Solar Roadways

This is all I need to see in the future.
 
Wouldn't the glare reflected off them be problematic?

Anyway asphalt isn't that bad, it's a big carbon sink.
 

I thought that this counter argurment was quite interesting. Definetely gives me second thoughts.
 
because you really needed a video to tell you that trying to put costly panels as roads is not a good idea in the huge expanse that is the U.S.
 
Honestly, I tried to convince people on facebook why this isn't such a great idea so much, that I don't even have the stamina to counter it on here.
 
ktimekiller said:
because you really needed a video to tell you that trying to put costly panels as roads is not a good idea in the huge expanse that is the U.S.
Click to expand...

I know a lot of people who seem to be hypnotised by the green, LED, hexagonal, solar panel. I myself was included. So I thought some of the people here had to see it. I mean, the man behind the video is a marketing genius. He did a great job on suckering people in, to believing that this horrendous idea was actually good.
 
I wouldn't necessarily call it a HORRENDOUS idea, but just impractical especially given the current level of technology to cost.
 
Lolcomputer said:

I thought that this counter argurment was quite interesting. Definetely gives me second thoughts.
Click to expand...
I've only watched the first 10 minutes of the video, but there's a lot of piss poor arguments in it already that were clearly half-assedly researched in order to release the video quick. The cost bit about the glass is totally ****ing retarded the way he calculated it, using the price for one-off panels to calculate the cost of all the panels, with no consideration of the fact that should the government step in to make these, or hire companies to build such a massive infrastructure, these panels would no longer be so specialized as to cost so much due to improved processes and buying power for materials.

Lets go back in time, to the Apple II computer. Lets say someone made a TV commercial for PERSONAL FREAKING COMPUTERS. Imagine the everyone in the world has their own Personal Freaking Computer! We'll be able to all write documents and transmit them via a series of tubes to people across the country in minutes!

Then someone makes a response commercial to say "NO ****ING WAY BRO, If everyone in the US were to have a Apple II Computer (which currently sells for $2,600 bro!) it'd cost $572,000,000,000!!!!). I mean, we'd have to run wires from everyone's computer straight into everyone else's computer in order to transmit anything! Personal computers are impractical!"

I'll watch the rest of the video tomorrow when I have the time, but as much as the original video is hyperbolic, this guy's video seems to match it bullshit for bullshit. Frankly, in this case I'd trust the video supporting professional engineers who have been working on this idea and developing physical products to test with over the video from a guy who is a food scientist with no relevant engineering knowledge or experience.
 
The idea is nice, especially for europe for example.
The us won't do it in the near future because they have so much invested into building asphalt roads.
 
Why Solar runways are bad for an economic and "1984" standpoint.​



I apologize if this seems a little out of context, but this is a copy and paste of myself rambling on the facebooks about the reality of solar roads.

"(sorry for the long response) Don't get me wrong, I think the road is a cool idea, I just don't think it's possible. but it's the video itself that gets all worked up. That video get me mad. Since were all using electric cars because of the abundance of electricity. Does all the new jobs this road makes come out of all the lost jobs in the multi billion dollar oil and gas industry? I mean, if this was possible to afford, every first world country would do it, and first world countries tend to use a lot of oil and gas. What about all the lost jobs in maintaining the money pit roads? And In reality if it were on government owned roads, The government would own all that power, and is that something you want the government to have? With so much power it's not crazy to to believe they would monopolize the power market, they could literally sell so much power at pennies prices. I'm just the type of guy that doesn't like the government to at the flick of a finger, be able to turn off all my power in my house, can't charge or use any of my electronics and can't make my car work. With the flip of the switch, The government will have sent me to the stone ages. Even if it was accidental, like a silly example would be; if there was a big red button and some employee trips, hits the switch and all of Southern Kalifornia goes black out."
 
Also the counter video's name is misleading. It asks the question "Are solar roadways real?" when in the first video, we clearly say like 20 feet of private solar roadway in the guys property, ergo, "Yes" Solar roadways are real. We just saw one in the previous video. But really at that point, that's just me nitpicking because of how worked up this gets me.
 
Krynn72 said:
I've only watched the first 10 minutes of the video, but there's a lot of piss poor arguments in it already that were clearly half-assedly researched in order to release the video quick.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, totally. His argurments don't have so much support, because most of them actually gets answered in the FAQ. I just said it definetely gives some second thoughts.
ktimekiller said:
I wouldn't necessarily call it a HORRENDOUS idea, but just impractical especially given the current level of technology to cost.
Click to expand...
I don't think that the technology cost will be the only problem. Maintenance and nature catastrophees. I mean, what if a flood occurs? If all of the solar panels are connected together to transport electricity, then all of the energy we produced in the local area would be gone. And earthquakes. You've seen the damage that can be done on asphalt, now think about what it could do to tiles. And the amount of energy that these tiles will recieve of years of cars driving 100mph on them. And then we have to take in account, that we have to replace all of the broken solar panels. And in the meanwhile we are replacing those solar panels, they won't produce any energy, and they will cost a shit ton of money to replace in the long run.
 
