World’s first solar road opens in France and its costs €5 million a kilometer!

[The Sloth]

47 minutes ago, Abyss Gaming said:

Well that's why I said too early, I think they will be refined in time to the point where they are very effective. But it'll take a lot of time.

its a scam, looking at a engineering perspective its impossible to get what they are promising its just a huge flop.  

[DarkBlade2117]

So uh, why not just put solar panels on street lamps to power those (I think most in my town actually are solar powered) and put solar panels on roofs. For high efficiency the house gets priority of the solar panels on their roof and whatever they don't use can either go to a battery in their house or is sent to the closest house that needs power. If no house needs power it goes back to the power plant or whatever.

 

[ARikozuM]

2 minutes ago, DarkBlade2117 said:

So uh, why not just put solar panels on street lamps to power those (I think most in my town actually are solar powered) and put solar panels on roofs. For high efficiency the house gets priority of the solar panels on their roof and whatever they don't use can either go to a battery in their house or is sent to the closest house that needs power. If no house needs power it goes back to the power plant or whatever.

 

Florida gets hit by the electric companies too often, so it'll likely set a precedence for the States. The local companies are attempting to add fines (they call it a fee) for adding solar panels to roofs.

[sazrocks]

25 minutes ago, AresKrieger said:

 

3) Fusion is likely a pipe dream, gravity forces are what keeps a star consistently undergoing fusion thus you can imagine the kind of force required to maintain a fusion reaction simply by finding what the smallest possible star's gravity is. (hint its a lot of force required)

I have to disagree. Yes the forces are incredible, but we have made leaps and bounds in the area, notably keeping plasma stable, as well as finally producing more energy than what was put in to the reaction (though these two were done in different reactors). Also of note is ITER, which should be able to produce roughly 10x the energy put in, but will still be an experimental reactor, and will never output energy to the grid.

 

Also, not really important, but I still feel the need to correct it; gravity (and therefore pressure) is not directly responsible for the fusing of protons in the sun. Instead, quantum tunneling is responsible, since although it is very rare, the sun has a massive amount of them, and the process still happems enough to produce the amount of energy that the sun does.

[Dabombinable]

40 minutes ago, sazrocks said:

Which is unfortunate, because fusion creates much less waste, has zero chance of melting down, and is way cheaper.

 

Or were you referring to the solar panels?

The problem is, the fuel required for proper fusion is radioactive, so if there is ever a spill....

[sazrocks]

18 minutes ago, Dabombinable said:

The problem is, the fuel required for proper fusion is radioactive, so if there is ever a spill....

Not really. Since deuterium-tritium fusion is probably what we will achieve first, let's focus on that. Deuterium is non radioactive, and can even be drunk just fine (just don't drink a huge amount) as heavy water:

Tritium on the other hand is indeed radioactive. It, however, unlike uranium which emits high energy gamma rays, is a beta emitter. Beta radiation is usually stopped by paper (IIRC) and is easily stopped by the skin. It's even quite often used in watches or gun sights to make them glow during the night. It is still dangerous to inhale, however, so precautions must still be made.

Even in the event of a spill, the tritium (which is a gas) would disperse quickly and become harmless quite quickly.

[zMeul]

2 hours ago, Abyss Gaming said:

Too early, too expensive, but a great idea.

it's a horrible horrible idea

not only for traffic safety but to the environment and cost associated with the build and maintenance

[laminutederire]

4 hours ago, Benjals said:

It's been a stupid idea from the start. Why focus on adding solar panels to some of the most populated areas when we could focus on adding them to less populated areas where they require less upkeep, and can produce more power?

Normandy is hardly one of the most populated area in France though. ..

[jagdtigger]

What a waste of the money...

[vanished]

6 hours ago, Abyss Gaming said:

Too early, too expensive, but a great idea.

I wouldn't even say it's a great idea to be honest... there have been at least a few videos on why it's a terrible idea.  Solar will likely be a good thing in the future, but never like this  

[Misanthrope]

I almost think they just went ahead with it to give Thunderf00t video material.

[vanished]

12 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

I almost think they just went ahead with it to give Thunderf00t video material.

or maybe it was just time someone actually tested it once and for all, since there's been so many opinions on it.

[Misanthrope]

7 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

or maybe it was just time someone actually tested it once and for all, since there's been so many opinions on it.

Sure test it and watch it fail, question is who pays for the test? Should the French subsidize it with their tax bucks? If it was Trump trying to "test" the validity of climate change, even though the overwhelming majority of scientists would tell him "We're not wrong, the dissent voices have been addressed and where there not due to scientific rigor but due to partisanship manipulation" then sure, it's part of Science to entertain possibilities even if they seem ridiculous or biased.

