If you’re down in the dumps and worried, feeling like we might be witnessing the end of the world as we’ve known it and there’s nothing we can really do about global warming and climate change, then you’ve got to watch this video. Seriously. Watch it now.
Connect:
http://youtu.be/H901KdXgHs4
Not practical.
First. Glass roads? Too brittle and too easy to scratch.
Second. Too expensive. Why would you want to put your electricity producing tiles on a road instead of a roof where no one is going to drive on it and break it?
As scientist thunderfoot points out the cost of the glass alone (not including any of the solar cells or labor) would be $20 trillion-ten times the federal budget.
You would then have to build an entire electricity grid.Burying power lines cost ten times the cost of regular transmission lines. (Which cost as much per mile as a mile of freeway).
Third. Think about it. They only produce electricity in the day. They won’t be able to produce power for the glowing strips at night. They would have to be powered. It would take twice as much energy to power the LEDs for the roadway than they would produce. Just for the powered LED lines in the roadway.
http://youtu.be/ocV-RnVQdcs
Fourth. Why would I want to make a solar generating power parking lot? Cars will be covering your solar cells during the time you need to generate power. This is why solar cells in parking lots are on roofs covering cars. You can see this in practice all over the place.
Five. Heating the roadway? seriously? And what is going to provide the power to melt the snow? not the roadway since it’s covered in snow.It takes 330KJ to melt 1 kg of snow into water.
This critique is not against solar polar. I’m all for it. It’s for putting panels on a road. Why would I want to do that when there are roofs? Roofs which are on buildings already on the electrical grid?
Phil, thanks for taking the time to comment — and for being pro-solar. I agree that roofs are a great idea but they get covered in snow too. I think the success of solar will depend on battery technology, and storing the energy that’s created. Storing and transmitting energy is necessary for fossil-fuel based energy too so it’s not an issue confined to alternative sources. I’m hoping that more ideas like this one will be pursued.
Yes true about snow on solar panels. However rooftop panels are angled for maximum coverage. A flat road would collect snow and minimize area exposed to the sun.
Battery storage is already here.
http://youtu.be/pSdnycHfLnQ
Plug in hybrids. Cars tend to be parked during the daytime. In fact most of the time. Solar energy can be stored in the car and taken out by the grid in the daytime while it’s being charged by the sun. Obviously, this could only be done if the car is plugged into a solar array.
This would save on having to build another electrical grid.
This is also a very good youtube channel to get your climate news.
Thank you for your time.