Solar Roadways

The video is so cool. I am sold on it already.

 

make it happen

 

Your naïveté is refreshing.

 

Didn't want to give you short iPhone response, needed time to fire up the computer. Quicker typing, but no spell check, sorry
OK, let's talk about it.

First, let's look at technology. Up until recently I was working for a company that supplied material among other things to the solar panel manufacturing. With technology this relatively new, you gotta learn a thing or two about how your product is used otherwise you're gonna be out pretty quickly. The general assumption, also perpetuated in the video, is that the technology is mature. It's not. Sure, when you're talking about collecting soar energy between 11 am and 1 pm on a cloudless sunny day -- direct sunlight and no obstructions -- the solar panels work great. Do you know that up until about 2-3 years ago efficiency of the solar panels dropped drastically when trying to collect between 8-11 am and 1-4 pm? I'm not talking about 10% drop either, it was barely half of what you'd get in the peak hours. The problem was partially solved with introduction of dopant atoms, primarily Boron, and fine-tuning proportion of Silicon and Germanium in the lattice. That took more than 5 years of research and a LOT of money. Mind you, this was just the problem if sunlight hitting at a less-then-perfect angle, the problem of collecting energy from scattered light, e.g. on a cloudy day, is still largely unsolved.
The point is the technology is still not mature and you'll not be able to harness as much energy as you'd like.

Next, infrastructure - part 1. And for easy let's assume that the technology is fully mature (again, it's not)
MOst of the roads are currently owned by either federal or state government. So installing the new roads becomes a nightmare. The question is: who owns the project?
IF it's government -- get ready for drastic increase in taxes because whatever price has to be paid, the big brother just doesn't have enough $$ to cover it. Selling roads to private companies? Certainly an alternative, but then get ready for paying tolls every 2 miles. So the big question becomes: who's paying for this, how, and how tey are going to recover the money.

Infrastructure - part 2.
I'm guessing reading previous paragraph, some people will be shouting "We'll pay for it with energy from solar power, you idiot!"
Not so fast.... You see, the problem is that during the day hours you produce excess of energy and at night you have deficit. There is no steady stream of sunlight for 24 hours, and in the house you don't have batteries to store afternoon excess to be used later. In house installations this is solved by partnership with local utility company. IN essence, you give them your excess during peak hours and then they supply you with juice at night. It's not "your' juice you're getting though -- there are no special batteries with "Joe Schmo" written on them. You shove your excess into the grid, and then get it back from the same common pool of juice. In effect, you're paying a royalty to your local utility company for playing the juice game with you. It's not an unreasonable solution actually. You have commodity, they have infrastructure to benefit from your commodity, so you're making a partnership. But now apply this to the roadways and this partnership will cost you another chunk of efficiency.

Another thing on the video was utilization of all those underground tunnels. Nice, but now in addition to cutting in the gov't, local utility companies, you need to cut another chunk of efficiency to pay off those underground guys.

You see where I'm going with it, right? Let's summarize.

1. The technology is not mature. You'll be using only a small portion of sunlight.
2. You'll have a major problem with gov't because they will either choose to "own" the roads themselves, or sell into private hands. Either way your cost will shoot up. Or, as I'd prefer to express it, you'll cut into your efficiency and effective energy gain.
3. You have to involve local utility companies -- for storage, distribution, etc, cutting further into effective energy gain.

Lastly... the current cost of installation on a single house is 7-10K (they charge more, this is the basic cost of the panels, installation and wiring). This cost is for non high-tech stuff. WIth microchip in every single panel, and special-made to withstand the weights of the traffic, the cost would quadruple, and this is probably a gross underestimation only part.

Why I think you're naïve?
Because wit x 3-4 cost and with all other parties you'll have to cut into the profit, a project like this will not be profitable!

 

You're taking about govt as if it was a financially sound institution. It's not. Any entity that has a ability to print money, literally, has no incentive in being financially sound, simply because it doesn't need to. If you as a private entity fucked up with money, you have a price to pay -- bankruptcy, layoffs, losing business. This rule doesn't apply to Feds - a fuck up means you'll have to move a couple of functionaries around (most of the times into a better position) and cover $$ hole with additional funds. As individual or a company you gotta worry where to get the fund, as govt you don't -- just raise taxes or declare new "war" on currently popular social vile -- pot, cigarettes, poverty, global warming, whatever.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the solar roads, ceasing dependency on fossil fuel, but these things can't be forced down from Washington. The solution has to be financially feasible else it'll become another way of taxation with 1-2 showcased roads to show for it. There is a good example of this: electric cars. The concept was around for decades, literally. The reason why they become more widespread now is because technology evolved to the point where cost of e-car is competitive and people have a real choice without undue monetary strain.

Correction... It actually CAN be forced from Washington, but the price for it would be another step toward nationalization of the state, a step toward a totalitarian state. Are you willing to pay this price for what's still a mirage of lucrative future?

 

Oil is going by the wayside, natural gas and water are being set up as the primary means of control in the world.

 

If I was big oil that's exactly the kind of video I'd make to kill solar roadways.

 

Uh, yeah. Your first clue is how it is completely accepted that chemicals are being pumped into our tap water, second should be the universal prevalence of corporately produced water bottles in pretty much anyone's hand these days.

I want to provide some links later, but if you have a chance, Google how Nestle is buying up aquifer property all over the world. Hell, the Bush family just bought the land over one of the biggest aquifers in South America.

Right now, I have to cook some genetically modified organisms over a fire fueled by wood that is treated with chemicals.

 

Sad, but most wells draw from an aquifer somewhere. And those aquifers can have outlets dammed underground. Fills them faster.

If you start hearing about wells "drying up" around you, that's probably what is happening.

 

If you're in the northeast or northwest then yes it has to be an artificial shortage. If you're in the southeast or Mississippi drainage area (which is half the US) then maybe. If you're in the southwest or area just east of the Rockies you're going to lose most of your water over the next generation. Those areas were either at thousand year highs for water or were fed by the vanishing glaciers in the Rockies.

This is going to be a very different country for people depending on where they live over the next 300 years. We've over-populated some very dry regions of the country and now we're headed into a dry time.

 

I doubt the mafia that controls most roadway projects will allow this to go through. It sound fantastic in principle. Imagine being able to set a road up for rush hour and then update it through out the day based on traffic readings that could be directly measured. Detours and everything else could be programmed and it would be so much easier. I just wonder about the sustainability of the panels. How much can they really take before wearing out or getting damaged? What happens if something causes a short circuit?

 

Nevada specifically Southern Nevada are a prime example of this. Just read up on Lake Mead and you'll know all you need to know. I give Las Vegas another 50-75 years before something drastic happens here regarding water.