the government would have to sell electricity to customers or a another power company which would be interesting. 

 

it still seems to me like a lot work and consultation  to be done before this goes anywhere. It would be nice to see an agreement between Solar roads and a small city, to prove that it can be not not just a concept but penned agreement and willingness committing two parties to make it work. 

 

Not trying to start to argument with you, just expressing more points of concern. 

[Fred Castellum]

Some one already posted this a while back. They still need to iron out some of the problems before this is viable.

[Mooshi]

 

Or better yet, Obama, WHY ARE YOU NOT FUNDING THIS

 

Because Obama is a stooge that bows down to kiss corporate ass like the rest of the filth in office.

 

I can see lobbyist trying their hardest to shut this idea down because it'd eat into profits instead of doing something positive for the nation for once. I mean, we're backing idiotic ideas that DON'T work like fuel from corn...which burns more energy to make than it produces.

[Henry]

Some one already posted this a while back. They still need to iron out some of the problems before this is viable.

Thats why they need funding to iron out the problems. If the project was government backed, it will be ironed out pretty quick

[Fred Castellum]

Thats why they need funding to iron out the problems. If the project was government backed, it will be ironed out pretty quick

Cough.. government backed sounds disasterous too me. Politicians don't handle businesses well...

[Henry]

Cough.. government backed sounds disasterous too me. Politicians don't handle businesses well...

W.e, this is cool and I want a solar road. Would be smexy as hell to have wireless charging to charge an electric car.

[Osmium]

W.e, this is cool and I want a solar road. Would be smexy as hell to have wireless charging to charge an electric car.

 

Until 5 years down the line a panel cracks and the interstate is closed for weeks.

 

Roads have to withstand immense weight and wear and I don't see the merit in putting absurdly expensive solar technology in it especially since solar tech is still in it's infancy in terms of efficiency. Every year a higher efficiency panel comes out and it renders the old obsolete.

[CJPowell27]

This is cool, but the public is being held down by oil corporations

[wpirobotbuilder]

I don't see the merit in putting absurdly expensive solar technology in it especially since solar tech is still in it's infancy in terms of efficiency. Every year a higher efficiency panel comes out and it renders the old obsolete.

The same can be said of PC's; every year they get a little bit faster and the old ones slowly become undesirable.

 

That problem can be solved by making road tiles which are modular, and can be quickly removed and replaced with a higher-efficiency one.

 

You are right that the weight of vehicles on the road is a problem, probably much more pressing than the cost issue.

[Tranquility]

Until 5 years down the line a panel cracks and the interstate is closed for weeks.

 

Roads have to withstand immense weight and wear and I don't see the merit in putting absurdly expensive solar technology in it especially since solar tech is still in it's infancy in terms of efficiency. Every year a higher efficiency panel comes out and it renders the old obsolete.

This isn't meant to be a short term fix. I see this being rolled out over decades, not just putting everything out in 5 years.

 

On the topic of owners of the road; Just let the government pay for everything and then become an electricity wholesaler. Then the government can just sell to the energy companies, or the energy companies can have a lease to certain roads.

 

I agree with botbuilder on the fact that making it modular would solver the issues of panels breaking. I believe that it already is modular in the hex grids that they have.

 

Also in terms of the efficiency argument, the simple thing to do is to make future iterations backwards compatible so that when one breaks or reaches the end of it's lifespan, you replace it with a newer model, eventually everything will get up to scratch albeit slowly and progressively.

[kyleslazyboy]

Solar panels that you can drive, park, and walk on. They melt snow and... cut greenhouse gases by 75-percent

 

If it was even possible where would the money come from ?

 

 

 

let me know what you think

 

 

http://9gag.tv/p/a5g1r4/solar-freakin-roadways?ref=fbl9

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/solar-roadways

 

[Jogostar]

well Switzerland has 3.1 billion left, because we didn't buy the Gripen. (a new jet.)

[techswede]

I wonder how functional they would be after 6 months...

[SirRoderick]

This seems like a great idea that is prohibatively expensive at the moment.

[Leonard]

Solar panels that you can drive, park, and walk on. They melt snow and... cut greenhouse gases by 75-percent

 

If it was even possible where would the money come from ?

 

 

 

let me know what you think

 

 

http://9gag.tv/p/a5g1r4/solar-freakin-roadways?ref=fbl9

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/solar-roadways

I can't see this as being impossible especially in the modern times we live in, as to where we will get the money from, all the low life stink nasty people around the world who have cash houses from their illegal activities, we will take that and use it to build the roads.

