Solar Freakin' Roadways!!!

If you haven't seen it already, check out solar freakin' roadways. Why? Because it's SOLAR FREAKIN' ROADWAYS and it's absolutely amazing!

Everything about this is brilliant.

Funny I was just reading this article on TTAC about them:

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2014/05/solar-roadways-a-modest-proposal/

$10k per hexagon is pretty expensive though

And I'm surprised nobody has brought up the privacy implications. They're pressure-sensitive, so the tiles could track a car from one driveway to the next...(Edit: Although I guess you have that problem already whenever you don't leave your cell phone at home).

Would it be expensive to build them? Yeah. Do you know what else is expensive? Electricity. They would pay for themselves and then some!

I could see Walmart paving their parking lots with it and maybe some limited applications in downtown areas where the politicians can brag about being green.

Paving I-95? Nice thought, but we can't even get them to 6 lane it through SC.

I'd have to see the math on the electricity return, it looks like each tile is only about 1/2 covered in solar panels, and unlike the ones you might put on a roof they will often have cars on them, blocking the sunlight. An area that big in solar panels alone usually only costs around $200.

Toyman01 wrote: I could see Walmart paving their parking lots with it and maybe some limited applications in downtown areas where the politicians can brag about being green. Paving I-95? Nice thought, but we can't even get them to 6 lane it through SC.

My thinking exactly... highways and roads most places can't even maintain simple asphalt on due to cost? No way.

A giant parking lot at the end of my driveway that generates electricity for my house, with LED basketball court and self-heat for melting snow/ice?

Where do I sign? Can I get tax credits? I'm sure I can't afford it but... gimme some o' that Afghanistan war money we ain't spendin' no mo'and I'll do the yard too!

But Googles self driving cars are so small how much sun can they block. And once those are regulated you'll be tracked every where you go anyway.

PennDot would find a way to berkeley that up even if federally funded. There would be no shovel-leaning time.

Seems like it would make a lot of sense to pave parking lots, shoulders, and driveways with it.

That's the thing, even if you don't pave the roads with them they're still amazingly useful! Parking lots alone would be a ton of energy and not as intense of wear. And people are always worrying about pollution from runoff in parking lots? Boom, fixed by channels running underneath. They're just awesome!

I want a solar freakin' forehead.

Swank Force One wrote: I want a solar freakin' forehead.

i have one. its called a widows peak.

but these are pretty neat. ill wait and see what comes out of it, as i dont think at the cost versus durability against asphalt that there will be a large scale changeover.

Until it's proven to work, I'm not getting too excited.

When trailers lose a tire they gouge the pavement pretty good. I wonder what that would do to the hex panels?

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Until it's proven to work, I'm not getting too excited.

This. Why don't we spend that money on improving efficiency of existing solar panels to bring ROI down so that every building that already exists can put a few on the roof. They won't have to be overbuilt and stupid durable like the road version. Parking lots? just create a roof structure over half the spaces with standard cells.

And to go further - the shortcoming of solar cells isn't lack of places to put them - it's inefficiency in voltage production.

Doesn't really matter, it's vaporware anyway.

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Parking lots? just create a roof structure over half the spaces with standard cells.

Good point.

I don’t see how this is a good idea.

1) Laying solar panels like that is the least efficient way of using a solar panel. Most solar arrays use some sort of tracking for the sun. I have actually done calculations on this for a small solar setup for a little town in Alaska. I can tell you right now this system would be completely pointless up there for a very large portion of the year.

2) It’s a freaking road! The means cars are driving over it and blocking the sun. Plus a lot of roads pass under trees, between skyscrapers and under bridges which means they are blocked from the sun. And then there is the durability issue. They claim it has been tested to 250000lbs but that means nothing. Do they mean a static load or cyclical load? If it is a cyclical load, how many cycles at what frequency? Then how well does the glass hold up to having semis push gravel and sand down onto it. Plus how does it stand up to impact from stuff falling of trucks, tress falling out it, etc.

3) Power distribution. They want to use DC power directly to the home. AC won out over DC because of Joule’s First Law which states that the power loss is proportional to the square of the current. So in order to have efficient power transmission you want low current, high voltage but that is not usable for most things. Fortunately transformers make changing voltage that easy with AC current. But with DC current you have to use a rotary converter or motor-generator set which is expensive, inefficient and requires maintenance. There are some places where high voltage direct current transmission is used but that is in general in places where you have a long lines and a station at each end which converts back to AC. The main advantages of a system like that are that you have lower line loss but you need a long line because at short line lengths the converters would be more expensive then the line loss would make up for. Also the first circuit breaker for high voltage direct circuit systems was developed in 2012. Maybe I missing something here that a EE can correct me on. Also IIRC solar panels are difficult to be effectively parallelized or serialized on a large scale but it becomes easier to parallelize if it has been put through an inverter to AC.

4) Let’s talk about cost. Asphalt is not that expensive honestly. I believe it is around $2-$3/ sq ft versus a standard solar system that cost around $95/ sq ft. That is before you figure in these tiles have to stand up to more abuse then a regular panel which in general will drive the price up. I don’t see how this project would cost less then into the tens of trillions of dollars range. Add in they want to distribute DC directly to homes means that basically everyone’s home would have to be converted to run on DC. And convert the entire power grid before they could come online.

I could possibly seeing it working for parking lots, basketball courts, sidewalks but then I still wonder if it offers enough advantages for the cost to be worth it...

KatieSuddard wrote:

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Parking lots? just create a roof structure over half the spaces with standard cells.

Good point.

Because Ugly?

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Because Ugly?

Because parking lots are all so beautiful now?

Somebody's got to try the pie in the sky ideas. It's easy to shoot stuff down, hard to actually try for the big wins.

dculberson wrote: Somebody's got to try the pie in the sky ideas. It's easy to shoot stuff down, hard to actually try for the big wins.

This is solving a problem which doesn't exist ie space to put solar panels. There is plenty of space for them. The problems comes from cost, efficiency and energy storage. If they had some grand idea of how to solve those problems, I would gladly back them. I like the idea of solar power. I want solar power to succeed but I would rather people focus their money and time on projects that actually make sense then this which given the vagueness of their answers on their FAQ page seems almost scamish to me.

KatieSuddard wrote:

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Parking lots? just create a roof structure over half the spaces with standard cells.

Good point.

Haha pretty sure I didn't say that.

93EXCivic wrote:

dculberson wrote: Somebody's got to try the pie in the sky ideas. It's easy to shoot stuff down, hard to actually try for the big wins.

This is solving a problem which doesn't exist ie space to put solar panels. There is plenty of space for them. The problems comes from cost, efficiency and energy storage. If they had some grand idea of how to solve those problems, I would gladly back them. I like the idea of solar power. I want solar power to succeed but I would rather people focus their money and time on projects that actually make sense then this which given the vagueness of their answers on their FAQ page seems almost scamish to me.

I'm not sure I would agree with you on plenty of space to place panels. Most of the spaces are private property so as a utility you have to negotiate with hundreds of thousands or millions of property owners the ability to place and access the panels for maintenance.

Anyway, that's specifics. This is a huge idea and might just fly. It probably won't, but what will be lost in the attempt? A million and a half dollars so far, not a lot for an idea of this scale.

Sorry, it quoted you 'cause you'd been quoted. I didn't realize