Solar Roadways 4

[JohnRBaker]

An update on the item which launched this thread:

http://news.yahoo.com/solar-roadways-210149010.html

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[CheckerHater]

Given the cost of a project, wouldn't be easier (and cheaper) to build the roof over every road (that will solve rain / snow problem) and place solar panels on the roof?

Also, why not railroads? Place solar panels between the rails to run trains that already are electric?

And John, to an Engineer, the glass has safety factor of 2.

 

[moltenmetal]

$2.2 million raised from suckers and technomorons. Not the first time, nor will it be the last.

 

[TomDOT]

CheckerHater - Why would you put solar panels between the rails on a railroad track? You can't angle them properly, dirt and crud will accumulate on horizontal panels, you have very limited space between the tracks (requiring either custom panels or wasting much of the space) - and you have to deal with huge vibrations from the trains. Oh, and the added cost and risk whenever you need to do maintenance on the tracks - I've seen those guys shooting grinder sparks landing more than 30 feet away from rehab operations. Those are NOT delicate-operations guys. Heck, you'll have to call out an electrician (twice!) every time for rehab or repair to disconnect and reconnect the panels.

Cheaper, cleaner, safer and better efficiency to mount them on poles (at an angle) in the RR Right-Of-Way, but not in the tracks themselves.

Hm, pretty much the same problems as Solar Freakin Roadways - it's just a really dumb place to put solar panels for a multitude of reasons.

 

[CheckerHater]

@Tom:
I think I should raise sarcasm flag higher.
I was simply trying to say that placing solar panels anywhere you actually don't have to drive on top of them would make more sense.
And BTW space between the rails may be utilized nicely on something like city light rail:

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/d...meritramatakardstation-thumb-500x293-2213.jpg

 

[urgross]

Someone made millions of dollars selling pet rocks, why should this be any different.

 

[TomDOT]

Light rail is as bad. You still have the crappy angle, dirt, maintenance and electrical safety issues - with the added bonus of pedestrians.

 

[JJPellin]

There are good videos on YouTube that debunk this scam. It would cost more than the US budget. It would consume more energy than it produced. It would fail quickly from abrasive damage. The LED lights would not be visible in sunlight. Check out their "military" applications if you really want a good laugh.

Johnny Pellin

 

[TomDOT]

Oh, "more than the US budget" is a very low estimate. Order of magnitude low.

Using their own numbers for the most optimistic cost per unit area(something they are apparently incapable of doing) - I came up with a minimum cost of $48 Trillion, just for US Highways - not counting all the sidewalks, parking lots, city streets, state highways, drop-landed spy drones et cetera they keep talking about. It would roughly quadruple the national debt.

 

[StoneCold]

We should all be begging these guys to teach us there marketing skills. To hell with implementation. Take the cash to an island!

 

[rb1957]

sorry, IMHO one of the dumbest ideas yet heard (right up there with seeding the atmosphere with particles).

roads make for very poor solar array farms.

Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati

 

[cranky108]

"Seeding the atmosphere with particles" that's easy. Maybe we shoulden't have required those bag houses.

We can do this once we have everybody is using mass transit, as the roads will be empty. The only problem will be geting grass to grow in the roadway cracks.

 

[TomDOT]

China's doing a bang-up job seeding the atmosphere with particles, particularly during the heating season when every house in Northern China is burning coal cakes...

 

[cranky108]

I actually thought this whole thing was BS, but I was wrong

http://news.yahoo.com/inventor-pushes-solar-panels-roads-highways-060111443.html

However no estimate for cost.

Maybe a better start is church parking lots, where the church has the empty parking lot (except for sundays), and the developer repaves (dosen't sound right) it for the value of the energy.

 

[rb1957]

if by "BS" you mean "scam" then ok,
but if you mean "daft", then IMHO it still is a dumb idea ...

how long does it take to pave a road ? (ie the implementation time for this is ridiculous)
how long have we been developing road surfaces ? (ie it a pretty mature technology, and works pretty well)

ok, it might work on somewhere like the barrier hwy or similar well lit outback roads, but i'd rather build an array farm beside the road (let the road be a road and the array farm an array farm, and never the twain should meet).

this whole thing started with hot pavements (and some publicized stunts), but is reflecting the sunlight a good thing if we're worried by GHG ?

Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati

 

[cranky108]

I would also be concerned about the tractive effect of such a device, which is why I would suggest a non-busy parking lot. What effects would this have on tires is also a concern. And with so many joints, it would likely be very noisy.

By BS I ment it was proposed, but never designed. But he actually built several of them.

With so few cells the voltage would be very small, unless there is an electronics package to invert or change the voltage (another failure mode). Also assuming the life is about the same as for LED's, that would be 11 or 22 years (depending on your assumptions), which seems short for a roadway.

So how do you fix pot holes? Just toss in asphault?

 

[TenPenny]

I just can't imagine solar roadways standing up to the pounding that a roadway takes from vehicles, no matter what that guy says. Asphalt and concrete don't stand up, I can't imagine anything that can generate power could survive.