Solar roads!

[mrsleeve]

it sounds like you don't fully nderstwnd the difference between tq and hp.

me ??????????????????

[z31maniac]

It sounds like you don't fully nderstwnd the difference between tq and hp.

[mrsleeve]

Because you said the MYT engine would have no torque, but at a high enough RPM, torque is present. The MYT engine makes an amazing amount of HP, therefore at a high RPM, it would also have torque.

Which is nearly useless in a car or truck engine. In a airplane or something that runs at peak power production to provide power to hydro pumps, or gen sets, is about the only place they would work.

TQ at the bottom is hard to give up once you have had it. I DD a duramax with 590ft/lbs at 1600ish RPM stock. I get in the little womans Tahoe with a 350 that makes like 300 ft/lbs and I am like WTF GO where the fuck is the power?????????

I know you have to keep e30's and similar speced engines wound up and drive them as such. You cant expect the general public to buy into something that you have to run wide open just to get to move thanks to the lack of tq.

[ForcedFirebird]

Yes I'm sure, you stated torque is equal to rpm. Not sure why you're justifying it with the formula for calculating hp?

Because you said the MYT engine would have no torque, but at a high enough RPM, torque is present. The MYT engine makes an amazing amount of HP, therefore at a high RPM, it would also have torque.

[honkey]

i'm still waiting on my hover board. thanks for nothing marty mcfly!

[daniel]

uh, hello people! why hasn't anyone thought of a road made from wind turbines?!

[honkey]

my city can't even fix a less complicated asphalt road, god help them if they had to fix a solar glass road. another thing to think about is if we had said solar roads all the workers would need to be engineers to a degree to work on it. what would happen to the work force already in place since most of them don't qualify?

i'm not saying it's a bad idea but it's very unrealistic.

[Wiglaf]

I'd be happy enough if half the traditional roads in my town were in decent shape, that in itself seems to be a tall order.

Distributed solar is not retarded. There's plenty of rooftops and open space to use, but as far as roads go it's just retarded to even try.

A different approach that uses a large black surface as the hot side of a heat pump would be a lot more feasable, but I still would reserve it for rooftops and areas that won't have trucks driving on it. Like ALL OF UTAH.

[smurfs_182]

I am in no way suggesting this will be done in the near future, I just think it is a good idea and deserves attention.

it does not deserve any attention, the chemicals and other processes used in solar panels will end up be detrimental to our plane

[smurfs_182]

1. This is way to expensive.
2. Roads are made of mostly non renewable resources
3. Solar panels are made of non renewable resources as well, but the materials in solar panels are even rarer and more expensive

I just finished a Civil Engineering tech program and trust me this will never happen. The materials for road building have reached a peak and our methods refined.

Innovations such road insulation and road heating have already been developed but prove to expensive to justify building all roads with this technology.

LOL that was my intelligent rant for the day

[mrsleeve]

Unfortunately before anything new hits the market, it goes through "will it generate profit" filter:
A. Yes it does! = go for it
B. No, but it saves the planet! = fuck it.

Right, thats how its supposed to work. and for the utility it will be asnwer A. Because our Govts (you know those of us that pay taxes) will subsidize the construction of such things, just like we do now with current Green tech Wind/Solar. Then govt's will tax the shit outta power to recoup some of that money when we buy the now Over abundant power thats supposed to be cheap.

So you get pay for it to go up with taxes, you get to Pay higher energy rates because its Green power there for gets a premium price, and then huge taxes on your energy to the govt on your power bill (just like gas is in europe) to make up for initial cost.

Tell me how this is a good Idea again from individual cash flpw stand point again????

[thornado327i]

I can tell you that research dollars in the chemistry world is being diverted from "It kills cancer" to "It saves the planet" right now.

Unfortunately before anything new hits the market, it goes through "will it generate profit" filter:
A. Yes it does! = go for it
B. No, but it saves the planet! = fuck it.

[ortholithiation]

What we really need is a breathrough in solar technology. Once we have something with a quantum efficiency of greater then 60% but can be mass produced and won't crap out after 5 years, the rest will follow.

Roads are stupid, roof tops are better. We already have a grid, just make it so that people would both give and take from the grid. People in sunnier areas could even make a little money doing this. We would still need oil/gas nuke plants to fill needs, but far far fewer.

With a surplus of energy, improvements in superconductors, hydrogen storage, and battery technology would also follow. It's not like we have to invent anything completely new, just make it much better.

I can tell you that research dollars in the chemistry world is being diverted from "It kills cancer" to "It saves the planet" right now.

[parkerbink]

I am in no way suggesting this will be done in the near future, I just think it is a good idea and deserves attention.

[thornado327i]

There is one more issue:

The energy needs to be stored before it gets used. The batteries are a pain to produce, and even more pain to dispose of. That's what pisses me off about Europe. Everyone is so focused about "ecology" and "green energy" but no one pays attention that all these batteries (from Hybrids too BTW) will need to be disposed of later.

And we are not ready to take and recycle/dispose such number of batteries. It's just "let later generations to worry about" kind of thinking.

For all these green energy stuff nobody thinks of costs of disposal of used stuff, and the only way for it to be cost effective and non-polluting energy would be to direct it straight to the mains bypassing the storage.