Comments on: Solar Roads

By: Cameron

Cameron — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 06:46:49 +0000

A great idea but what about instead of destroying all the roads and restarting, you simply replace the rural roads or those that are located mostly in deserts. The low population density would reduce the amount of damage on the road and would not affect the city's traffic patterns.

A very expensive idea but within ten years silicon will hopefully be a bit cheaper or at least a similar photovoltic metal will be able to be artificially created. In our plans to pave for 'third world' countries and rebuilding efforts like Haiti and Chile, why don't we consider putting a prototype of these in to see if they are even conceivable.

The idea of putting the panels on the roof is good in theory but not everyone wants that on their roof and it would alter a large part of the appearance of the building. When the panels were installed at the Vatican there were hundreds of thousands of dollars spent to hide the panels to prevent them from damaging the view. Too expensive and a possible turn off for architects and engineers.

By: ben

ben — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:31:33 +0000

of course we can! thx for pointing that out. looks like they changed their site... but here is the new location for the numbers: http://solarroadways.com/numbers.html

By: kirk

kirk — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:53:58 +0000

the link for solar Roadways the numbers is broken, can anyone fix this, im very interested

By: ELBSeattle

ELBSeattle — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 10:31:47 +0000

I had this idea about 8 years ago. I was taking a road trip during the summer and I remarked that someone should figure out how to make asphalt with photovoltaic cells. No trees to block the sun, and we have thousands of miles of highways. I'm glad that someone is developing this.

By: Will

Will — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:17:01 +0000

yeah, there are definitely a lot challenges that need to be overcome from an engineering pov. Doiee, you're definitely spot on about the maintenance of these roads which would add a considerable overhead. i do believe scott brusow did mention using self-cleaning materials - much like a lotus leaf that cleans itself after the rain. Again that is only one potential solution but i would imagine maintenance would still need to be done especially with the abuse roads normally take from vehicles and nature. as for how often would depend on the design and the durability of the materials.

as for solar grade silicon, not sure what the costs are exactly, but the last i heard they were going down with economies of scale and of course this would be a long term investment. I could be wrong, so feel free to correct me.

There is definitely a lot of work and a lot to think about, and it won't exactly be something that happens overnight. But if possible, when the technology and the design do become feasible and it makes sense from an overall costs perspective, then it's only a matter of just swapping asphalt for solar panels when it comes time to maintaining our existing roads. sounds simple eh? =)

By: Will

Will — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:01:07 +0000

By: ben

ben — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:25:15 +0000

even the asphalt roads need constant repair, and solar grade silicon aint cheap… solar panels don't have a positive roi until years after installation. how practical is this?

By: Doiee

Doiee — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:23:29 +0000

Great concept, as there are an endless supply of roads around the world, and changing them to solar panels wouldn't change the appearance of places like panels on every rooftop etc.

But what about oil and rubber that will eventually cover the panels. There would need to be constant maintenance. Another major factor would be the safety or road users. What would the traction be like on one of these roads?

By: Lone

Lone — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:45:35 +0000

A good effort in theory and hopefully something constructive derives from it but overall it is unnecessarily grand scheme. Better to keep all of the same infrastructure that would be required in this method exactly where it needs to be, the population centers, where the byproduct is used and the system can be maintained. Make every roof or predominantly sun facing surface on every structure in every city solar ready.

Now if you can develop an overwhelmingly positive plan for profit and self-sustaining industry that will sway the powers that be away from their established investments…