Solar Roadways

[Polyxo]

I think this is a nice idea, and ideas like this should keep coming, but this particular one probably isn't going to work, at least not above the snowbelt. Those panel/roadways will get shredded by plows and salt in one season.

[Afrospinach]

How resilient are the panels now? We had an ungodly hailstorm this time last year, and I still notice a few of the panels on post haven't been repaired/replaced.

Solar panels are actually extremely tough. You can stand on most of them and so on. But I am sure hailstorms that can dent cars will always be able to shatter panels on the odd occasion.

[Shadowferal]

Rather than make a new thread...

Turns Out A Road Made Of Solar Panels Was, In Fact, A Bad Idea

There will be some hiccups on our path to a more environmentally-friendly future. Some hiccups, like exploding electric cars, will be bigger than others. So, I’m willing to excuse France for the very, very predictable failure of their solar panel road.

In 2016, the French government in conjunction with the company Colas built a one-kilometer long road covered in solar panels in a small village in Normandy for $5.2 million. Protected with silicon and resin, the thinking went it could withstand the punishment from thousands upon thousands of vehicles while generating electricity for nearby homes. Pretty neat!

I am absolutely going to speak for the rest of the Jalopnik staff when I say we are enthusiastic about finding a path to a sustainable energy future, including other ways to generate power from roads. But of all the places to put solar panels—expensive, fragile, solar panels that need to be angled towards a bright, shining sun—on a road in Normandy is not exactly the first place that comes to mind. We even ran a story back in 2014 about how solar panel roads are a bad idea for all the reasons you’d expect.

The French newspaper Le Monde reported that, after two and a half years, some things have gone wrong:

1.) The road had to be shortened by 100 meters because a portion was too damaged to be repairs
2.) The protective resin is peeling off the portion that remains
3.) Leaves and trees fall onto the panels and, you know, block the sunlight
4.) The noise from cars and trucks driving over the panels is so loud the speed limit had to be reduced to about 45 miles per hour
5.) It is generating less than half of the electricity expected because the panels could not be angled directly at the sun and Normandy isn’t exactly known for its year-round sunshine

[Kreo]

Glad few people got rich and politicians got much needed publicity at taxpayers expense.

[Cosmic Janitor]

4.) The noise from cars and trucks driving over the panels is so loud the speed limit had to be reduced to about 45 miles per hour
[/i]

That is probably one of the few areas of reseach where they could have actually learned something with this rubbish. While we do know alot about surfaces and noise generated by driving upon them, to engineer one that is coarse enough to allow proper resistance for save driving in all weather AND being silent enough to keep noise pollution down would have been a somewhat interesting field of study, especially since they have more freedom with shaping the surface compared asphalt which pretty much only allows you to control the properties by adjusting the granularity of the mineral aggregate (?*). Of course they could have checked that in a small scale test on 2 meter track on their parking lot. At the end of the day though we still have diametrally opposed requirements for each part that likely can't be overcome by material sciences, but at least they could have actually studied something there.. then again the added parameter of light transmissibility would have just fucked with it as well.


*not sure on the english terminology, feel free to correct me.

[Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang]

That is probably one of the few areas of reseach where they could have actually learned something with this rubbish. While we do know alot about surfaces and noise generated by driving upon them, to engineer one that is coarse enough to allow proper resistance for save driving in all weather AND being silent enough to keep noise pollution down would have been a somewhat interesting field of study, especially since they have more freedom with shaping the surface compared asphalt which pretty much only allows you to control the properties by adjusting the granularity of the mineral aggregate (?*). Of course they could have checked that in a small scale test on 2 meter track on their parking lot. At the end of the day though we still have diametrally opposed requirements for each part that likely can't be overcome by material sciences, but at least they could have actually studied something there.. then again the added parameter of light transmissibility would have just fucked with it as well.


*not sure on the english terminology, feel free to correct me.

Around here in City and village centers they are covering the streets with asphalt specially tailored to both have a highly resilient coarseness and noise absorbing properties. It does use controlled granularity (usually with a "gap", that will leave some porosity), and special polymers mixed in the bitumen. It is very resilient and even recommended for highly stressed spots like bus stops and roundabouts, but the caveat is that the noise absorbance decays over time, as it is based in the ground having tiny cavities that traps the soundwaves, but end up trapping dust ultimately, thus less and less efficient at trapping noise. To maintain the noise dampening they'd have to replace the surface layer every few years.

Of course conjugating that with the properties required of a photovoltaic cell is near impossible, given that baseline those are a smooth, hard surface : a perfect sound reflector and ice rink.

[Yriel]

They build a solar bike road here in germany, too. After a few months it started smoking and was deemed to dangerous to use so now it's closed. It's such a stupid concept.

