cRPG
Off Topic => General Off Topic => Topic started by: Tom Cruise on May 28, 2014, 06:56:19 pm
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https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/solar-roadways#home (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/solar-roadways#home)
How has the entire earth not invested into this bullshit?
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because asphalt is cheaper, those panels will become dirty, shitting on their efficiency and the first crash that happens on them will mangle the roadway making it impassable, it will instantly need a road crew to come out and repair it, shutting down the roadway.
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because asphalt is cheaper, those panels will become dirty, shitting on their efficiency and the first crash that happens on them will mangle the roadway making it impassable, it will instantly need a road crew to come out and repair it, shutting down the roadway.
They meet all impact/load/traction requirements, and it destroyed/torn up a bit, its a fairly easy and quick repair. Each panel is an individual piece to the puzzle. So you can literally just pick up that piece and replace it with a new one. No need to get a whole road crew bring in heavy machinery, tear up the road, place down more cement, pave it out, wait for it to dry, etc etc. If one piece gets a little dent in it or crater (which is about the same likeliness as on current roadways), then how is it any different from your average day pothole?
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They meet all impact/load/traction requirements, and it destroyed/torn up a bit, its a fairly easy and quick repair. Each panel is an individual piece to the puzzle. So you can literally just pick up that piece and replace it with a new one. No need to get a whole road crew bring in heavy machinery, tear up the road, place down more cement, pave it out, wait for it to dry, etc etc. If one piece gets a little dent in it or crater (which is about the same likeliness as on current roadways), then how is it any different from your average day pothole?
im just under the impression these will be damaged much easier, which will cost more maintenance, and more repair from accidents and whatever, remember, these arent made of concrete or asphalt like most roads. I just cant see these being used on highways, maybe on small community streets, or low speed roads. It really does sound like a cool idea, i just think the price to get something like this in, and then maintained will be absurd.
remember a hunk of concrete costs a few dollars, this entire unit will cost hundreds to replace.
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I am fairly sure a square meter of concrete or asphalt is a few dozen times cheaper than a square meter filled with solar cells and circuit boards.
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im just under the impression these will be damaged much easier, which will cost more maintenance, and more repair from accidents and whatever, remember, these arent made of concrete or asphalt like most roads. I just cant see these being used on highways, maybe on small community streets, or low speed roads. It really does sound like a cool idea, i just think the price to get something like this in, and then maintained will be absurd.
remember a hunk of concrete costs a few dollars, this entire unit will cost hundreds to replace.
I see your concern, and you really can't say whose right or wrong because we don't truly know until we try. Also it's not just road we can use it on. It can be used on sidewalks, parking lots, bike patch, or just some random pavement in some park or playground. Watch the 2nd video in that link and it gives good details on the possibilities and opportunities.
I am fairly sure a square meter of concrete or asphalt is a few dozen times cheaper than a square meter filled with solar cells and circuit boards.
Well remember it will all pay off in the long run. It's energy efficient, possibility of huge amounts of energy production, create jobs to make them and maintain them, and so much more. There is also tons of potential for other areas like safety, like all of the lighting possibilities they had. Would help with animals at night, can tell you about obstructions ahead, etc.
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im just under the impression these will be damaged much easier, which will cost more maintenance, and more repair from accidents and whatever, remember, these arent made of concrete or asphalt like most roads. I just cant see these being used on highways, maybe on small community streets, or low speed roads. It really does sound like a cool idea, i just think the price to get something like this in, and then maintained will be absurd.
remember a hunk of concrete costs a few dollars, this entire unit will cost hundreds to replace.
Asphalt is shit, and they tend to reuse it a lot, which makes it even shittier choice. Rain and water is devastating for asphalt roads. These panels, with some kind of protection could prove to be more durable against rain.
Only reason why asphalt roads seem durable to you is because they are regularly maintained. If they weren't, after few years roads would be unusable. Only difference is that you need more skilled workers to maintain these panels, they need to know a thing or two about electricity.
