Author Topic: solar roadways  (Read 46953 times)

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Offline EEVblog

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #25 on: May 30, 2014, 06:35:12 am »
ThunderfOOt has got a debunking video coming up on this soon. Should be funny.
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #26 on: May 30, 2014, 06:40:35 am »
For those who haven't seen the hype video:
 

Offline AndyC_772

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #27 on: May 30, 2014, 06:46:10 am »
A glass road surface?

Really?

I'd love to see whoever came up with that idea ride a motorcycle round a corner on one. Preferably with a couple of years' worth of oily deposits and/or in the rain.

Offline GK

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #28 on: May 30, 2014, 07:43:55 am »
Why is anyone even arguing over this? It's just a load of BS  ::) That freaking retarded video is 7 minutes of my life I won't get back.

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Offline corrado33

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #29 on: May 30, 2014, 06:09:22 pm »
So they're heated to remove snow... I guess that deals with "plows will tear these apart".

Answer me this...

What happens when a lot of snow falls quickly, sits on the road, blocks all of the sunlight? Or what happens when snow falls at night? Especially since during the wintertime solar panels aren't nearly as effective at other times of the year. You mean to tell me that during the wintertime, these panels will produce enough energy to not only heat themselves, but also produce energy? Even with a lower amount of solar energy?  :-DD Sure, if they get cleared off they'll absorb a lot of the sun's IR energy and pretty much stay heated that way, but if it's snowing, or cloudy? I don't think so.

As for solar "freakin'" sports courts? I'd love to see someone try to play hockey on that stuff, or even anything with wheels or a small ball. Basketball might be ok, but I can't imagine there'd be much traction on it. (With shoes.) I'd imagine you'd get some really weird bounces with any type of small ball (tennis, ball hockey, street hockey) etc.

Kickstarter/whatever other site has mainly become a joke for me. Most of the projects I see are basically scams in one way or another to get ignorant people to fund stuff that looks cool but will never have a chance of working. Even if the scam itself is unintentional (as in the case of a naive project leader thinking he can do something when in reality he can't), they're still scams nonetheless.
 

Offline miguelvp

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #30 on: May 30, 2014, 06:59:45 pm »
Actually the heated stuff is answered, the cells are connected to the grid and at night they consume electricity since they have no storage.

So that's one of the least of their problems.

People seem to keep throwing money at them, so for example now they have to make the thank you video and name 7,796 people in the video and keep it posted in their website.

Then 622 individual videos thanking them individually. Hopefully those are done while they are raising the money, since they are supposed to send them within 24 hours.
 

Offline corrado33

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #31 on: May 30, 2014, 07:07:58 pm »
Actually the heated stuff is answered, the cells are connected to the grid and at night they consume electricity since they have no storage.

I figured as much. Seems like it'd take quite a bit of energy to melt the snow off of roadways. (I live in montana, I deal with snow... often...)
 

Offline nitro2k01

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #32 on: May 30, 2014, 09:47:26 pm »
Yep, it's decidedly a stupid idea. But on a different note, why does he pronounce asphalt as ashphalt?  :-//
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Offline Legit-Design

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #33 on: May 31, 2014, 03:12:30 am »
Just about everything they do is wrong. Wrong wrong wrong on so many levels.

Lets take that FRICKIN' tractor

They claim it's so durable it can even take a tractor!
Tractors are meant to go on fields, fields can get soggy and muddy. In best cases you will be up to your knees deep in mud on fields, tractor will just keep going. Tractors have big surface area on their wheels which supports it and puts the pressure down evenly. Yes the wheels are also designed for traction but traction alone is not going to keep them "afloat".
 

Offline Bored@Work

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #34 on: May 31, 2014, 07:22:38 am »
What happens when a lot of snow falls quickly, sits on the road, blocks all of the sunlight? Or what happens when snow falls at night? Especially since during the wintertime solar panels aren't nearly as effective at other times of the year. You mean to tell me that during the wintertime, these panels will produce enough energy to not only heat themselves, but also produce energy? Even with a lower amount of solar energy?  :-DD Sure, if they get cleared off they'll absorb a lot of the sun's IR energy and pretty much stay heated that way, but if it's snowing, or cloudy? I don't think so.

