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Solar Freakin' Roadways

Great idea, and I suspect it is one that is probably many, many, many years away from being financially and practically feasible.
 
EatLeadCommie said:
Great idea, and I suspect it is one that is probably many, many, many years away from being financially and practically feasible.
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Agreed. From Wikipedia:

Parking lots, driveways, and eventually highways are all targets for the panels. Theoretically, if the entire United States Interstate Highway system were surfaced with Solar Roadways panels, it could produce more than three times the amount of electricity currently used nationwide. But the cost to cover all United States roads would be $56 trillion — nearly 20 times the annual federal budget.[3]

Installation costs of building such roadways and parking lots are expected to cost at least 50 percent more than regular roads, and possibly more.[3] Maintenance costs will also be higher because road surfaces accumulate rubber, salt, soil and other substances that block sunlight and must be removed. The durability of the panels may also be less, further increasing maintenance costs. In addition, the solar roadways system is designed to replace many other road features that also cost drivers for road systems.
 
Start small with driveways, neighborhood roads, and back roads in areas that get the most sunshine. Just because we can't afford to repave the country doesn't mean we can't do it at all and improve it.
 
Something we should absolutely look at. It's just stupid that we have near limitless power from the sun and don't utilize it hardly at all.
 
PhDeac said:
Start small with driveways, neighborhood roads, and back roads in areas that get the most sunshine. Just because we can't afford to repave the country doesn't mean we can't do it at all and improve it.
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I think it would find it's home in recreation areas and parking lots before actual roads. It seems like an amazing idea though.
 
PhDeac said:
Start small with driveways, neighborhood roads, and back roads in areas that get the most sunshine. Just because we can't afford to repave the country doesn't mean we can't do it at all and improve it.
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Yes, but who is going to pay for that? How much does it cost to replace a driveway with this stuff? That's a personal expense. If I can get a couple Mexicans to come out and pour me a new driveway for 1/2 the cost (and I'm guessing that's being generous), concrete is going to win every time. Neighborhood and back roads are city and county expenses and would have to be approved at that level. If it's not friendly to the wallets, I think it is even less likely to pass muster at the local level than it would be at the federal level.
 
yeah, but if somehow my driveway can cut my power bills then that added expense may be worth it in the long run.
 
Let's just put them on all rail lines. You wouldn't have to deal with as much traffic, so I imagine the wear would be much less. The train grime would certainly be a problem, but it wouldn't be any worse than that of a roadway.
 
I imagine some combination of 3-D printing and this will change the world
 
TuffaloDeac10 said:
http://blogs.barrons.com/incomeinve...-utility-bonds-sees-viable-solar-competition/
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This full report was quite interesting. Had some interesting points on when grid parity will be seen in each state, I still think the solar thing might be a little blown out of proportion but if the whole storage costs come down it should allow for most widespread adoption. While some might be intrigued with the solar roadways, something that might be more plausible is to line the interstates with solar panels in the lane dividers.
 
There are plenty of plausible ways to get this thing started.
 
wakelaxer said:
This full report was quite interesting. Had some interesting points on when grid parity will be seen in each state, I still think the solar thing might be a little blown out of proportion but if the whole storage costs come down it should allow for most widespread adoption. While some might be intrigued with the solar roadways, something that might be more plausible is to line the interstates with solar panels in the lane dividers.
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Is there a link to the full report? I've only seen writeups
 
PhDeac said:
Thoughts?
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Your beloved Disney will, or should, be the first to demo these to the world. They would go great in EPCOT - it needs to be more City of Tomorrow and less Busch Gardens, anyway.
 
They could easily just replace parts of the sidewalk on both sides of Epcot headed toward the exit that light up with solar panels and no one would even notice.

Epcot could use some legit science and technology to showcase instead of a crappy children's museum.

Theme parks would be a good place for this. Not much vehicle traffic, plenty of energy use. Lots of sun.
 
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