I just saw the solar freakin roadway video for the first time today. It is interesting if typical how the proponents love to shout down any opposition. The basis for the pro arguments seems to be “Well, they have engineers working on this stuff, so I’m sure they have considered it/will figure it out.”
Some of the considerations I haven’t seen discussed yet include the following:
1. The road surface would be black after a short time due to the tires scrubbing across it. Electricity output would decline to near zero.
2. Solar cells degrade over time. After the huge initial investment, there would be a huge continuing investment of replacing them all in 20-25 years.
3. Every road where these were installed would require a new cable vault installed beside it where the interconnections and power transmission would be accomplished. This is another huge expense.
4. Part of the incentive for this project seems to be the factor of how cool it would look at night. That “Tron” look takes electric power, which is not being generated by solar cells when there’s no sunlight. We will still need baseload coal, natural gas or nuclear power plants to power up the huge electrical load posed by these roads for many hours every day.
5. Consider driving over an asphalt road surface in the rain. Now replace the asphalt with tempered glass. How does that affect your vehicle’s stopping distance? “The road was as slick as glass” takes on an entirely new meaning if it actually IS glass.
6. Painted lines on asphalt are permanent. They don’t glitch out or disappear when their computer restarts.
The idea sounds wonderful and innovative, but without further study and proof of concept, I’m not going to get too excited about it.
Let them raise the money and build some short stretches of road using this technology and see how it pans out.
Why not build roofs over roads and put the solar panels there. All season roads plus solar power.... roads would last longer too.