Solar roads!

[BillBrasky]

If you took the time to pay attention you would have seen it can be made to include all kinds of innovations including heating which would mean no more need for snowplows.



Costs would theoretically be deferred by the production of electricity.



Instead of seeing all these negatives what about the massive positives?

I'm all for innovative thinking, but I'm also for common sense. Do you realize that the sun does not shine when it is snowing, therefore in order to heat the panels, they would be using energy from an outside source.


It's an idea that may be worth researching for busy metro areas that never go below freezing.

[briansjacobs]

haters gonna hate. It is no wonder why nothing ever gets done in this country! I could not care less if this works or not, or if it gets funded or not. The important thing is that real people are working on real problems, this could be the first step in an evolution that eventually makes a big difference. Science is important,progress is important. I still want my flying car that I was promised 25 years ago. We were supposed to have them by now

[Raxe]

The small positives are far outweighed by the massive negatives. They'll pay for themselves? No they won't, you'll pay for them with your tax dollars and heavily inflated power bills. Meanwhile all of the coal will sit in the ground doing shit-all while the hundreds of thousands of people employed by the coal industry will be looking for work.

You can't melt the snow when it's -10F outside, the water just refreezes somewhere else and becomes ice.

It's a nice dream but it can't and won't happen.

[Kershaw]

how often is snow covering the road vs how often snow is not covering the road?

yeah, i still dont see your point.

i think this is a great idea.

[briansjacobs]

I'm all for innovative thinking, but I'm also for common sense. Do you realize that the sun does not shine when it is snowing, therefore in order to heat the panels, they would be using energy from an outside source.
.

You are kidding right? Ever see people put on zinc and other SPF protection to go snow skiing. You can get a wicked sun burn from the sun bouncing up off the snow

[Kershaw]

if you can see the snow falling, the sun is shining.

how else could you see the world? a flashlight?

so much for common sense.

[mrsleeve]

Cost effective is about volume. If we had gotten serious with wind/solar/alternative generation after the 70s oil shortage it would be feasible now.

No It costs on the order of 1.4mill a Per Megawatt of power to build a wind turbine and about 600-800k to build with conventional fired power generation (IE Coal or Natural gas).
It takes VAST amounts of real estate to build a 800meg wind farm, Vs a few hundred acres for a Conventional fired or nuke facility. No to mention the anual cost of Maintenance of those turbines and the lease and Royalties you have to pay the guy actuly owns the ground that mill is sitting on. Just royalty payments are on the order 4k a year per turbine.

Solar, Fairly sure the sun dont shine at night, same real estate issues, where it is sunny all much of the time the hippies and greenies wont allow the arrays to be built or the transmission infrastructure to be built to get the power to market.

The only reason wind/solar is going up right now is the HUGE subsides coming form the feds put them up and maintain them. When that dries up well that will be it for that bubble industry.

If it was a economically viable means of production, for power (in the world of price controlled power) we would have been seeing utilities doing for the last 70 years.

The longer we wait the worse it will be.

NO again, We have over 150 years of Coal supplies, and about the same for natural Gas form just 2 major deposits that are just now starting to see development. With our modern scrubber tech, the ari coming outta the stacks at these plants is cleaner than the air going in, and getting better every day. The efficiency of these plants is also getting better and better there by extending that Coal and N/G supply even further. Not to mention we have not built a Nuke plant in 30+ years.

Also the C02 can be scrubbed outta those plants can be used in the tight gas and oil shale plays to aid in freeing resource from parent rock and pushing it to the well points.

Change needs to happen sooner than later.

See above.

So with this road of yours we get to enjoy the higher taxes to build it, sky high energy rates to pay for and maintain it. What do we do about making Juice when its dark???? Gooddie I am tickled pink over this thought.

Edit: With this huge over abundance (the video said we could make more than 3 times the us demand) Power should be super Uber Cheap. Think like 2 cents a KwH, thanks to the laws of supply and demand. But then we have to add the taxes, and govt fees to it and it will be even more than what it is now. Then we have the problem of the federal govt owning the entirety power generation sector, not just having limited regulatory control. In some states they have have price controls on the generation industry. This would leave it all 100% control in every regard to the govts, and eliminated any private interest outta the equation. This seems like a VERY VERY slippery fucking slope to me as well.

[BillBrasky]

You are kidding right? Ever see people put on zinc and other SPF protection to go snow skiing. You can get a wicked sun burn from the sun bouncing up off the snow

Have you ever left Florida? I'm not talking about a ski resort in Vail. The sun doesn't shine 3-4 months out of the year in the northern part of the country.

[Raxe]

how often is snow covering the road vs how often snow is not covering the road?

yeah, i still dont see your point.

i think this is a great idea.

Upwards of 6 months a year. Clearly you've never lived up north for a period of time. Electric/solar powered anything simply does. not. work.

[BillBrasky]

if you can see the snow falling, the sun is shining.

how else could you see the world? a flashlight?

so much for common sense.

Will you get a tan from that sun when the snow is falling?

Solar panels need strong UV rays to be efficient.

[ForcedFirebird]

I agree, the idea and innovation are good, but a solar cell is just not the ticket when you factor in expense vs return.

Pressure-sensitive-current-producing roads might be more feasible, maybe even friction-bridges etc, but silicon-photochemical cells are unreliable, high maintenance, and fragile to boot.

As far as Brian talking about flying cars, I want one too! In the 80's we were told things would be really different than they are now, lol.

I still don't know why the MYT engine is still on hold, or the Newman engine still not a viable energy source?

[briansjacobs]

Will you get a tan from that sun when the snow is falling?

Solar panels need strong UV rays to be efficient.

check my earlier post on this. Yes, why do people not get sunburns when snowing, they are inside or all covered up!

[BillBrasky]

check my earlier post on this. Yes, why do people not get sunburns when snowing, they are inside or all covered up!

You've never left Palm Beach, have you?

[briansjacobs]

I would love to see an E30 MYT conversion

[briansjacobs]

got a wicked sunburn in crested butte