191–200 of 349 posts
Yes, solar roads were always the answer to the question of "where is the absolute worst possible place to put solar panels". This was 100% predictable.
Could be worse.[1] Remember the schemes for recovering energy from traffic on sidewalks and roads? Pavegen pivoted to collecting info about people walking on their sidewalks, rather than energy. [1] https://pavegen.com/
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Not really. Bromide and chlorine are okay for humans to consume. Sunlight turns these into to bromate which is a carcinogen. https://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-what-s-really-going-on-w...
Okay, but do bromide and chlorine naturally occur in the water in that area? Or was it because of human meddling?
Though I'm not familiar with the specifics and details of this case (and have seen the Veritasium video describing the use), it's reasonable to assume that these treatments would be applied regardless, and the shade balls are an effective countermeasure.
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> That it currently do not work economically is the issue that the article showcase. It's more than that. We simply don't live in a world where physics is in favor for doing this. Many people have done more than back of the envelope calculations to show this simply was a non starter. Those (people who took money to build ) push this idea are either ignorant at best and dishonest at worst.
I do wonder if the concept could work on a sidewalk, given that they aren't being perpetually driven over by 3,000+ pound vehicles.
It only makes sense to start thinking about sidewalks once you've covered all the roofs, which are way better in every sense.
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They capture the imagination because there are plenty of places you don’t want to build solar panels. Namely places that you want to leave alone for ecological or recreational purposes. If you can take a piece of infrastructure that is pervasive throughout a built environment and give it additional purpose, then you can save on or reduce the land you specify for this purpose. Does it work? Apparently not, or at least…
The thing is though that currently most roads are made from asphalt, yet even that is not durable enough and needs to be periodically reapplied, how a glass can compete with that?
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Not really. Bromide and chlorine are okay for humans to consume. Sunlight turns these into to bromate which is a carcinogen. https://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-what-s-really-going-on-w...
Okay, but do bromide and chlorine naturally occur in the water in that area? Or was it because of human meddling?
The death tolls of historical urban outbreaks shows that you would MUCH rather drink the treated water.
Most solar panels are very inefficient at converting the sun to electricity so they need all the help they can get. Two things solar panels require is to be clean and to be perpendicular to the sun. A solar road achieves neither of those things.
Panels at the side of the roads?
Shade awnings over car parks another.
The challenge with solar power really isn't sufficient area for siting. It's low-cost installation and low-disturbance environments which ensure long panel life and low maintenance costs.
Solar panels have a useful lifetime of about 20 years, due to numerous degredation mechansims (it's not just one), from fogging of the transparent surface to cracking, glazing from dust and sand, hail impacts, broken circuits, etc. NREL (the National Renewable Energy Laboratory) in Colorado have published research on this.
Engineering low-cost, long-lived, readily installable and replaceable panels would be a generally advisable research direction. Looking for extreme siting locations (e.g., high-traffic highways, or even sidewalks), or even, counterintuitively, greater efficiency, is relatively unimportant as compared to total costs and lifetime.
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Panels at the side of the roads?
panels above urban tunnels, maybe powering some air filtering system ?
Benefits:
- Reduced evaporation losses.
- Extant rights of way / property rights.
- Extant technical infrastruction, including power transmission for pumps, etc.
Not that this is the only siting location to consider, but it's a reasonable candidate.
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Not OP, but I was curious: Let's assume a good solar panel yields 15 watts per square foot under direct sunlight. The DOT estimates about 1.5 million acres of interstate in the US. Without getting too complicated, let's assume we produce at our ideal wattage for 3 hours a day. Given our ideal solar panel, this is 2.94 billion kWh per day. Getting ideal conditions on a highway surface is unrealistic, so let's assume o…
Ok thanks, so now I'm trying to understand why the people behind Wattway couldn't make this simple estimate.
Be very wary of motivated reasoning.
Solar Freaking Roadways! Do you guys remember this viral youtube viral video? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlTA3rnpgzU
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Talk about ethical whiplash. I feel especially bad for any engineers that joined to make the world a better place then found out they would be designing tracking systems...
Yeah it sure would be awful if that happened to anyone. Imagine joining a company that claims to help the world and instead you design unbelievable tracking and surveillance systems. Ha ha. Ha. sobs