Solar Freaking Highways - Thoughts

Wow, that's really cool.
I wonder what the traction is like, especially for a bike?
I think it's a great idea. Can you imagine the time it will take to manufacture and install?
Then to start transitioning from overhead power lines. Gotta start somewhere though.
Surely someone in Washington is at risk of losing money somehow, so there's your opposition.
Only downside I see is that everywhere will eventually look like Vegas.
 
Wow, that's really cool.
I wonder what the traction is like, especially for a bike?
I think it's a great idea. Can you imagine the time it will take to manufacture and install?
Then to start transitioning from overhead power lines. Gotta start somewhere though.
Surely someone in Washington is at risk of losing money somehow, so there's your opposition.
Only downside I see is that everywhere will eventually look like Vegas.

I have a lot of questions. Maybe parking lots. Traction would be one major issue, especially for bikes. I was already thinking about corners, but even straights with rain would be terrible. Their making a bunch of money on this. They have raised over $350K on this and looking for a cool mil. Just think about the Federal Dollars they could suck up :laugh:
 
I didn't see a cost to do this.

I'll take one for my driveway at $500 total - WHAT YOU WANT $500,000 TO DO MY DRIVEWAY!

I can't afford that. Who is going to pay for all the road ways? Will they double our taxes?

Wait a minute - all the road workers would lose job security so this will never work.
If they never had to fix another pot hole they would be out of a job - at least that is how they think.
Or they would go around braking the panels at night so that they had something to do (and a job) in the daytime.

So they created this in 2006 or 8 years ago. Has anyone ever seen any of these anywhere? Even a parking lot?
I've seen a few of these videos over the last couple of years but I have never seen any anywhere.

When I see every major parking lot with (solar) chargers for electric vehicles THEN I MIGHT believe this will be possible someday.
But for right now it seems as it's only a pipe dream to see a solar road.

Lets think even bigger, if you had a magic solar road then it should be able to charge an electric vehicle as it was rolling down the road.
Then it should be able to go cross country on solar power using no gas.
I doubt that would work either as it has always baffled me as to why electric vehicles do not have solar panels on the roof, hood and trunk areas.

If we were forced into doing something like this because the oil supply ran out THEN we might have a chance of seeing this in our lifetime.
But more electric AFFORDABLE vehicles will need to be produced before we see a solar road IMHO.
 
It is an interesting and innovative concept, however there are a number of "small" things in the way. All panels have to be connected. I have no doubt that heat/cold/rain/snow/ice will make all connections and internals of such panels unreliable. Can those panels sustain a weight of a truck? I don't believe for one second that solar power is enough to melt snow/ice, especially if that same snow covers the panels leaving them with little light from the Sun. Covered with some sort of glass? It may break if something is dropped on it. Someone brought a good point questioning traction, especially in wet conditions. If panels store electricity, this means that each panel has a high capacity battery. Batteries go bad over time, especially in adverse conditions.

It may work for certain limited applications. It would be nice if the movie addressed those specific issues, and in such case this could become reality.
 
Red, even if the entire car is covered with solar panels and the Sun is as bright as it could be, this will produce a measly 500 Watt of electricity - about 0.7 hp. That is why it is pointless to even attempt to use solar to power a vehicle.

What is interesting about the concept that those panels can cover a vast area and right in the middle of populated area, thus generating a decent amount of electricity and at the place where it's needed.

I'd say that it's a worthy direction for R&D. But a simple thing like "what happens when water gets between the panels and then freezes?" can kill the whole thing.
 
I saw somewhere that the cost is around $7K for 1 square foot.

Each mile of highway would cost $887,040,000 for a two lane road.
This does not include shoulders or off ramps.
 
I saw something a while back about the heat generated by current black top roads all over the world being immense and contributing a lot to global temperatures (their claim) and how much white paved roads could help. I've never laid hands on an operating solar panel that has been in the sun for 8 hours+ but I imagine it would be like those old stainless slides that still haunt my nightmares. All around seems like a bad idea to me. Parking lots are a great place for overhead solar panels, not under your car lowering each blocked panels output by what, 75%? Plus you get shade.
 
The news paper here just said they are planning on a parking lot to the north in sandpoint idaho
 
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