Solar Roadways

Voodoomelon

Stumbled across this tarmac/asphalt replacement idea this evening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlTA3rnpgzU

What's everyones thoughts on the idea?

Seems to me to be pretty darn clever. I'd wonder about the longevity of the panels in the real world though.

Ipro

Ah leave it out , we've enough to be worryin bout joe!

Cars be sliding all over the place on that surface in the wet surly

Toyotafanboi

It'd certainly never be viable to replace already in place roads with them. In the majority of circumstances it seems financially unjustifiable in this part of the world to cover your house in photovoltaic panels, so to create a road network from them seems lunacy.

making roads from them seems like an un-neccessary risk. however there are plenty of places in the word that have PV fields of these panels that power the local grid and it seems to be a real go-er of an idea. all the solar benefit but without the risk of driving over the panels or the extra engineering required to make them "driveoverable".

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime

Roads ? Where we're going we dont need , roads !




But really im all for it .... just not giving money for it !

Caliden

Not feasible. The surface needs to be clean to get energy from the sun. Roads get very dirty so it just won't work.



The first video is your typical video of someone with no engineering background trying to make something sound as if it's the best thing since sliced bread. Pure hype.

Tail Docker

Caliden wrote: »

Not feasible. The surface needs to be clean to get energy from the sun. Roads get very dirty so it just won't work.



The first video is your typical video of someone with no engineering background trying to make something sound as if it's the best thing since sliced bread. Pure hype.

Very true. I can't see them damn computers ever being smaller than a large room either. Totally impractical.

Ded_Zebra

Very cool and an excellent idea.

It all depends on the payback period of the tiles. I'm guessing as the video didn't mention it it's crazy long

keithclancy

Solar Panels are already expensive, I don't understand why you would subject them to unnecessary wear and tear by having cars drive over them.

A road is for driving on, I would just see it as an additional potential problem for more road works

alias no.9

It's be a bit pointless in rush hour traffic, why not put them in the open where shadow cast by the traffic passing by isn't making a significant portion of them redundant.

ryan101

We can't afford to fill the potholes, never mind pave the streets with solar panels.
It's a non runner, though I do admire the lateral thinking and effort, which I hope will produce other ideas in turn.

keithclancy

Just imagine how much road you would need to generate 1.21 gigawatts ...

rolexeagle1