There is more fun. Lets say they manage to melt the snow. Lets say lots of snow. So they have lots of water. What happens with the water? It freezes near the roadside, where the heating ends, creating all sorts of ice sculpture. You end up with clean roads, decorated by hard slippery ice.

Quote
Kickstarter/whatever other site has mainly become a joke for me. Most of the projects I see are basically scams in one way or another to get ignorant people to fund stuff that looks cool but will never have a chance of working. Even if the scam itself is unintentional (as in the case of a naive project leader thinking he can do something when in reality he can't), they're still scams nonetheless.

Pssst. You are not supposed to say that loud. People want to believe in the crowdfunding bullshit, and conman happily take their money. Interestingly, the crowdfunding fanboys on the forum here got a lot more quiet recently. Probably reality finally sunk in.
« Last Edit: May 31, 2014, 07:29:17 am by Bored@Work »
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Offline johansen

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #35 on: May 31, 2014, 07:31:53 am »
Simply Isn't sufficient energy available to keep roadways free of ice, except on the most traveled freeways.

Semi trucks run their tires at up to 120 psi, that's the most i've heard of. 90 psi is typical for lots of rigs, 60 psi for smaller trucks. 25 to 35 psi for small vehicles
tractors run at 5 to 20 psi.
road wear follows axle weight to the fourth power, and is linear with axle pressure.. afaik, might be pressure squared or something. read wikipedia lol.

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Offline ChrisW

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #36 on: May 31, 2014, 06:46:25 pm »
ThunderfOOt has got a debunking video coming up on this soon. Should be funny.

 

Offline SeanB

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #37 on: May 31, 2014, 07:26:02 pm »
Brother in law used to work for a brick maker. They delivered a load to a building site, where they had just laid the new tar road. The driver dry steered the ERF truck to reverse, and turned out 4 neat divots of the fresh tar. Then reversed and planted them back in the road in a new place. Dry steered again and took another 4 out. 12.5 tons per front axle, and 22 tons per rear axle. Front single tyre, rear dual tyre. Imagine that load on a glass tile and going off the edge.
 

Offline Sionyn

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Solar Roads Debunked
« Reply #38 on: May 31, 2014, 08:19:58 pm »
they took 20 mediocre ideas and implemented them in an awkward context as a gimmick. Thereby they created a product so awkward that the ideas went from mediocre to straight-up bad, glass roads i mean really :-DD

they claim to solve all the world's problems was enough to set off my skeptic sense  :scared:.
Thinking it through at any length makes it pretty clear that this is a silly idea.

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Offline Stonent

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Offline djacobow

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #40 on: May 31, 2014, 10:47:03 pm »
So glad to find this thread and see this video. I have a crush on Thunderf00t now. I've been fighting an uphill debunking war on this stupid idea on Facebook for weeks now.


ThunderfOOt has got a debunking video coming up on this soon. Should be funny.


 

Offline vtkkorhanjoh

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #41 on: May 31, 2014, 11:10:54 pm »
No wonder they did it on IndieGoGo, the website has more than enough loopholes and legal disclaimers than what is necessary to just run away with the money and live of the rent for the remainder of your life. The Mu optics thermal imager, Luctim, etc. are great examples of people exploiting gullible schmucks by the use of fancy words and promises, while being devoid of any foundation in reality or technological feasibility.
 

Offline miguelvp

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #42 on: June 01, 2014, 12:02:12 am »
No wonder they did it on IndieGoGo, the website has more than enough loopholes and legal disclaimers than what is necessary to just run away with the money and live of the rent for the remainder of your life. The Mu optics thermal imager, Luctim, etc. are great examples of people exploiting gullible schmucks by the use of fancy words and promises, while being devoid of any foundation in reality or technological feasibility.

The thing is, that they don't have to run away with the money, they are selling T-shirts, coffee mugs, bumper stickers, digital thank you videos, hats, canvas shopping bags, collar pendants, custom photoshopped images of your road. name engraving on their lot and glass hexagons. Sure they can deliver that.

Edit: the only working thing they have to deliver based on their tech is 9 out of 100 7 inch working models at $10k a pop. If the real ones only give 36 Watt/hr the little 7 inch ones can't give more than 10 Watt/hr probably way less than that.

