Solar Smart Roadways Provide Power, Traffic Control, & Other Cool Benefits - Polidicks

[QUOTE]A small US-based company called [URL="http://www.solarroadways.com/intro.shtml"]Solar Roadways[/URL] are developing a solar road surface that, if installed nationwide, has the potential to produce more renewable energy than the entire country uses. In fact, they’ve actually already developed a working prototype that’s been installed in a parking lot, and they’re now [URL="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/solar-roadways#home"]crowdsourcing[/URL] funds in order to tweak the design and move towards production. Solar Roadways, which was started by Scott and Julie Brusaw in 2006, designed and developed hexagonal glass solar panels studded with LED lights that could be installed on a variety of surfaces such as roads, pavements and playgrounds. These panels would more than pay for themselves and would benefit both businesses and homeowners as the energy generated from driveways and parking lots could be used to power buildings, and any excess can be sold back to the grid. The panels also contain heating elements to melt ice and snow so are ideal in winter conditions, and LEDs to make road lines and signs which have been previously shown to reduce night time accidents. The surface could also be used to charge electric vehicles as oppose to fossil fuels, and future technology could even allow for charging whilst driving via mutual induction panels. Amazingly, the team also found that car headlights can produce energy in the panels, so cars driving around at night would be producing some electricity.[/QUOTE] [img_thumb]http://www.iflscience.com/sites/www.iflscience.com/files/styles/ifls_large/public/blog/%5Bnid%5D/20140429030846-LEDs_-_white.jpg?itok=_f0ZFdYM[/img_thumb] [URL="http://www.iflscience.com/technology/solar-roads-could-power-entire-country"]Source[/URL]

cool

Only problem I could see with this are crashes, unless they used some tough shit like polycarbonate.

Too bad all this cool shit is starting to show up while I'm 24. By the time it's all running perfectly and all over the place, I'll be goddamn old.

[quote]Amazingly, the team also found that car headlights can produce energy in the panels, so cars driving around at night would be producing some electricity. [/quote] Not to be too pedantic but this isn't correct. They're not "producing" electricity in any sort, they're simply recapturing energy that the car is using for light. That's recycling. This differs from energy production mostly because the goal of car lights isn't to change energy from one form to the other for use as electricity, it is to produce light energy for visual navigation, the light being recaptured by the road is recycling, not production as we do not have giant power plants made of cars shining their brights at walls of solar panels.

Hexagons are the future

[QUOTE=OvB;44793866]Hexagons are the future[/QUOTE] And, at least according to Civilization 5, also the past. [b]ALL HAIL OUR HEXAGON OVERLORDS![/b]

Too bad it won't receive the funding at this rate, either way this was debunked on reddit. Apparently solar panels don't work nearly as well when they get dirty, and they'll cost too much to be poorly efficient. Much easier to just make solar panels on the side of the road that won't get dirty and don't have to be able to withstand a truck on top of them. There's clearly a reason they are relying on crowdfunding instead of getting a grant for the research. [quote]Solar Roadways has received two phases of funding from the U.S. Federal Highway Administration for research and development of a paving system that will pay for itself over its lifespan. We are about to wrap up our Phase II contract (to build a prototype parking lot) and now need to raise funding for production.[/quote] And they couldn't get investors, or another grant or something? If this is so groundbreaking people should simply be throwing money at it, not having it only raise 9% of the funding goal in two weeks.

My concern would be about the glass surface. That just is asking for problems

[QUOTE=LoneWolf_Recon;44793642]These panels would more than pay for themselves [/QUOTE] A solar panel able to collect energy efficiently enough to recoup its production costs? Never heard that one before.

[QUOTE=sloppy_joes;44794384]Too bad it won't receive the funding at this rate, either way this was debunked on reddit. Apparently the solar panels don't work nearly as well when they get dirty, and they'll cost to much to be poorly efficient. Much easier to just make solar panels on the side of the road that won't get dirty and don't have to be able to withstand a truck on top of them. There's clearly a reason they are relying on crowdfunding instead of getting a grant for the research. And they couldn't get investors, or another grant or something? If this is so groundbreaking people should simply be throwing money at it, not having it only raise 9% of the funding goal in two weeks.[/QUOTE] Yeah I can't really see it being publicly adopted. Roads get a lot of abuse. I could see them being used as driveways for rich people and parking lots for energy conscious businesses though, assuming they can survive. Neat idea though.

