Author Topic: solar roadways  (Read 46956 times)

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Offline rob77

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #100 on: June 16, 2014, 03:57:59 pm »
3) Amount of power generated:  If you sat down an came up with the worst potential layout and architecture for a solar array, i would suggest, that other then putting them "indoors", a solar roadway would be it.  No mention of the effects of the angle of incidence of the sun / effect of dirty or damaged panels etc.

I was thinking of permanently installing a solar panel under a car. Just to demonstrate how much a solar parking lot would generate in worst case scenario. And how it would affect the return of investment. Maybe if I installed it pointing down we could make all the roads reflective to make it actually generate some power. Making all roads reflective would actually cost much, but then we could have cars with solar panels under them to power them? This could work as replacement for induction coils. Since induction charging for electric cars is not there yet, so we could use light instead. Also at night we could turn on the leds embedded in the roads to make it go. Other way would be to make a car out of glass... roof out of glass (we already have these) and floorboard out of glass and have the sun shine directly through the whole car and power the solar panel under it.

and let's not forget the pedestrians ! we should make the sidewalks reflective and use solar panels on the bottom of shoes to charge mobile phones. there is 6 billion people on Earth... you know what a hell of a surface area we could get placing solar panels on the underside of 6 billion pairs of shoes ? maaan...  that would be awesome !!!  going to send these suggestions to those solar roadway folks !  >:D
 

Offline FrankBuss

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #101 on: June 16, 2014, 04:08:38 pm »
and let's not forget the pedestrians ! we should make the sidewalks reflective and use solar panels on the bottom of shoes to charge mobile phones. there is 6 billion people on Earth... you know what a hell of a surface area we could get placing solar panels on the underside of 6 billion pairs of shoes ? maaan...  that would be awesome !!!  going to send these suggestions to those solar roadway folks !  >:D
Better use a solar hat:

with such a project on Kickstarter you could get millions of dollars :-DD
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Offline Legit-Design

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #102 on: June 16, 2014, 04:24:56 pm »
and let's not forget the pedestrians ! we should make the sidewalks reflective and use solar panels on the bottom of shoes to charge mobile phones. there is 6 billion people on Earth... you know what a hell of a surface area we could get placing solar panels on the underside of 6 billion pairs of shoes ? maaan...  that would be awesome !!!  going to send these suggestions to those solar roadway folks !  >:D
Better use a solar hat:

with such a project on Kickstarter you could get millions of dollars :-DD

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Offline PlainName

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #103 on: June 16, 2014, 04:32:41 pm »
Quote
Making all roads reflective

That would increase the albedo of the Earth and reduce global warming, thus appealing to the climate change alarmists to boot. What's not to like  :-+
 

Offline FrankBuss

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #104 on: June 16, 2014, 04:42:29 pm »

$10,000USD
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I would sell this for a bargain of $1,000  ^-^
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Offline miguelvp

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #105 on: June 16, 2014, 06:02:59 pm »
A solar powered (parabolic mirror) stirling engine hooked to a generator will convert way more energy even will all the heat losses.

Just make sure it doesn't catch things on fire :)

 

Offline rob77

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #106 on: June 16, 2014, 06:09:54 pm »
A solar powered (parabolic mirror) stirling engine hooked to a generator will convert way more energy even will all the heat losses.

Just make sure it doesn't catch things on fire :)

but you have to cool the other side of the engine to have good efficiency (higher delta T => better efficiency).
 

Offline deth502

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #107 on: June 16, 2014, 08:34:54 pm »
3) Amount of power generated:  If you sat down an came up with the worst potential layout and architecture for a solar array, i would suggest, that other then putting them "indoors", a solar roadway would be it.  No mention of the effects of the angle of incidence of the sun / effect of dirty or damaged panels etc.