I rather like the suggestion at the end of the "Are they Real?" video. Just build solar roofing for parking lots.
 
Since were somewhat on the topic of energy, would anybody like to hear about my lord and savior Thorium?
 
SteamEmpire said:
Since were somewhat on the topic of energy, would anybody like to hear about my lord and savior Thorium?
Click to expand...


I think we can all agree that Thorium is a fundamentally better to use nuclear fuel. The only reason were not using it, is because we know more about uranium.
 
Lolcomputer said:
I don't think that the technology cost will be the only problem. Maintenance and nature catastrophees. I mean, what if a flood occurs? If all of the solar panels are connected together to transport electricity, then all of the energy we produced in the local area would be gone. And earthquakes. You've seen the damage that can be done on asphalt, now think about what it could do to tiles. And the amount of energy that these tiles will recieve of years of cars driving 100mph on them. And then we have to take in account, that we have to replace all of the broken solar panels. And in the meanwhile we are replacing those solar panels, they won't produce any energy, and they will cost a shit ton of money to replace in the long run.
Click to expand...

Dude, again, wrong. The tech is expensive now because its specialty equipment. Give it a mass-production environment and a decade of technological advancement, and shit's going to be dirt cheap. Remember, the PC? Two and a half thousand dollars per PC 30 years ago, now we get PCs 100 times more efficient and powerful for <$300. What might today cost us $600 per panel, if given the right infrastructure and attention could cost $1-$2 per panel.

And the "environmental" issue is a very basic, very solvable engineering problem. We already have transformers sitting up on ****ing lightning rods with hundreds of kilovolts passing through them in basically just a metal box. If anything, having multiple hexes worth of transport paths will render power outages a thing of the past. If one or two or three hexes fail, the electricity will still have a dozen paths around those failed hexes.
 
Any reason why we're not funding or researching a Dark Fusion Reactor?

From what I seen they create a massive amount of energy. Oh and there ttly safe guyz, k?

CccMttq.jpg
 
Krynn72 said:
And the "environmental" issue is a very basic, very solvable engineering problem. We already have transformers sitting up on ****ing lightning rods with hundreds of kilovolts passing through them in basically just a metal box. If anything, having multiple hexes worth of transport paths will render power outages a thing of the past. If one or two or three hexes fail, the electricity will still have a dozen paths around those failed hexes.
Click to expand...


A earthquake that split the road in half, is not just a problem that can be fixed with a little bit of engineering. And I doubt that a serious flood, can be stopped from doing damage to the hexes. And do you see what happens to the asphalt every year? They have to be maintained all the time, because it will slowly start to detoriate and break, no matter what material you use. I just can't imagine there is a predictable outcome for the aging. Either it stays okay for a long time, or it just breaks down in the matter of a quarter to a half year. And even if the price of these things go down 50 times, it will cost over 400 billion dollars. Even if it goes down 100 times, then it will still cost 200 billion dollars. That's a lot of money, and then the maintenance just bumps up the price. Though, as long as they get the ball running, and keep seeling electricty whilst recieving profit, they'll be fine.

(Bear in mind, the prices were simple estimations/assumptions to cover the whole road network. I really doubt that they will bump the price of the solar panels below 100 dollars though. But if they manage to do that, then it's a clear win.)

p.s. Oh yeah, and I apoligise for not even reading the whole FAQ myself. Made some half baked agurments from me.
 
Lets not forget that, "electric roads" that are programmable have the risk of being hacked by anonymous, terrorists (on a small scale, not like 9/11), and Aiden Pearce. As silly as that concept might sound, It's true. It's a programmable surface, so why can't it be reprogrammed...to do bad? You hear stories of people trying to hack the CIA mainframe and all that kind of stuff, Imagine if someone had the idea to hack much much more vulnerable thing.....like a electric programmable road. a Road that won't have nearly the amount of security as the CIA. While not causing deaths to millions, you could cause car crashes, reprogram it so it makes an outline of a bunch of penis's right in front of your house, even possibly disable the life giving solar panel electricity ( and This is after we already discussed how the monopoly would mean we were all dependant on electricity from solar power roads)

The plain and simple fact is
You can't hack into a piece of asphalt laying on the ground nor could you use it for terrorism
 
Nike and Reebok are pushing lobbyists to try and get funding and grant initiatives for solar roadways through Congress. People's shoes will wear out faster and slowly melt while walking on these panels . I for one don't trust any infrastructure development that has veiled corporate interests behind it. Count me out
 
Lolcomputer said:
Bear in mind, the prices were simple estimations/assumptions to cover the whole road network. I really doubt that they will bump the price of the solar panels below 100 dollars though. But if they manage to do that, then it's a clear win.)

p.s. Oh yeah, and I apoligise for not even reading the whole FAQ myself. Made some half baked agurments from me.
Click to expand...