I remember reading this in Popular Science Mag back in 2008. Back then they estimated this to be 3x stronger and long lasting than asphalt roads Good to see it finally taking off.

[QUOTE=draugur;44793816]Not to be too pedantic but this isn't correct. They're not "producing" electricity in any sort, they're simply recapturing energy that the car is using for light. That's recycling. This differs from energy production mostly because the goal of car lights isn't to change energy from one form to the other for use as electricity, it is to produce light energy for visual navigation, the light being recaptured by the road is recycling, not production as we do not have giant power plants made of cars shining their brights at walls of solar panels.[/QUOTE] Uh you're definitely being pedantic.

[QUOTE=Fourm Shark;44794130]I always liked triangles.[/QUOTE] Ah but hexagons contain [i]6[/i] triangles!

[QUOTE=adam1172;44794783]I remember reading this in Popular Science Mag back in 2008. Back then they estimated this to be 3x stronger and long lasting than asphalt roads Good to see it finally taking off.[/QUOTE] There's a lot of other surfaces which can be used that lasts longer than asphalt. However none of them are cheaper, easier to lay or provide the amount of grip and friction which allows cars to be able to grip the road and stop. There's a reason why the DOT will put signs everywhere indicating a road surface other than asphalt or concrete on a road that isn't residential or a sidestreet. Not to mention that our governments already can't keep up our major interstates. There's 2-3" ruts in most of them and random potholes which will go unfilled for weeks that easily can cause accidents. The ruts cause unstable steering in anything that's more narrow than a semi truck. Not to mention that no ordinary driver will know how their vehicle will react on this new surface and deaths and injuries in the hundreds of thousands will be increased if the driving surface is less ideal. Thousands of accidents happen just because a little snow, ice or rain. Unless this surface is more grippy do you really think drivers will be able to handle themselves as they already can't? [editline]13th May 2014[/editline] Just watched their videos and read their page. They don't have the faintest idea of how to make a road surface and any clue what type of insane noise, increased tire wear and idiotic decrease in surface area will do. Also what will happen when the surface covering is completely worn down or a panel is damaged? This might be a neat idea for sidewalks, parking lots and driveways but there's no fucking way this will work for a street.

I'd like to bring this back since the indigogo campaign they launched is over in less than 3 days and it appears that somehow it took off and they've managed to raise [URL="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/solar-roadways"]150% of their goal[/URL]. It was probably due to the ridiculous popularity of this video they put out. [video=youtube;qlTA3rnpgzU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlTA3rnpgzU[/video] Apparently as a result they now have the ability to redo an entire parking lot with their solar panel things as sort of a test for some government organization, I wasn't able to find the exact list of things they could do if they were funded but I know it's listed somewhere. Needless to say, I'm extremely skeptical. It looks really cool but could you imagine how expensive it would be to try and replace roads with this stuff. That and the time it would take to do it all, I'd probably be dead before this really takes off (assuming it even does).

Cool idea, I saw the video on facebook. But imagine the costs to implement something like this on a large scale... I'd think astronomical

Yeah this just seems a bit... why go through all the effort of [i]replacing[/i] roads, which have their own set of massive challenges, instead of just building solar panels across [i]all the fucking empty countryside we have seriously we could probably fit at least a europe or two into all the space we aren't using[/i]

I saw this on my FB news feed and wrote it off as bullshit. In my defence the guy who shared it is convinced the US government can control the weather.

I could potentially see them being used on busy roads which suffer from snow a lot if they heat up slightly.

[QUOTE=brianosaur;44945288]Cool idea, I saw the video on facebook. But imagine the costs to implement something like this on a large scale... I'd think astronomical[/QUOTE] I don't understand this perspective at all. When they built New York City nobody was like "no let's just not, the end cost would be too much" These things happen slowly over time.