I was thinking of permanently installing a solar panel under a car. Just to demonstrate how much a solar parking lot would generate in worst case scenario. And how it would affect the return of investment. Maybe if I installed it pointing down we could make all the roads reflective to make it actually generate some power. Making all roads reflective would actually cost much, but then we could have cars with solar panels under them to power them? This could work as replacement for induction coils. Since induction charging for electric cars is not there yet, so we could use light instead. Also at night we could turn on the leds embedded in the roads to make it go. Other way would be to make a car out of glass... roof out of glass (we already have these) and floorboard out of glass and have the sun shine directly through the whole car and power the solar panel under it.

and let's not forget the pedestrians ! we should make the sidewalks reflective and use solar panels on the bottom of shoes to charge mobile phones. there is 6 billion people on Earth... you know what a hell of a surface area we could get placing solar panels on the underside of 6 billion pairs of shoes ? maaan...  that would be awesome !!!  going to send these suggestions to those solar roadway folks !  >:D


ive got an idea for a competing campaign. hate wearing ill-fitting, uncomfortable shoes? hate getting your shoes muddy and tracking dirt into your house? cell phone battery keep going dead? well here is the kickstarter for you!! for your donations of $500triillion, we will have the entire world covered with carpet. each person would then get a pair of wool socks, and we will develop a device to charge your cell phone from the static electricity generated from walking on the carpet.

sure, the idea can use some refinements, but i think its already more plausible than solar roadways.
 

Offline Phaedrus

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #108 on: June 16, 2014, 10:42:57 pm »
3) Amount of power generated:  If you sat down an came up with the worst potential layout and architecture for a solar array, i would suggest, that other then putting them "indoors", a solar roadway would be it.  No mention of the effects of the angle of incidence of the sun / effect of dirty or damaged panels etc.

I was thinking of permanently installing a solar panel under a car. Just to demonstrate how much a solar parking lot would generate in worst case scenario. And how it would affect the return of investment. Maybe if I installed it pointing down we could make all the roads reflective to make it actually generate some power. Making all roads reflective would actually cost much, but then we could have cars with solar panels under them to power them? This could work as replacement for induction coils. Since induction charging for electric cars is not there yet, so we could use light instead. Also at night we could turn on the leds embedded in the roads to make it go. Other way would be to make a car out of glass... roof out of glass (we already have these) and floorboard out of glass and have the sun shine directly through the whole car and power the solar panel under it.

and let's not forget the pedestrians ! we should make the sidewalks reflective and use solar panels on the bottom of shoes to charge mobile phones. there is 6 billion people on Earth... you know what a hell of a surface area we could get placing solar panels on the underside of 6 billion pairs of shoes ? maaan...  that would be awesome !!!  going to send these suggestions to those solar roadway folks !  >:D


ive got an idea for a competing campaign. hate wearing ill-fitting, uncomfortable shoes? hate getting your shoes muddy and tracking dirt into your house? cell phone battery keep going dead? well here is the kickstarter for you!! for your donations of $500triillion, we will have the entire world covered with carpet. each person would then get a pair of wool socks, and we will develop a device to charge your cell phone from the static electricity generated from walking on the carpet.

sure, the idea can use some refinements, but i think its already more plausible than solar roadways.

Probably cheaper; the cost per m^2 of polyester carpet is a few orders of magnitude lower than the cost of solar panels + tempered glass!
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Offline MacAttak

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #109 on: June 17, 2014, 12:35:46 am »
...Other way would be to make a car out of glass... roof out of glass (we already have these) and floorboard out of glass and have the sun shine directly through the whole car and power the solar panel under it.

Couldn't help myself...

 

Offline Legit-Design

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #110 on: June 18, 2014, 10:41:29 am »


OH MYYY... FRINKIN'

Holy shit... they put microcontroller and leds in their panels... NOW THEY CAN LIGHT UP THE FRINKIN' ROAD!!! Who would have thought they could do this? Now it must be worth to give them lot of money since they can program a led display?

How about scrolling text? How about dynamic text?