Re7kiRz.jpg
 
I think it's great that there's at least been discussion generated about it. I mean, even if the whole thing is an overblown pipe dream (which I don't think it is, but of course, like everything, it's not perfect (but then perfect solution is a type of fallacy) and will face challenges) at least it's presenting us with something that can be practically applied for the future.

I mean, clean energy, man. How can anyone argue against an investment in harnessing the power of the GIANT BALL OF FIRE above us, which has been there longer than we have.

I like the idea and yeah, sure there's a bunch of spin going on, but it's interesting and we should talk about it, damn it. Solar FREAKIN' energy.
 
I'd rather have roads made entirely of molten salt thorium reactors.
 
Lolcomputer said:
A earthquake that split the road in half, is not just a problem that can be fixed with a little bit of engineering. And I doubt that a serious flood, can be stopped from doing damage to the hexes. And do you see what happens to the asphalt every year? They have to be maintained all the time, because it will slowly start to detoriate and break, no matter what material you use. I just can't imagine there is a predictable outcome for the aging. Either it stays okay for a long time, or it just breaks down in the matter of a quarter to a half year. And even if the price of these things go down 50 times, it will cost over 400 billion dollars. Even if it goes down 100 times, then it will still cost 200 billion dollars. That's a lot of money, and then the maintenance just bumps up the price.
Click to expand...
Replacing individually damaged hexes of roads will be easier, faster, and cheaper than redoing a whole stretch of asphalt. Hexes will allow very focused and small repairs which isn't possible with asphalt without just doing patch jobs, which if you live in CT, you know only delays a whole redo of the road and makes the road shitty to drive on due to inconsistencies.

As for the cost...

Funding for the Department of Transportation was $73 billion in 2012. That number includes federal capital spending on things such as roads, bridges, passenger rail, buses, waterways, ports and aviation, as well as some operating costs. It represents about 30% to 40% of what the country spends on transportation infrastructure each year, with the rest coming from state, local or private sources.
Click to expand...
http://money.cnn.com/2013/02/12/news/economy/infrastructure-spending/
Which means the budget for 2012 roadways was $180 billion to $250 billion as is. Thats for roads that don't produce electricity, have shitty paint on them that wears away making accidents more likely, and don't melt snow (which costs many New England states around $100-$200 million dollars each to do each year).
 
Krynn72 said:
Replacing individually damaged hexes of roads will be easier, faster, and cheaper than redoing a whole stretch of asphalt. Hexes will allow very focused and small repairs which isn't possible with asphalt without just doing patch jobs, which if you live in CT, you know only delays a whole redo of the road and makes the road shitty to drive on due to inconsistencies.

As for the cost...


http://money.cnn.com/2013/02/12/news/economy/infrastructure-spending/
Which means the budget for 2012 roadways was $180 billion to $250 billion as is. Thats for roads that don't produce electricity, have shitty paint on them that wears away making accidents more likely, and don't melt snow (which costs many New England states around $100-$200 million dollars each to do each year).
Click to expand...


I agree with everything here, but I just stumpled upon something interesting. Electromagnetic radiation/electronic smog. This might be quite usefull to the engineers. I'm not sure if they thought this through, but people with EHS (Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity) get very sick from very small doses of electromagnetic radiation. The inverters, Solar Panels and Super Bright LED's will emit some electromagnetic radiation. And in the huge bundles they come, it might be a little bit unhealthy to walk on the streets. The solar controllers can be fixed, but we have to go on compromise with speed. But I'm pretty sure that the super bright LED's, and the wireless frequency they communicate in, will produce some electromagnetic radiation. Not a huge amount, but maybe enough to occur health problems for a long period of time?

http://www.eiwellspring.org/SolarEMFHazard.pdf
http://www.agiweb.org/education/energy/solar/index.html
http://www.permaculture.co.uk/artic...netic-pollution-solar-photovoltaic-pv-systems
http://www.solarcontroller.blogspot.dk/
http://www.solarpaneltalk.com/showt...roblems-with-Living-In-Proximity-to-PV-Panels
 
I'm just gonna bumb this thread, because Mr Thundef00t uploaded a new video.

 
He's really getting the price for LEDs from Amazon? That is going to be way higher than the actual production cost would be.

He's also talking about the strength of normal glass. Don't these use something much stronger than normal glass? Edit: It says at 40 seconds into the original video that it's a new tempered glass that was tested to meet requirements.
 
Vegeta897 said:
He's really getting the price for LEDs from Amazon? That is going to be way higher than the actual production cost would be.
Click to expand...

Exactly, he seems fond of doing such. Right now on Mouser.com, a popular site for electronic components such as LEDs, a consumer (as in, not a huge government order) can buy a reel of 16,000 LEDs for about $530. Assuming that this is the best price the US government can get (which it most certainly is not) that takes this shmuck's estimate of $800 billion dollars to just under $8 billion. To do EVERY SINGLE ROAD IN THE USA... that doesn't seem crazy, especially when that would be spent over DECADES.
 
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