 

But should tax payers pick up that bill cause an orange idiot wanted to get in the white house by appealing to conspiracy theorist right wingers?

[Prysin]

Omfg the French is going to steal all the sunlight 

[tlink]

6 hours ago, Memories4K said:

INVEST IN NUCLEAR ALREADY.

SOLAR ENERGY STILL CAN'T MEET OUR ENERGY DEMANDS.

 

(At least in the U.S.)

well it can if we research it properly and not these solar panels. huge mirror liquid salt heating array's where really the future but then the recession happened and spain couldn't fund them anymore, china on the other hand continues to fund solar panels which are not really that economically viable.

[leadeater]

6 hours ago, sazrocks said:

And not just fission, but fusion as well.

 

Seriously, whats the point in trying to do crap like this when we could have stupid amounts of energy with fusion if we would only invest in it and figure it out?

France is actually one of the biggest contributors to the scientific effort for working fusion power reactors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITER

http://qz.com/812898/the-worlds-biggest-nuclear-fusion-experiment-may-lead-to-endless-clean-energy/

https://www.iter.org/

[manikyath]

6 hours ago, Memories4K said:

INVEST IN NUCLEAR ALREADY.

SOLAR ENERGY STILL CAN'T MEET OUR ENERGY DEMANDS.

 

(At least in the U.S.)

france is one of the nations working on nuclear fusion, and france's nukes are the reason i have electricity at all here in belgium with our 7 biohazards and.. coal...

 

this is actually a pretty well worked out project, combined with LED street lighting, and the obvious lack of roofs near this road (unless we're gonna put solars on the nearby trees ) this is actually a pretty nice concept.

 

it also proves that while -yes, solar isnt ready yet, at all..- even in a country who has uranium as one of their export products, solar is more than just a hippie joke.

[manikyath]

15 minutes ago, tlink said:

well it can if we research it properly and not these solar panels. huge mirror liquid salt heating array's where really the future but then the recession happened and spain couldn't fund them anymore, china on the other hand continues to fund solar panels which are not really that economically viable.

the economic viability of solar power hugely depends on the region as well, for example here in belgium windmills have several times more "expected energy output per year" than solar, but while you are guaranteed to get at least *some* power out solar every day, your windmills may be sitting idle for weeks at a time sometimes, and that HUGELY increases the cost of batteries when calculating a cord-cutting cost. (which, in belgium you have to pay to put power on the grid, so that's the only sensible way to go eco)

[manikyath]

39 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

or maybe it was just time someone actually tested it once and for all, since there's been so many opinions on it.

all of the bad press videos is on the failure that is the "solar freaking roadways" campaign which is being ran by people with no engineering background, who have no clue about solar power, no clue about material choice, and no clue about construction.

 

not to mention the dutch solar bikeway, which implements a similar structure to this road, is deemed as a huge success.

 

they had their failures, but because of the "just the top layer" design choice, it's pretty much a saturday afternoon job to swap out panels that have failures, and fix them or replace.

 

and seeing this is in a climate where the asphalt turns into this every winter, i would say it fared surprisingly well:

[Space Reptile]

why put solar on the roof , where its angled towards the sun and unobstructed

if we put it on the road , where its blocked by

• cars
• dirt
• salt 
• snow 
• leaves

bonus: its not angled towards the sun 

 

WHAT CAN GO WRONG ?!

[jagdtigger]

7 minutes ago, manikyath said:

all of the bad press videos is on the failure that is the "solar freaking roadways" campaign which is being ran by people with no engineering background, who have no clue about solar power, no clue about material choice, and no clue about construction.

 

not to mention the dutch solar bikeway, which implements a similar structure to this road, is deemed as a huge success.

 

they had their failures, but because of the "just the top layer" design choice, it's pretty much a saturday afternoon job to swap out panels that have failures, and fix them or replace.

 

and seeing this is in a climate where the asphalt turns into this every winter, i would say it fared surprisingly well:

 

Then watch the video from EEVBlog linked in the first post...

[manikyath]

Just now, jagdtigger said:

Then watch the video from EEVBlog linked in the first post...

yes, and he even mentions the bike lane in the netherlands

[jagdtigger]

That one was busted too...

 

[The Belgian Waffle]

The fun thing is that they did it in Normandy.. Like, it rains all the time there

ATM : 8 degrees in Normandy and 17 in the South of France... top kek

 

[Space Reptile]

5 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

That one was busted too...

 

thunderf00t also has a ton of coverage of it and explains how this solar road concept is just stupid