[Galactis]

TL;DR: Solar Panals replacing all roadways, generate energy, LED lights to allow for traffic warnings, durable and all that (watch video)

1. What are you opinions on these?
2. What are the negatives? When it comes to cost how long is the time frame on the ROE?
3. Has anyone seen these in action yet?

Video Link 6 minutes in total.

Website link
http://paksc.org/video/documentaries...-the-prototype


So, I've heard of this mentioned in the past and all of the good ideas to go along with it.
Some time has passed since then until this video popped up in my facebook feed. And it did make a lot of sense.
Although the video is a marketing pitch so it's obviously bias. But I am curious to know what everyone's opinion on these is.
What are the negatives that aren't being mentioned?
Has anyone seen any of these in use yet?

Fake.

It's a REALLY good idea but, won't work here in the northern states or half the northern countries around the world. SNOW and CLOUDS.

[Thekri]

Fake.

It's a REALLY good idea but, won't work here in the northern states or half the northern countries around the world. SNOW and CLOUDS.

So glad you managed to debunk the idea from 2015 that has now been empirically tested. This is Trump level analysis here. While there are many, many reasons solar roadways are impractical, believe it or not the engineers did think of snow and clouds.

[grexly75]

Yeah, a good idea in theory but it has a few major issues. Mostly, the expense (would cost trillions to cover our roadways) and then vandalism and maintenance.

I think instead we should focus on getting solar panels to cover our rooftops and just keep with asphalt on the road.

The other thing would there be any traction, as I can only guess that it would be like driving on ice.. This is why roads still use asphalt for the road surface so tires have something to grip onto.

[Thekri]

For those interested, a major effort for solar roadways in the US is in Georgia. They built a prototype back in 2017, which you can read about here. It has run into exactly the same problems as elsewhere, but fortunately for us residents of the state, it seems to be transitioning to the far more practical idea of using the open medians around state highways for conventional solar arrays. Georgia Power is currently installing them, and they will be generating multiple megawatts of power by the end of the year.

Now granted, 2 megawatts of power is basically nothing in comparison to what Georgia actually uses, this is a trial program only, but it does have promise. Solar power also has significant issues with transmission and storage, so I am curious to see how scalable this new initiative is.

[ati87]

For those interested, a major effort for solar roadways in the US is in Georgia. They built a prototype back in 2017, which you can read about here. It has run into exactly the same problems as elsewhere, but fortunately for us residents of the state, it seems to be transitioning to the far more practical idea of using the open medians around state highways for conventional solar arrays. Georgia Power is currently installing them, and they will be generating multiple megawatts of power by the end of the year.

Now granted, 2 megawatts of power is basically nothing in comparison to what Georgia actually uses, this is a trial program only, but it does have promise. Solar power also has significant issues with transmission and storage, so I am curious to see how scalable this new initiative is.

Then again space is limited and if we can use already used space to generate power then that's a major step forward which is the idea of building solar-panels in roads came from.

[Thekri]

Then again space is limited and if we can use already used space to generate power then that's a major step forward which is the idea of building solar-panels in roads came from.

That is the general idea. The other very available real estate is the roofs of large stores and businesses, which can be very useful to cover in solar panels, as not only do they generate electricity, they also block the sunlight from heating up the roof, thus lowering AC costs. The main reason we don't do that is the phenomena I discussed earlier, where normal companies are not thrilled about the idea of entering the power generation business when it isn't in their core business model.

[ati87]

That is the general idea. The other very available real estate is the roofs of large stores and businesses, which can be very useful to cover in solar panels, as not only do they generate electricity, they also block the sunlight from heating up the roof, thus lowering AC costs. The main reason we don't do that is the phenomena I discussed earlier, where normal companies are not thrilled about the idea of entering the power generation business when it isn't in their core business model.

There is even a idea of putting a panel on top of a car, again this shit has top be experimented with because otherwise that's how progress works.

And most companies don't own the buildings, they lease it. So placing solar panels is maybe a bit to much for some.

[announced]

Solar roadways seemed like a neat idea, but after reading about all the problems I'm glad they decided to try other things like medians and on roofs of buildings.

Solar and wind power are the ways of the future, but we really need their panels to be more efficient. Right now their rates are abysmal. I would consider them if they had a 50% efficiency rate, but not 22.8%

[bbr]

So, I've heard of this mentioned in the past and all of the good ideas to go along with it.
Some time has passed since then until this video popped up in my facebook feed. And it did make a lot of sense.
Although the video is a marketing pitch so it's obviously bias. But I am curious to know what everyone's opinion on these is.
What are the negatives that aren't being mentioned?
Has anyone seen any of these in use yet?

The good is, well yeah - lots of roads, lots of "space",. but so many downsides.

Low performance.
Slippery roads - longer stop distance, thus more accidents.
Expensive maintenance.

Now, putting up solar panels on the divider between roads, or the barrier alongside it - im all for that. And it makes sense.
However - thieves will always see profit and take those away easily.