NEW LOW FOR THEM!
SOLAR ROADWAYS PRESENTS



Quote
Very touching story - thank you to all who participated for sharing this with us.
:palm: :palm: :palm: :palm: :palm: :palm: :palm:
"these people would have been saved if we got 2 million earlier"  :-+

I wonder how many people will die and be injured when they can't stop on glass surface like these people promised?
« Last Edit: June 18, 2014, 10:50:38 am by Legit-Design »
 

Offline echen1024

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #111 on: June 18, 2014, 03:23:54 pm »
I love how they ALWAYS show the LEDs at night
I'm not saying we should kill all stupid people. I'm just saying that we should remove all product safety labels and let natural selection do its work.

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Offline sunnyhighway

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #112 on: June 18, 2014, 04:28:21 pm »
Another attempt to gain even more buzz an credibility.

source: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/solar-roadways#activity
Quote from:  Scott Brusaw
We were sworn to secrecy until now, but Solar Roadways was invited to the first ever Maker Faire hosted by the White House. The event will feature Makers, innovators, and entrepreneurs of all ages who are using cutting-edge tools to bring their ideas to life. We we're honored to be chosen. Off to the White House now! Will report back tonight.



Scott Brusaw


What's next?
Obama shaking hands with Scott Brusaw while receiving a hexagon tile?
 

Offline deth502

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #113 on: June 19, 2014, 02:15:54 am »


Quote
Very touching story - thank you to all who participated for sharing this with us.
:palm: :palm: :palm: :palm: :palm: :palm: :palm:
"these people would have been saved if we got 2 million earlier"  :-+


"so if the SOLAR roadway thing, even if it was just implemented for those specific DARK corners......"

 :-//
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #114 on: June 19, 2014, 03:56:16 am »
I'm maybe a few hours away from hitting record on a debunking video...
There is so much to include though, it's hard to know what to put in and what to leave out...
 

Offline echen1024

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #115 on: June 19, 2014, 04:04:17 am »
I'm maybe a few hours away from hitting record on a debunking video...
There is so much to include though, it's hard to know what to put in and what to leave out...
Do it. Please. You are a widely respected member of the hobbyist/hacker/maker community, and your video would surely add weight to the idea that solar roadways is not as rosy as it might seem. I would put in the nah points, such as the unpracticalness and some technical deficiencies (~5-8) to go along.
I'm not saying we should kill all stupid people. I'm just saying that we should remove all product safety labels and let natural selection do its work.

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Offline pickle9000

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #116 on: June 19, 2014, 04:39:37 am »
I'm maybe a few hours away from hitting record on a debunking video...
There is so much to include though, it's hard to know what to put in and what to leave out...

Nice!!
 

Offline CanadianAvenger

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #117 on: June 19, 2014, 05:07:28 am »
I'm maybe a few hours away from hitting record on a debunking video...
There is so much to include though, it's hard to know what to put in and what to leave out...
Do it. Please. You are a widely respected member of the hobbyist/hacker/maker community, and your video would surely add weight to the idea that solar roadways is not as rosy as it might seem. I would put in the nah points, such as the unpracticalness and some technical deficiencies (~5-8) to go along.

I don't think Solar Roadways carries much credibility in the hacker/maker community. The people that are praising it, are generally clueless about technology. [I'd still love to see Dave's take on it though]
 

Offline pickle9000

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #118 on: June 19, 2014, 05:27:08 am »
There is also the issue that the asphalt is basically a flexible roof for the subgrade. Roads move and need to be formulated to reduce cracking, handle heat, cold all at the expense of durability. What will be used to keep all the tiles in place?
 

Offline ludzinc

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #119 on: June 19, 2014, 05:28:41 am »
I'm maybe a few hours away from hitting record on a debunking video...
There is so much to include though, it's hard to know what to put in and what to leave out...

New segment:  Daily Solar Roadway Debunking.  Release each point as it's own 2 minute clip.

You could keep going until tech catches up and makes solar roadways viable!
 

Offline Bored@Work

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #120 on: June 19, 2014, 06:13:08 am »
I'm maybe a few hours away from hitting record on a debunking video...
There is so much to include though, it's hard to know what to put in and what to leave out...

Fine if it is an entertaining rant.