Here are the answers to many question you might have about this technology: http://www.solarroadways.com/faq.shtml#faqTraction
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Wow that's amazing, it may cut energy costs by a lot and also make a lot of new jobs.
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Wow that's amazing, it may cut energy costs by a lot and also make a lot of new jobs.
at the cost of increased taxes to expend higher amounts of money on a pricier road system.
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So conservative, it will be good in the long run for economy too. I would pay for a better future, that our future generations may have. Once they can mass produce the product, it should be fine.
at the cost of increased taxes to expend higher amounts of money on a pricier road system.
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They state that their glass surface has been tested for traction... but I wonder how well it would operate when oil and exhaust are covering the surface, or rain, or ice and snow...
Asphalt seems to work well with the normal amount of oil/exaust grime buildup because it is fairly porous, and then oil kind of settles below the surface (until it rains).
The other concern is definitely the cost. It would be interesting to see it done in a small town for testing purposes. It would be nice if they stated the type of solar panels they are putting in these devices... Solar panels lose their effectiveness over time at a constant rate... The better types of solar panels in terms of longevity lose their effectiveness at a rate of about 0.5% per year... Other types of solar panels lose their effectiveness at rates of 1% per year or more.
I would guess these road solar panels could degrade even faster than that from wear and tear and all the scoff marks and scratches which would end up reducing the amount of light that is received from the panels.
I still think it would be a better idea to upgrade our nuclear power plants and create new state of the art nuclear facilities. I wouldn't be surprised if a state of the art nuclear energy facility would be more green than the amount of solar panels needed to match the amount of energy produced, as long as you take into account the greenhouse gases produced from manufacturing all of the solar panels required.
They meet all impact/load/traction requirements, and it destroyed/torn up a bit, its a fairly easy and quick repair. Each panel is an individual piece to the puzzle. So you can literally just pick up that piece and replace it with a new one. No need to get a whole road crew bring in heavy machinery, tear up the road, place down more cement, pave it out, wait for it to dry, etc etc. If one piece gets a little dent in it or crater (which is about the same likeliness as on current roadways), then how is it any different from your average day pothole?
If you can just pick up these panels off the ground, whats to stop someone from stealing all these road panels off the ground and parting them out for all the electronic metals and solar panels. Or whats to stop the semi truck in front of you kicking one of these up into the air when it drives down the highway going 70mph... Something tells me they would still be using cement underneath these things rather than just place them on loose dirt. We would still need road crews with heavy machinery to set and maintain whatever goes underneath these solar panels.
Also, the effects of mass producing a mass quantity of solar panels on top of what we already do could put a large chokehold on rare earth metals... Prices of electronics could skyrocket as a result, especially if one of our major suppliers of rare earth metals/minerals decides to no longer sell to us, or increase the price as supply drops.
"Thin, cheap solar panels need tellurium, which makes up a scant 0.0000001 percent of the earth’s crust, making it three times rarer than gold."
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/a_scarcity_of_rare_metals_is_hindering_green_technologies/2711/ (http://e360.yale.edu/feature/a_scarcity_of_rare_metals_is_hindering_green_technologies/2711/)
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Then scientists better develop how to synthesize it xD
"Thin, cheap solar panels need tellurium, which makes up a scant 0.0000001 percent of the earth’s crust, making it three times rarer than gold."
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/a_scarcity_of_rare_metals_is_hindering_green_technologies/2711/ (http://e360.yale.edu/feature/a_scarcity_of_rare_metals_is_hindering_green_technologies/2711/)
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Not heard of any case where someone stole part of asphalt road ^^
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I didn't mean it in 100% literal sense that you just pick them up and put them down...
You have to bolt them down it looks like, or some form of screw. Either way that is a lot more practical than tearing up an area you want to fix, flatten out the land, lay down the concrete, let it dry, pave it out, finishing touches, etc.
Also this will not be an instant thing. They have already reached the stretch goal they wanted, but more is always nice :) They plan on starting out small, as they should, with driveways, parking lots, parks, and other small areas just to test the waters and get the ball rolling.