[QUOTE=DarkMonkey;44945320]Yeah this just seems a bit... why go through all the effort of [i]replacing[/i] roads, which have their own set of massive challenges, instead of just building solar panels across [i]all the fucking empty countryside we have seriously we could probably fit at least a europe or two into all the space we aren't using[/i][/QUOTE] That removes room to expand for cities and also damages environments of the animals, however few, that live there. Namely wolves, deer, etc. That countryside can also be used for agriculture, to support our constantly growing population. I think that this might be plausible if we could work out the issues with environmentally unfriendly batteries and theft, since solar panels are getting cheaper and cheaper.

You know what else was expensive? Building the fucking country. This is like if Ford said "I've created this motor vehicle and I hope to build enough so potentially everyone in the country could have one" and everyone immediately jumps down his throat screaming "YOU WANT TO BUILD THEM ALL SIMULTANEOUSLY? YOU'RE FUCKING INSANE THAT WOULD BE EXPENSIVE. LET'S JUST NOT"

[QUOTE=ZombieWaffle;44945397]That removes room to expand for cities and also damages environments of the animals, however few, that live there. Namely wolves, deer, etc. That countryside can also be used for agriculture, to support our constantly growing population. I think that this might be plausible if we could work out the issues with environmentally unfriendly batteries and theft, since solar panels are getting cheaper and cheaper.[/QUOTE] About theft, from the video it looks like they're REALLY bolted down to the foundation/structure under them. Given how supposedly tough the material that their shell is made out of, I don't think it'd be worth the effort of stealing them (at least not in the city), it could be a problem on lesser-used roads, though those probably wouldn't be upgraded to solar roadway in the first place though.

Have they thought of what happens after the winter? When the ground heaves, which is what causes cracks and potholes?

[QUOTE=Shirky;44945816]Have they thought of what happens after the winter? When the ground heaves, which is what causes cracks and potholes?[/QUOTE] Everyone should read the FAQ before posting [url]http://solarroadways.com/faq.shtml[/url] [editline]30th May 2014[/editline] Also, fun fact: The U.S. war in Iraq has cost $1.7 trillion with an additional $490 billion in benefits owed to war veterans, expenses that could grow to more than $6 trillion over the next four decades counting interest. The entire interstate and highway system in the US is estimated to have only been around 500 billion when adjusted for today's currency. And that's 500 billion total over dozens of years.

Glass isn't safest surface to drive on, especially with shit like gravel and dirt getting under tires. Not to mention they wouldn't actually generate enough power to melt snow off of it. The article is pretty optimistic but I just don't actually see this being a viable road alternative in most, if any situations. At least not anywhere near its current state. Road maintenance would also be a nightmare with these.

They should just replace the space of central reservations and other unused land near the roads to put them on.

[QUOTE=Robman8908;44793812]Too bad all this cool shit is starting to show up while I'm 24. By the time it's all running perfectly and all over the place, I'll be goddamn old.[/QUOTE] Think of it this way, in the 90's we barely had anything close to what he had now. Its only been a short time and we've already got a ton of cool fucking shit. Give it a few more years and we're gonna get even more cool shit.

It's a really cool idea however the management of it alone would be too much of a hassle for it to be a reality, it's not a terribly reliable solution for power, and costs too much over asphalt. [editline]30th May 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=Foogooman;44945434]You know what else was expensive? Building the fucking country. This is like if Ford said "I've created this motor vehicle and I hope to build enough so potentially everyone in the country could have one" and everyone immediately jumps down his throat screaming "YOU WANT TO BUILD THEM ALL SIMULTANEOUSLY? YOU'RE FUCKING INSANE THAT WOULD BE EXPENSIVE. LET'S JUST NOT"[/QUOTE] Ford was able to see a return on investment in his short term, this would cost something like 50 trillion dollars to get a negligible return of what exactly? Safer roads? Potentially more power to the grid?