However, if you try to convert believers in the scam into realists by coming up with facts, and trying to convince them it is a scam, well, waste of time. There is already more than enough material out there for those who want to educate themselves. The believers don't care. Pearls before swine.
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Offline Legit-Design

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #121 on: June 19, 2014, 06:23:32 am »
Where does all this energy come from to heat the road (to melt snow and ice) if there is a blizzard during the night? The road is in darkness and when morning comes the solar cells are covered in 10cm of snow and ice, or more. Won't snowploughs rough up the glass surface? I don't know, never seen one close up.

They have thought of EVERYTHING  :-DD

Here's the worst case scenario: if all else fails, we can replace snow plows with street sweepers where needed (vehicles with large rotating brushes). They're used here in Idaho in the spring to clear the roads of the sand that was used for traction during the winter months.
So they know normal plows would damage the surface. For those don't see snow every winter, snow plow WILL carve grooves on the asphalt on worst case scenario. Snow plow will create sparks with it's plow and road surface when the operator goes too deep. Worst grooves I've seen on the road were same depth as those glass tiles.

For every engineering problem there is a solution that will cost shit tons of money. They are planning to fix their problems exactly like that.

I think they could fix their poor efficiency of their solar panels by having motor on the road for every brick. They just tilt the bricks and pressure sensors on the roads retract the solar panels when car comes. This extending and retracting could even double as SIGNALING DEVICE! Imagine to use shit ton of money and doing useless things that never should have existed, now in addition we can do cool things with it.

I'm maybe a few hours away from hitting record on a debunking video...
There is so much to include though, it's hard to know what to put in and what to leave out...

Fine if it is an entertaining rant.

However, if you try to convert believers in the scam into realists by coming up with facts, and trying to convince them it is a scam, well, waste of time. There is already more than enough material out there for those who want to educate themselves. The believers don't care. Pearls before swine.

I hope it's back of the envelope type calculations. Laying panels flat on ground is really inefficient. Putting tempered glass to disperse the suns energy is really inefficient. Now calculations how much inefficient it is? They have even kindly provided some numbers themselves. Ok now with all these inefficiencies we have limited lifetime of solar cells. Shouldn't we be trying to get most out of the cells, not trying to make them produce less than they could?
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #122 on: June 19, 2014, 06:53:06 am »
What will be used to keep all the tiles in place?

Huge concrete roads and associated cable pits. The tiles are bolted into place on concrete. They don't mention that much...
So any existing road that's not a concrete base (most of them I believe) need to be ripped up and replaced with concrete first.
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #123 on: June 19, 2014, 06:54:16 am »
I've started on some calcs...

« Last Edit: June 19, 2014, 07:13:21 am by EEVblog »
 

Offline PlainName

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Re: solar roadways
« Reply #124 on: June 19, 2014, 09:59:34 am »
Quote
snow plow WILL carve grooves on the asphalt on worst case scenario

I don't see a problem with that. When I had a CRT I would use any old glass cleaner on the screen to get the muck off it, never bother about finger marks, etc. On my LCD with the strange flexible(ish) screen I take a lot more care! If you use brute force stuff designed for old tech on your new tech you are asking for trouble, and if you can't change that brute force you're never going to advance. Thus changing the ploughs makes perfect sense (and trivially cheap compared to the cost of the  road) for the implementors. Those with a grudge won't see that using a forge to make ally parts is silly.

But having said that, you can't restrict traffic on a public road (sort of). You might change your ploughs, but are you going to ban tracked vehicles? How about a JCB moving between jobs or something similar? For this reason I see it as a big problem, and I suggest it is that aspect that is used to debunk. Banging on about ploughs won't convince anyone when they realise how easy it is to make it a non-problem.

(Some roads around here are restricted, typically for weight where there is a bridge that's on its last legs. So vehicles over a certain weight are banned. Also, I'm pretty sure that if one damages roadside furniture - perhaps dragging a JCB along to make a nice gouge - one can get hit with damages by the local council. Not sure if that actually happens other than in special cases, though.)
 


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