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

[Stefan1024]

One of the best implementation of a purly stupid idea. Despite they trry to reduce cost ond don't waste a lot of material and energy like the "freaking solar roadways" it's still impractical and the energy produced per euro is terrible.

[vorticalbox]

I cant see glass being very "grippy" when it rains.

[ThinkWithPortals]

8 hours ago, DatSpeed said:

the 1km road in Normandy cost €5 million (£4.3m) to build

[Sauron]

Still wondering how they'll manage to work after a few 50 ton trucks will have used the road.

[Sauron]

8 minutes ago, vorticalbox said:

I cant see glass being very "grippy" when it rains.

if it were glass it would have a lot more problems than just that.

[Phentos]

6 hours ago, Dabombinable said:

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

Fusion fuel is not radioactive, with the exception of tritium.

 

The only significant high-level waste products I can see being produced would be the containment walls of the reactor (assuming it's a tokamak). Nuclear fusion releases a flood of neutrons, enough to transmute the elements in the containment walls into radioactive isotopes.

 

Other reactor types mostly avoid this problem, and are therefore more viable designs for practical power generation in the future.

[Okjoek]

I don't think automobile roads are well suited for this. I think foot/bike roads would be more ideal.

[Thony]

9 hours 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.

Better start now and learn than wait and waste time.

[AresKrieger]

8 hours ago, sazrocks said:

is not directly responsible for the fusing of protons in the sun.

No but it is what makes the reaction continuous, granted the scale is going to be different but the requirement for an extreme pressure remains, the reason is simple the atoms need to be densely packed to maintain the reaction, think of it like trying to randomly hit a target in a sea of nothingness it helps if there are a lot of targets and that the targets are close enough to basically guarantee a hit on one of them.

 

Now I'm not saying a fusion power plant is impossible I'm simply saying we might not have one for a very long time if it is possible so we need a stop gap to fill the time in between

[RagnarokDel]

To people complaining about the cost, everything that's new is expensive. That's why they're going small to test it. 1 km of road is already extremely expensive by itself, if this cost is for the road AND the solar panels, it's actually not that expensive.

[Coaxialgamer]

While i still don't think this is anywhere near the best way to use solar panels,  you can't exactly compare them to roadways.  This is inefficient.  Solar roadways was just dumb,  as it advertised heated and lit up panel filled with electronics.  This isn't. 

[Guest]

5 hours ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

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  

 

8 hours ago, zMeul said:

it's a horrible horrible idea

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

As I said, it would take many years of refining, although honestly at that point personal drones will be the norm instead of cars.

[zMeul]

1 hour ago, Abyss Gaming said:

As I said, it would take many years of refining, although honestly at that point personal drones will be the norm instead of cars.

what is there to refine!?!?

 

it's a road surface that is used for ... wait for it ... vehicles to travel on

that means a lot of the time the surface of the road will be obscured; not including dirt, snow, abrasion

 

the idea of solar panels is to have them pointed at the sun for as long as possible, not flat on the road where the angle will give worse efficiency

 

---

 

the local gov should incentivize people to put solar panels on their roofs, give them grants; allow them to put the extra energy back in the grid and pay them for it

[Wolther]

Too expensive. What if a part of a road cracks? You need to replace that part of the road, from what would've been an inexpensive and fast job turns into an expensive and time consuming job

[Wolther]

8 minutes ago, zMeul said:

 

the local gov should incentivize people to put solar panels on their roofs, give them grants; allow them to put the extra energy back in the grid and pay them for it

I wish.. Seems like people are being punished for it ._. 

[Atmos]

12 hours ago, AresKrieger said:

The government cannot force you to put solar panels on your roof but yes the materials should be cheaper though you'd be installing to numerous locations thus increasing labor costs, either way current solar technology isn't the future it is merely a prototype until storage tech improves or we find something better.

 

Populated areas use power while unpopulated areas don't, and power doesn't flow over a power line for ever the farther from a source you are the more is loss on the line, eventually all the power is loss if the distance is far enough.

Oh you bet your bottom dollar they could.

Offer large tax deductions for installing solar panels through a government auctioned company, that would just about cover the cost of installation and purchase and I guarantee you 100% there would be massive adoption. This is what needs to be done for solar to see widespread usage. Building up the solar industry is what needs to happen for the technology to drop quickly in cost.

 

12 hours 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.

Except that the main concept is horrendously flawed in total. Roads and parkways are objectively a BAD place to put solar panels, and it should only be done as an absolute last resort. It makes no sense, like installing solar panels in all the floors of your house. 

