If You Need Any Convincing That Solar Roadways Are The Future, This Video Will Help

a reply to: BABYBULL24

Uhh, not really. DC is plenty safe enough, you can let it pass through you to complete circuits with no adverse effects. It's AC thats deadly and produces an EMF that may be the cause of health concerns. As for your car, it is already working with a DC voltage perfectly well. Also, it's insulated from the road anyhow.


I think it's a cool invention though, however I wonder about a few things.

1. If a rock or stone gets on the road, would not a car going over it cause a sharp pressure point cracking the glass?
2. Criminals... When we started getting solar powered lights on some freeways, there were teams of crims going up on ladders to get those expensive panels. Imagine how accessible these would be to joe-anybody with a crow bar. Perhaps even clean them up and sell them to the next town at a discount.... Or use them for personal use etc.

originally posted by: Jennyfrenzy
a reply to: nighthawk1954

Ummm... Solar roadways freakin rule!!!

This is such an awesome idea with so much potential. No more jacked up roads, potholes and stinky repavements.

I'm sold.

Well, if you're sold, I hope you can get the 10% deposit on between 7.5 and 75 trillion dollars ;-) That would be for roughly 7.5 million miles of road at between 1 and 10 million per mile. Lose change eh ;-)

Admittedly, an injection of 7.5 to 75 trillion dollars over 10 years would drive employment figures through the roof. Although it is a very good idea, the materials sourcing and initial costs (not to mention maintenance and capital costs) would cripple the nation. Sure it's doable, but at this point it's economically impractical. It's one of those almost perfect ideas that just happens to be at the wrong time in history.

Cheers - Dave

a reply to: nighthawk1954

S&F great thread, my concern is solar needs sunlight to work efficiently, Grime, exhaust fumes etc: etc: would diminish the overall workings of the solar freaking roads.

In saying that let's take it a step further, Solar roads for Solar cars.

Love the concept! Never head of it before, thanx!

originally posted by: br0ker
a reply to: nighthawk1954

So.. great job of avoiding the biggest problem with Solar Friggin Roadways..

T R A C T I O N !!!!!

Wanna play basketball on it? Slip and kill yourself.
Wanna drive on it? A couple of raindrops and you`re dead!

But hey.. solve the problem of creating a substance with good traction with both rubber and the "not rubberized" future wheels - AND being able to let enough light through. Well, then I`m sold.

And yeah, to the peeps that don`t know what I mean with the "not rubberized" future - look into where rubber comes from - and take a wild guess whats gonna happen to rubber when oil stops flowing or is replaced.

Whoop, there it is!


PS.
I almost forgot.. The next big problem is the HUUUGE cost of building them. It will take 15-25 years of electricity savings before the project is cashflow positive. And that`s a fact!

Thie thinking is just so so silly... So wait... You focus on the time it will take to be cash POSITIVE as if it were some kind of negative! Do you have a screw loose? Tell me how long does it take the roads to become cash POSITIVE now??? Oh thats right, they dont EVER become cash positive... jeez!

As for traction, not sure you watched the same FREAKIN video because looked like they tackled that with the bobbles...

And oil can be synthesized...

Your comment was way over the top and not very well thought out...

The beeter it looks, the crappier it is. History lesson Not worth a spit if yo uask me.

I would totally love this! This would make dealing with northeastern winters a blast, better than it already is. Thanks for sharing!

originally posted by: br0ker
a reply to: nighthawk1954
But hey.. solve the problem of creating a substance with good traction with both rubber and the "not rubberized" future wheels - AND being able to let enough light through. Well, then I`m sold.

And yeah, to the peeps that don`t know what I mean with the "not rubberized" future - look into where rubber comes from - and take a wild guess whats gonna happen to rubber when oil stops flowing or is replaced.

www.bbc.co.uk...

The same principle is being used to generate both friction reduction and increase in surfaces for industry and sport. There were recent discoveries similar to this which increase the friction between coated surfaces, mimicking the grip that various animals have on surfaces.

a reply to: nighthawk1954

IMO, this technology has a real future. While I doubt they're going to get any huge highway contracts anytime soon, they can definitely start off by marketing these ground surface solar panels for driveways and sidewalks to homeowners up north who are tired of shoveling snow.

For anyone who was already considering adding solar panels to their home, it's a no-brainer two-for, in that not only would they eliminate snow shoveling in the winter, they would also benefit from the energy production thereby reducing their utility bills.

Probably wouldn't be long before small businesses started picking up on the advantages and begin paving their parking lots and outdoor walkways as well.

If it were my business, I'd start off small. Governments are usually the last ones to react and apply new public technology, especially when a third of the country is constantly trying to drag us back into the last century.

If these could just get the same political attention windmills and solar panales got 4-6 years ago, the guberment would be paying us subsidies to be putting them in our driveways and sidewalks

But I really like that this subject is being debated so much here on ATS, maybe its almost time for something like this to happen, I think of so many other good ideas, that mearly get posted, and forgotten....oh wait, that's exactly what happened here 4 years ago, but its back, because it really is a good idea, and plausible

X

It sounds too good to be true and you know what that almost always means.......

This technology seems very advanced and VERY expensive.

Here is another type of new road technology which seems more doable and promising long run with electric cars.

