Solar roads!

[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.

[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.

[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

[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.

[parkerbink]

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?

Move to P&R please.

It is neither Political nor religous.

[george graves]

Move to P&R please.

[ForcedFirebird]

It cost anywhere from a million a mile to 10million, or even a billion a or more a mile in places. For conventional road building.


You have any idea what this shit will cost build and maintain ..................................shudders at the though.

This.

Already the cities/counties/states have enough trouble keeping up with the current roads (or keeping schedule while building/maintaining them), could you imagine how many guys would be watching the man with the shovel on this one?

[Raxe]

Yeah this will be wonderful.

[E30Kaiser]

How does it stay clean with hooligans laying down rubber and spraying oil everywhere?

[parkerbink]

The video says they have solutions to load and traction issues. I doubt they would lie about those fundamental claims.

I am sure the greater issue is the cost per mile.

That said, if it works it can bring services anywhere the roads go.

It seems a great idea. I am more certain the powers that be will keep it from becoming more than an abortion.

[imsotyerred]

what if there's heavy traffic?

It sure is a neat way to make roads more useful

[Need4Speed1299]

Atleast before doing this, we could do something to solve "copper loss."

[parkerbink]

You mean how solar and wind energy are cost effective now?

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.

The longer we wait the worse it will be.

Change needs to happen sooner than later.

This is dumb.

First off,
Glass has limited friction.

Second,
Do we really need this right now?? Asphalt is cheap and works fine.

Lastly,
Too expensive to build and maintain. In the end I doubt they would break even.

Cite your sources for any of the above statements.

[Need4Speed1299]

This is dumb.

First off,
Glass has limited friction.

Second,
Do we really need this right now?? Asphalt is cheap and works fine.

Lastly,
Too expensive to build and maintain. In the end I doubt they would break even.

[briansjacobs]

I would like to see a feasability study on it. I think it is a great idea that may or may not work. I am glad to see people thinking outside the box.