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Solar FREAKIN' Roadways! - OTB edition
Posted on 5/29/14 at 8:55 pm
Posted on 5/29/14 at 8:55 pm
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indiegogo website
indiegogo website
quote:
Solar Roadways
Solar panels that you can drive, park, and walk on. They melt snow and... cut greenhouse gases by 75-percent?!!!
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Solar Roadways is a modular paving system of solar panels that can withstand the heaviest of trucks (250,000 pounds). These Solar Road Panels can be installed on roads, parking lots, driveways, sidewalks, bike paths, playgrounds... literally any surface under the sun. They pay for themselves primarily through the generation of electricity, which can power homes and businesses connected via driveways and parking lots. A nationwide system could produce more clean renewable energy than a country uses as a whole (https://solarroadways.com/numbers.shtml). They have many other features as well, including: heating elements to stay snow/ice free, LEDs to make road lines and signage, and attached Cable Corridor to store and treat stormwater and provide a "home" for power and data cables. EVs will be able to charge with energy from the sun (instead of fossil fuels) from parking lots and driveways and after a roadway system is in place, mutual induction technology will allow for charging while driving.
Did you know:
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.
Our glass surface has been tested for traction, load testing, and impact resistance testing in civil engineering laboratories around the country, and exceeded all requirements.
Solar Roadways is a modular system that will modernize our aging infrastructure with an intelligent system that can become the new Smart Grid. We won the Community Award of $50,000 by getting the most votes in GE's Ecomagination Challenge for "Powering the Grid" in 2010. We had the most votes again in their 2011 Ecomagination Challenge for "Powering the Home".
On August 21, 2013, Solar Roadways was selected by their peers as a Finalist in the World Technology Award For Energy, presented in association with TIME, Fortune, CNN, and Science.
Solar Roadways was chosen by Google to be one of their Moonshots in May of 2013.
Solar Roadways was chosen as a finalist in the IEEE Ace Awards in 2009 and 2010.
Solar Roadways has given presentations around the country including: TEDx Sacramento, Google's Solve for X at Google's NYC Headquarters, NASA, Keynote Speaker for the International Parking Institute's Conference and much more...
Solar Roadways is tackling more than solar energy: The FHWA tasked us with addressing the problem of stormwater. Currently, over 50% of the pollution in U.S. waterways comes from stormwater. We have created a section in our Cable Corridors for storing, treating, and moving stormwater.
The implementation of our concept on a grand scale could create thousands of jobs in the U.S. and around the world. It could allow us all the ability to manufacture our way out of our current economic crisis.
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Posted on 5/29/14 at 9:08 pm to hawgfaninc
Pretty awesome if they're durable enough
Posted on 5/29/14 at 9:10 pm to The Nino
Posted on 5/29/14 at 9:11 pm to hawgfaninc
Big Oil will likely kill this idea.
Posted on 5/29/14 at 9:20 pm to hawgfaninc
So you can't drive on them at night?
Posted on 5/29/14 at 10:45 pm to hawgfaninc
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Our glass surface has been tested for traction, load testing, and impact resistance testing in civil engineering laboratories around the country, and exceeded all requirements.
I'd like to see the data from these tests.
Posted on 5/30/14 at 2:39 am to hawgfaninc
An alternative view: LINK
Posted on 5/30/14 at 10:16 am to LittleJerrySeinfield
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So you can't drive on them at night?
Correct. They grow wings and fly away and are not around to hold the weight of a vehicle when it is night time.
Posted on 5/30/14 at 10:53 am to Stacked
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Correct. They grow wings and fly away and are not around to hold the weight of a vehicle when it is night time.
It. Was. A. Joke.
Posted on 5/30/14 at 10:57 am to LittleJerrySeinfield
during the day they would be great. however, in the winter wouldn't they become incredibly slick? What about in wet conditions?
Posted on 5/30/14 at 10:59 am to hawgfaninc
Skittle shitting unicorns again.
Delusion.
Debunk=tion: LINK
Delusion.
Debunk=tion: LINK
quote:
This sort of "crowdfunding" needs to lead to indictments. Seriously. Let's just look at the basics.
The sun falling on a black road surface will convert nearly all of the energy that falls into heat.
Why? Because the road is a "black body", and highly efficient at converting the energy into heat energy for this reason. That is, very little of that energy is lost to something other than heating.
A solar cell, on the other hand, is typically 15% efficient at turning the energy into electricity.
A resistance heater is nearly 100% efficient (call it 95% with switching and wiring losses) at turning electricity into heat but less than 20% of the energy makes it to electricity in the first place.
So the path of solar->electric->heat is one fifth as efficient at heating the road surface as just allowing the sun to heat the road directly.
In other words, it won't work. At all.
Posted on 5/30/14 at 10:59 am to hawgfaninc
How would they melt snow in a long, dreary winter? If the sun can't get to them, how do they create enough power to melt the snow? I would think they would do better creating some type of surface material that creates enough heat with the friction of the tires to melt snow for winters in the north
Posted on 5/30/14 at 11:03 am to Warfarer
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How would they melt snow in a long, dreary winter? If the sun can't get to them, how do they create enough power to melt the snow? I would think they would do better creating some type of surface material that creates enough heat with the friction of the tires to melt snow for winters in the north
exactly. how would you plow off snow without damaging expensive solar panels?
Posted on 5/30/14 at 11:05 am to mizzoukills
Don't start agreeing with me! South Carolina is beautiful and the university is nice. 
Posted on 5/30/14 at 1:13 pm to Warfarer
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Don't start agreeing with me! South Carolina is beautiful and the university is nice.
This should rustle your jimmies even more...my home away from home is South Carolina. My brother lives in Greenville and we visit him often. Our stomping grounds are Greenville, Folly Beach, and Charleston.
Just to be clear, Killz pisses and shite fairly often in South Carolina.
Posted on 5/30/14 at 1:49 pm to mizzoukills
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Just to be clear, Killz pisses and shite fairly often in South Carolina.
Dammit.
Posted on 5/30/14 at 1:50 pm to crispyUGA
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Big Oil will likely kill this idea.
agreed. but hope we're wrong
Posted on 5/30/14 at 1:51 pm to finestfirst79
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An alternative view: LINK
that's nice. it's still a damn good idea and better than the roads we currently use
Posted on 5/30/14 at 1:52 pm to mizzoukills
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during the day they would be great. however, in the winter wouldn't they become incredibly slick? What about in wet conditions?
I'm not an engineer on the project. but I'd say it's safe to say they've thought that scenario through already
Posted on 5/30/14 at 1:54 pm to WNCTiger
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Skittle shitting unicorns again.
Delusion.
Debunk=tion: LINK
cool
solar roadways is still better than the roads we currently use. link to a better idea than solar roadways?
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