Link

But the most futuristic innovation, which the team hopes to start testing within five years, are lanes designated for electric vehicles that are fitted with induction coils that will allow the vehicles to run off of grid power instead of batteries, virtually eliminating the range and charge time issues that have proven to be the biggest impediment to the widespread adoption of electric cars.

I will be looking to see how the DOT tests turn out. I can't imagine them having the durability necessary. Hopefully, I am proved wrong.

Star and Flag to you sir, I watched this video a few days ago and shared it with everyone I could think of. The idea is brilliant and the benefits are incredible. If North America wants out of the economic stagnation that it's in right now this infrastructure improvement would be the best way to do it in my mind. If we all pushed this along something might end up being done about it.

If anyone is interested there was a thread a month ago that discussed possible energy solutions. It had many innovative ideas in it including the one this thread is on.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: bobs_uruncle

Right, because I'm making big bucks working at my job, lol.

It's an investment in to the future, maybe it the government would finally legalize "something," tax revenue could be used towards slowly changing our infrastructure to solar roadways.

Or we could just stay stagnant, never changing, never looking for alternative forms of energy...

a reply to: nighthawk1954

Thats very interesting. But I wonder what the maintenance costs for a road system like this would be.

originally posted by: Jennyfrenzy
a reply to: bobs_uruncle

Right, because I'm making big bucks working at my job, lol.

It's an investment in to the future, maybe it the government would finally legalize "something," tax revenue could be used towards slowly changing our infrastructure to solar roadways.

Or we could just stay stagnant, never changing, never looking for alternative forms of energy...

The issue I have is.. solar may or may not be "the future." I dont personally think it is, though it is a nice "back up."

If it is "the future," then all of the investments into a roadway of this type will have to be done very carefully, with very easy "upgrading" capability down the line. I dont see any of this in planning, nor anything that addresses the innate problems we experience in infrastructure repair (which would dramatically increase). Solar panels are currently not a particularly efficient device.

Now, if it isnt the future, then we just find ourselves in the same spot as we are now with oil. Once we have invested crazy amounts of money into latching ourselves onto a single, limited technology.. the motivation to continue improving is lost among those who control the industry. In this case, we "stay stagnant, never changing, never looking for alternative forms of energy" a few years down the line instead of now. I guess in many cases, some people dont care about such long term planning, but some do. Consequently, this could be played to the public as true innovation, when it is actually meant to create a greater stranglehold on any given nation.

edit: All that said, I would probably get a kick out of people hacking roadways. I dont approve of dangerous methods, but I could 100% see someone trolling a driver as they drove down a long road at night. Spaced every half mile or so, would be:

"Hey You"
"Yeah, You"
"You Smell Funny, Know How I Know?"
"The Road Has Become Sentient."
"The Road Complex Has Chosen You."

etc. etc.

More importantly, I doubt we even have the materials in abundant enough supplies to replace all the roads in America. And if we did, I'm not an economist, but I imagine the costs would be astronomical.

Right now, in Germany, houses and buildings are being converted into power stations, with solar panel roofs, wind turbines embedded into the walls, and geothermal generators in the basement.

It makes far more economic sense to use houses like this than to transform the entire road systems of the United States into solar panels.

Dont get me wrong, this will undoubtedly be done in certain select areas. The idea of changing basketball courts/playing courts into multipurpose play areas is probably going to happen. But I am very skeptical that this will ever factor into the wider infrastructure.

Especially when you consider that there is already concern that road systems disturb up wildlife migratory patterns, and might even lead to extinction.

Ideally, I would like to remove most of the roadways that cover the United States and replace it with magnetic trains.

a reply to: Serdgiam

Road hackings, now there's a scary thought!

Something needs to be done about our infrastructure, the solar road ways are a good alternative. We need to look at other options because what we use now, is crap.

My neighborhood is so torn up, I don't even want to ride my bike down the street because a tire will likely pop.

This can work and needs to be done. At first on a small scale, a test road of sorts like the Netherlands have already done.

A smart highway that promises to save energy while improving safety was unveiled along a 500-meter stretch in the Netherlands last week. Interactive and self-sustaining, it’s being called the “Route 66 of the future.”

Read more at www.iflscience.com...

If durability and sustainability can be proven then at that point older roads could be phased out and replaced. I see some comments from others about making driveways. That doesn't make sense. These would be far better for main roadways.

The LED lighting is best on main roads and one of the main benefits of such a system is being able to bury the power lines to where they are not susceptible to the environment. The venture combines the DOT and DOE needs, both of which are already expensive on their own. The entire infrastructure of both are far overdo for replacement.

I still think that they could incorporate pressure actuators in the panels that could generate electric from traffic. Maybe at some point that could be done.

originally posted by: Jennyfrenzy
a reply to: bobs_uruncle

Right, because I'm making big bucks working at my job, lol.

It's an investment in to the future, maybe it the government would finally legalize "something," tax revenue could be used towards slowly changing our infrastructure to solar roadways.

Or we could just stay stagnant, never changing, never looking for alternative forms of energy...

There are plenty of forms of alternative energy ;-) None are being exploited. And BTW, I was teasing about the deposit, none of us have that kind of money, probably even collectively.

Cheers - Dave