Solar Roadways are on FIRE (No. Really. With Pictures.)

pv magazine USA ^ | 3/24/2017 | WombatKing

[WombatKing]

With its own cult following, Solar Roadways still captures the imaginations of people who live in an alternative universe where these “roads” will power the world’s future. But first, they will have to stop the infernal thing from catching on fire.

[WombatKing]

It's so sad/funny to see a liberal realize his dream is just the idiocy we've all talked about for years. It's even more hilarious to watch liberals turn on each other. Maybe they'll just eat each other and we won't have to deal with them much longer.

[hal ogen]

Nuking LIBs from orbit is the only way to be sure.

[rlmorel]

I saw the thing years ago, and thought “Hey. If they can make that work, power to them...” It wasn’t something I would have even considered.

But it is funny to see the Solar company guy who wrote the article lambaste the other company.

He doesn’t see that many people view him and his product the same way.

[rlmorel]

He was probably feeling threatened because his subsidy money might go somewhere else...

[marktwain]

It is actually a concept from nano-technology.

As nano-technology was concieved, the ability to engineer items with atom by atom precision would allow for robust roads that would be self repairing, and which would generate power from solar cells built into the road.

We are not there yet, but we keep making technological advances toward robust nano-tech. It seems likely that the tech will advance to that level as some point.

We already have a working example of robust nano-technology. We call it biology.

[Mr. Douglas]

I remember when I first saw this. I’m all for cool ideas, but it looked as dumb as the RCA needle-in-a-groove videodiscs. It looked like a classic example of paying ten bucks to save 5 bucks.

[Pollster1]

Exactly. Solar cells don’t respond well to cracking. Roads crack. I’m not sure who decided it would be fun to drive heavy vehicles over solar panels continuously, but it wasn’t a practical engineer.

[rlmorel]

My feeling was it was far fetched, but...I keep in mind a lot of things seem far fetched if they are advanced enough. It reminds me of a poster I had on the wall of my office for a long time: ""Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." (Was it Arthur C. Clarke?) The picture on the poster was a broadly grinning six year old boy from the fifties or sixties with big earphones, and some kind of apparatus it looked like he made himself...wish I could find it!

[rlmorel]

LOL, I did the same thing I do when I watch a science fiction movie that is a little...er...out there.

I temporarily suspend belief so I can enjoy the movie!

I thought the same thing, and...well, won’t they be slippery too? And abraded by dirt and grit? And so on...

[Pollster1]

With a suspension of disbelief, it’s a fun idea. The engineering itself disappoints me. We have enough issues on roads that are designed for durability and traction.

[rlmorel]

LOL, I live in the northeast, and it is hard enough to drive on gnarly asphalt roads in the winter, never mind ones with some kind of glass-like covering!

[ctdonath2]

Looks like the problem was with the control box, not the solar cells themselves.

[1_Rain_Drop]

Another name for glass like covering is, black ice.