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http://www.cnbc.com/id/100917758
copper theft is "threatening U.S. critical infrastructure by targeting electrical substations, cellular towers, telephone land lines, railroads, water wells, construction sites, and vacant homes for lucrative profits."
And this is just copper. You'd need constant supervision of the road, especially if they use a material that is "3 times rarer than gold".
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Well, the price will go down drastically as soon as you mass produce the stuff. So, if they actually decide to do streets with the panels, it probably won't be much more expensive.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100917758
And this is just copper. You'd need constant supervision of the road, especially if they use a material that is "3 times rarer than gold".
Which material would that be?
Tantal and all the other stuff isn't worth stealing cuz you can't just sell old capacitors, the recycling process is kinda high-tech. Copper is just sold/bought by weight cuz of big chunks of it.
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So conservative, it will be good in the long run for economy too. I would pay for a better future, that our future generations may have. Once they can mass produce the product, it should be fine.
Unfortunately not everyone is as selfless as you :( its a really great idea imo, will be interesting to see how this develops.
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I don´t think they´ll be used for roadways any time soon because of:
- energy efficiency over the years depending on dirt/grime/oil on the road
- maintenance (especially routes which are under heavy use and have to be renewed after a couple of years)
and all in all the simple fact that they haven´t been tested enough yet
BUT there´s a big potential for smaller areas/squares/parking lots as Cruise already said:
Also this will not be an instant thing. They have already reached the stretch goal they wanted, but more is always nice :) They plan on starting out small, as they should, with driveways, parking lots, parks, and other small areas just to test the waters and get the ball rolling.
I´m curious of what people are going to create with these plates :)
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Because if they did, this whole fossil fuel empire that is spread across half of the world would go to hell, along with the few individuals that profit from them.
Energy crisis is a lie, that is spread by power plant corporations to make people buy energy at constantly higher prices, lining up their pockets with metric fucktons of cash.
But that is nothing new.
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Seems interesting on paper.
But i have no idea how they calculated the energy it would give.
Let's look on a portion of a road. During the day, thousands of cars go through it. Blocking the sun. At night, no one rides (or only a few), but there's no sun.
It's even worse for parking lots, if there's a car there all day long.
For that reason, it's obvious i'd rather have solar panel on my roof, than on my parking.
Engineering point of view :
So they did a test with a tractor going on it, and it didn't broke.
Great. Did they run some virtual solution and ran 100 000 tractors on it, or fully loaded truks ? It isn't safe because it sustained one push. This push must be low enough for the material to let it in it's elastic phase. And even then, there's something called "fatigue", that states that a repetitive load will still cause strain on the material.
Look at our roads, they need upkeep. It's not that expensive for our current road, but if we're speaking in solar panels, that will be more. And if one is damaged, since they seem to be linked, how will it go for the others ?
They showed an image of a boulder blocking the road, and thus signs on the road prior to that zone, telling to slow down. Does that mean the solar freaking panel can sustain a fall of a boulder ? Is there some kind of weight detection on them, to differentiate between an animal crossing and a goddzilla crossing ?
This really feels pre-pre-pre alpha. It feels interesting, so i'll keep myself informed. Thanks for sharing that info. But i'm not hyped for it. Definitely not.
For it to be commercially viable, you'll need to be able to make profits under 10 years, usually. For "regular" solar panels on your own roof, you're already counting in years, because let's face it, electricity isn't that expensive. For this type of solar panels, undamaged when a tractor goes on it, with potential LEDs and some kind of cables linked together to "write" warnings, it's going to be way too much expensive for states or persons considering getting it.
Vote for me. And i'll put solar freaking panels on our roads.
Once elected : By the way, taxes will go up 30% for the next 20 years to cover for the expenses. And there may be problems since it's a fairly new technology. But hey, it's green energy, so it's definitely worth it, right ?
I just don't see it happening. :?