[xox]

I'm thinking

 

• wasted energy
• how is the solar cell going to get energy when there's snow on top
• too expensive - and fix current roads first

[TooManyErrors]

 

I'm thinking

 

• wasted energy
• how is the solar cell going to get energy when there's snow on top
• too expensive - and fix current roads first

 

Well to solve the snow issue, just put a battery and heater in it and you should be good.

[tobben]

 

I'm thinking

 

• wasted energy
• how is the solar cell going to get energy when there's snow on top
• too expensive - and fix current roads first

 

i don't understand the logic behind your first point, your second point goes back to the first one.. it gathers energy BEFORE it's covered in snow to prevent it from being covered with snow in the first place, why would they fix the current roads first if they are going to be replaced? now THAT'S a waste of energy, technology like this would be revolutionary, it would change everything and just generally create a more efficient clean modern society.

 

that being said, holy balls it would be expensive, but eventually it would pay itself off that is unless it would require insane maintenance which is what i am really curious about, keeping it clean etc, how long the expected lifetime of a average panel will be, to what extent will the energy return based on expected life time be greater than the energy required to manufacture and install.

 

this project is incredibly ambitious, and in the real world ambitious means it probably aint happening.

[xox]

i don't understand the logic behind your first point, your second point goes back to the first one.. it gathers energy BEFORE it's covered in snow to prevent it from being covered with snow in the first place, why would they fix the current roads first if they are going to be replaced? now THAT'S a waste of energy, technology like this would be revolutionary, it would change everything and just generally create a more efficient clean modern society.

Well to solve the snow issue, just put a battery and heater in it and you should be good.

 

Running cables to the solar cells to get the electricity for the grid would just be inefficient, and highly impractical. Solar farms are a better use of money than this.

 

If you're thinking of Lithium batteries to store energy, they either run down really fast in the cold or are astronomically expensive. All other batteries will be an environmental disaster waiting to happen as they contain toxic substances. So how is energy going to be gathered?

 

If you are heating air or snow that no-one is needing to be heated, that constitutes a massive waste of energy, it's like having a patio heater on when nobody is there.

 

Repairing roads is the best thing to do at the moment, here in the UK, we have loads of potholes and they are just annoying, they need to be repaired. Not new ones installed that will probably have even more problems down the road (pun intended). Plus, resurfacing damaged roads only uses a fraction of the energy than replacing them does.

 

Besides, if we make new solar panels, the amount of carbon dioxide etc produced will just add to the problems that this world faces today. Solar panels take too much energy to create and once created, need to be shipped. It's not at all practical.

 

I also think the point on "Reducing 75% of CO₂ emissions" is utter crap, it won't do that, building things like Wind Farms and Solar fields will cut Carbon emissions. Not paving the road with solar panels (which is absurd).

 

I think that a much more pressing issue is to put sanctions on China and India to cut the amount of coal they are burning, as that produces things like Monoxide Radicals (such as NO) which destroy the ozone layer. They should instead use nuclear, which is clean and makes fewer problems for the next generation. Also, we should work towards a worldwide ban on civilian use of CFCs as they are simply the bane of humanity.

[Josh55]

Hey guys, I just saw this AMAZING video and it seems like this thing would be the solution for most of our problems!

 

 

 

"Years ago, when the phrase "Global Warming" began gaining popularity, we started batting around the idea of replacing asphalt and concrete surfaces with solar panels that could be driven upon. We thought of the "black box" on airplanes: We didn't know what material that black box was made of, but it seemed to be able to protect sensitive electronics from the worst of airline crashes.

Suppose we made a section of road out of this material and housed solar cells to collect energy, which could pay for the cost of the panel, thereby creating a road that would pay for itself over time. What if we added LEDs to "paint" the road lines from beneath, lighting up the road for safer night time driving? What if we added a heating element in the surface (like the defrosting wire in the rear window of our cars) to prevent snow/ice accumulation in northern climates? The ideas and possibilities just continued to roll in and the Solar Roadway project was born."

 

 

So what do you guys think?

[theelitegamer]

Seen it already, it's very nice and I think it'll be helpfully for new drivers and older drivers, it's nice and bright and you can't make an excuse you didn't see that or this.. it's nice, but will cost ALOT to plant in.