« Last Edit: June 01, 2014, 12:39:22 am by miguelvp »
 

Offline deth502

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Re: Solar Roads Debunked
« Reply #43 on: June 01, 2014, 01:12:53 am »
great video. many of the things i had first thought when i watched it were addressed, along with a few other things i hadnt considered. one thing i didnt see addressed is batteries if you want to use a solar powered led at night. that would likely be the single most important point in establishing the lifespan of the electronics (not counting the road surface)

and i didnt read the other thread as the title gave me a "positive" vibe, and from teh first time i saw the video, i had no positive feelings about this whole idea. (well, i can see one or 2 good points, but nothing to justify the time and cost)
 

Offline TheBorg

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #44 on: June 01, 2014, 01:14:04 am »
Just about everything they do is wrong. Wrong wrong wrong on so many levels.

Lets take that FRICKIN' tractor

They claim it's so durable it can even take a tractor!
Tractors are meant to go on fields, fields can get soggy and muddy. In best cases you will be up to your knees deep in mud on fields, tractor will just keep going. Tractors have big surface area on their wheels which supports it and puts the pressure down evenly. Yes the wheels are also designed for traction but traction alone is not going to keep them "afloat".

If you live anywhere near agriculture, you know that that isn't a real tractor. More like a lawn mower.
This is a real tractor!
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Offline staxquad

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #45 on: June 01, 2014, 02:39:26 am »
paved road is $1.89 per square foot
solar is $10,000 $69 per square foot

solar is 5,280 36 times more expensive, it's unjustifiable as a public expense (if it's a private expense, go ahead and waste the money, who cares)

"The biggest gap in funding is in surface transportation, in other words roads and bridges, which will need a whopping $846 billion."  Can't even do that because the USA is broke, more than $15 trillion in debt, they budget for military and "screw everything else" like infrastructure, education, social security, health, etc.

"The total cost to redo America’s roadways with Solar Roadways would be $56 trillion — or about four times the country’s national debt."

fantasy for idiots
« Last Edit: June 01, 2014, 03:37:23 am by staxquad »
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Offline AG6QR

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #46 on: June 01, 2014, 02:44:35 am »
Just about everything they do is wrong. Wrong wrong wrong on so many levels.

Lets take that FRICKIN' tractor

They claim it's so durable it can even take a tractor!
Tractors are meant to go on fields, fields can get soggy and muddy. In best cases you will be up to your knees deep in mud on fields, tractor will just keep going. Tractors have big surface area on their wheels which supports it and puts the pressure down evenly. Yes the wheels are also designed for traction but traction alone is not going to keep them "afloat".

If you live anywhere near agriculture, you know that that isn't a real tractor. More like a lawn mower.


The tractor in the solar roadways demonstration appears to be a John Deere 3032e, or very nearly so.  That model weighs 2175 lbs., or 986 kg. 

That's considerably less than a Mini Cooper, nevermind a full-sized family car, or a large semi tractor-trailer freight hauling truck.

Consider this: virtually any lawn can handle being driven over once at low speed by a light tractor.  But try driving big freight rigs at high traffic densities over your lawn at freeway speeds for 20 years, and see how well the grass holds up.

 

Offline miguelvp

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #47 on: June 01, 2014, 02:57:59 am »
paved road is $1.89 per square foot
solar is $10,000 per square foot

That's a bit exaggerated, the $10,000 for the 7inch working model as a souvenir for the pledge, it is not the final cost, but yeah, I agree with you on the fantasy for idiots remark
 

Offline staxquad

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #48 on: June 01, 2014, 03:34:40 am »
paved road is $1.89 per square foot
solar is $10,000 per square foot

That's a bit exaggerated, the $10,000 for the 7inch working model as a souvenir for the pledge, it is not the final cost, but yeah, I agree with you on the fantasy for idiots remark


"Back in 2010, Scott Brusaw estimated a cost of $10,000 for a 12-foot-by-12-foot segment of Solar Roadway, or around $70 per square foot; asphalt, on the other hand, is somewhere around $3 to $15, depending on the quality and strength of the road."

oops, made a boobie

it's $69.44 per square foot ($4,399,718 per lane mile)

(I got "paved road is $1.89 per square foot" from "$120,000 per lane mile")
« Last Edit: June 01, 2014, 03:45:04 am by staxquad »
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Offline Gallymimus

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #49 on: June 01, 2014, 04:38:43 am »
+1 for Indiescamgo!!!!
 


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