The first solar road has turned out to be a disappointing failure

Post by zzzcpan » Sat, Aug 17, 2019, 11:06 PM UTC

thaumaturgy wrote: post #177

mettamage wrote: post #172

Hmm... Can we just applaud that people are trying something new? Or are we going to shoot it down because of pessimism? If you know so well what works, then do your best and make it happen or write a guide on how to do experiments that almost always lead to success. They didn’t fail fast, but they failed with relatively little costs. What is 5 million to the national GDP of France? It seems to me they were trying som…

Yeah, this is how I see it too. It was an experiment. It failed. Things were learned from deploying it into a real-world environment. This may contribute in some way to a future technology, as often happens. HN of course is full of people who are experts on every topic, so naturally there was no need to actually perform this experiment. They could have just accurately predicted its faults and performance from theoriz…

Post by Wowfunhappy » Sat, Aug 17, 2019, 11:10 PM UTC

Endy wrote: post #145

dumbfoundded wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Post by mkl » Sat, Aug 17, 2019, 11:16 PM UTC

blunte wrote: post #93

WalterBright wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they should put water pipes to utilize the heat Missed by most people is that roads flex under the weight. (Stand next to the train tracks when a train goes by, you'll be startled at how much the ground moves.) Flexing of the roads it the primary cause of road maintenance - cracking and crumbling. Silicon chips in the roadbed, wires, pipes, etc, are all very vulnerable to cracking under bending loads. Putting water…

I know there have been some applications of piezoelectric floors put in places people walk (to generate small amounts of electricity). I wonder if this could have some practical value in roads. The energy would be small, but perhaps it would be enough to keep some distant electronic systems fed.

Post by jacquesm » Sat, Aug 17, 2019, 11:33 PM UTC

pasabagi wrote: post #158

Animats wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/

>Pavegen pivoted to collecting info about people walking on their sidewalks, rather than energy. Wow. Switching from saving the world, to spying on everybody in it. That's almost a perfect microcosm of how the tech industry seems to have morphed in the last decade.

Post by jacquesm » Sat, Aug 17, 2019, 11:35 PM UTC

degenerate wrote: post #166

agumonkey wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

political stunt wasting funds.. someone clueless decided or was lobbied to pick this thing.

This + quasi-scam. There's a lot of money to be made in the "going green" space and if lying about your product gets you the contract, only the government (citizens) lose and you laugh all the way to the bank. I wish more government contracts had forced warranty / refund clauses (whatever those are called).