The first solar road has turned out to be a disappointing failure
1–10 of 349 posts
Re: The first solar road has turned out to be a disappointing failure
#2Anyone who bothered doing the math knew this was a horrible idea from the very start.
Re: The first solar road has turned out to be a disappointing failure
#3“Cracks have appeared, and in 2018, part of the road had to be demolished due to damage from wear and tear.” as opposed to regular roads which never crack
“the road was only producing half of the expected energy” - great, so just 2 km of a solar road could power the streetlights of an entire city the size of Tourouvre, 3700 people.
We shouldn’t raise the white flag so quickly. I think we need a second iteration at least before we call it a failure.
Re: The first solar road has turned out to be a disappointing failure
#4It was a failure but I’m glad they tried it. Hopefully something like this comes to fruition and we learn more and more with every iteration. Solar roads are a great idea. Maybe it means it needs daily sweeping with electric vacuum trucks or something but if it’s producing enough electricity then it’s worth it.
Re: The first solar road has turned out to be a disappointing failure
#5Why wasn't that strip of land right by the road converted into a solar strip instead? It looks like that shoulder has almost as much physical area to it and would take a lot less wear and tear.
I never understood this idea to begin with.
Re: The first solar road has turned out to be a disappointing failure
#6Anyone who bothered doing the math knew this was a horrible idea from the very start. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=obS6TUVSZds
For those who don't watch him, EEVBlog has had excellent videos on the feasibility of solar roadways.
Re: The first solar road has turned out to be a disappointing failure
#7It was a failure but I’m glad they tried it. Hopefully something like this comes to fruition and we learn more and more with every iteration. Solar roads are a great idea. Maybe it means it needs daily sweeping with electric vacuum trucks or something but if it’s producing enough electricity then it’s worth it.
> It was a failure but I’m glad they tried it. ... Solar roads are a great idea.
It was a bad idea. Even in theory. The only positive thing about it is that it captured the imagination of lots of people who know nothing about solar or roads.
Re: The first solar road has turned out to be a disappointing failure
#8It was a failure but I’m glad they tried it. Hopefully something like this comes to fruition and we learn more and more with every iteration. Solar roads are a great idea. Maybe it means it needs daily sweeping with electric vacuum trucks or something but if it’s producing enough electricity then it’s worth it.
I just don’t see how it’s worth it at all compared to putting solar panels on top of buildings.
Solar panels on buildings don’t need to be as rugged, don’t need to be cleaned daily, etc, and they also can be oriented towards the sun to maximize output.
Solar roads are a solution looking for a problem. I can imagine they’d be useful to squeeze out an extra few % of output in a world where everything else is covered in stationary panels, but we’re far from that so I don’t see why we should invest lots into them were the same investment would pay much more if it was about stationary panels.
Re: The first solar road has turned out to be a disappointing failure
#9This article from 4 days ago says a solar road in the Netherlands is doing well, so it seems like the French road is just a bad design? I don’t know if they are in fact different hardware:
https://www.businessinsider.com/worlds-first-solar-road-turn...
Re: The first solar road has turned out to be a disappointing failure
#10“Cracks have appeared, and in 2018, part of the road had to be demolished due to damage from wear and tear.” as opposed to regular roads which never crack “the road was only producing half of the expected energy” - great, so just 2 km of a solar road could power the streetlights of an entire city the size of Tourouvre, 3700 people. We shouldn’t raise the white flag so quickly. I think we need a second iteration at le…
> “Cracks have appeared, and in 2018, part of the road had to be demolished due to damage from wear and tear.” as opposed to regular roads which never crack
Regular roads don't fall apart in 18 months, they take 18 years (or longer) to do so.