"Will it generate energy?" -Well yes. But minuscule amounts due to the extreme inefficiency from it only being in direct line with the sun at 1 single point during the day for less than an hour, and during that time it constantly has vehicles moving across it only further lowering its efficiency by continuing to block said sun.

We first need to put them on roofs, then in solar fields of various scale, then consider nautical solar fields, and then, as a last resort, once we've used every inch of roof space, and used up nearly all of our available land in either construction or solar fields/wind turbines, then we can consider putting them on roads. But roads have to be the last resort due to the extremely inefficient way in which the solar-roadways function.

This is like having your car's check engine light coming on, so you rush to the dealership to buy a new damn car. it makes no sense what so ever.

[BuckGup]

What happens when it snows and they put 90 pounds of salt and sand on the roads? How about over sized loads?

[zMeul]

2 minutes ago, SamStrecker said:

What happens when it snows and they put 90 pounds of salt and sand on the roads? How about over sized loads?

what do you mean  they'll spend another 5mil to fix it 

it's the perfect exercise in futility 

[AresKrieger]

17 minutes ago, Atmos said:

Building up the solar industry is what needs to happen for the technology to drop quickly in cost.

Solar isn't a realistic option right now, still not developed enough due to battery tech unless you want to replace those every few years.

[patrickjp93]

15 hours ago, sazrocks said:

All those panels, and they power the road lights with them!?

 

Extra energy goes into the grid when the batteries for the lights are charged.

[sazrocks]

54 minutes ago, patrickjp93 said:

Extra energy goes into the grid when the batteries for the lights are charged.

I didn't know that. Where did you read that?

[patrickjp93]

10 hours ago, vorticalbox said:

I cant see glass being very "grippy" when it rains.

Good thing it's not glass...

[malon]

 iwonder if they are as safe as normal roads if it has been raind on or if it has frozen/snowed because i would not feel safe on something that looks like glas with any vehicle in any situation other than dry sunny hot days

[TetraSky]

19 hours ago, Memories4K said:

INVEST IN NUCLEAR ALREADY.

SOLAR ENERGY STILL CAN'T MEET OUR ENERGY DEMANDS.

 

(At least in the U.S.)

Solar can meet the the energy demand of the entire world if we just build a large enough "farm" of it.

http://www.businessinsider.com/map-shows-solar-panels-to-power-the-earth-2015-9

We just need to essentially cover an area the size of Spain with solar panels, to power the ENTIRE world.
If the US actually invested in Solar, you wouldn't need Nuclear, or coal, or oil for that matter. Too bad the lobbyists are making sure it doesn't happen.

[techswede]

7 hours ago, Wolther said:

Too expensive. What if a part of a road cracks? You need to replace that part of the road, from what would've been an inexpensive and fast job turns into an expensive and time consuming job

This is one thing that struck me right away. I have done road works in the past and i've worked on one of the highways that was recently built here in sweden.

Now mind you i was just a hired worker. I sat in my digger and i wasn't involved with the actual planning or engineering but i sort of know how the ground works.

The few things i'm wondering how they will deal with are long term ground related issues. When roads are built there is a lot of care put into grading and packing the soil and gravel before the tarmac is laid down. But you can only do so much. Different sections of the ground will sink down over time. I don't know all the words for what i'm talking about in english so this is turning out to be difficult to describe.. The highway that was built a while ago looked great when it was first built. But now parts have sagged and it doesn't look that great anymore. The difference that makes over time could cause problems for the roadway. Depending on the flexibility of its construction over time. 

Found the word i was looking for. "Subsidence" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidence

 

Ground frost is the paved roads most common enemy. When the water in the ground freezes and thaws a couple of times it may cause complications

Pretty common to see cracks form in the surface over here. Don't know about northern france though. 

 

The surface being covered in solar panels might be a good thing if they stay together through the regular wear and tear a road is put through over the years.

Less chance of pot holes and such. But the ground underneath the road will probably still shift over time and cavities could probably form underneath the panels.

 

Apologies if this isn't particularly coherent. Its 04:37 over here and i was about to crawl over to my bed when i spotted this thread. I could try to answer more specific questions tomorrow when i'm a bit more awake. Will probably try to find some sort of documentation on the roads engineering too. Would be interesting to see how they made it work.
(Not a geologist or anything. Just picked up a few things here and there when i worked in excavation.)  

 

As for the road itself i'll be interested to see how it holds up and what becomes of it. If i had the money i'd probably go check it out . (Among other reasons to visit france)