Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlTA3rnpgzU
Funding:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/solar-roadways
Lol we have another thread about this, the video is cool and I think its a cool idea but:
I cant see how this is cheaper than the equivalent cost of roading, electricity production, snow ploughing and lane marking... And I could see these needing alot of maintenance, needing to be individually resurfaced or perhaps replaced every couple of years...
Here is a much cooler thing, its a photo-luminescent paint that gives out lots of light, and they can make it temperature sensitive or something to give out conditional warnings such as ice. Currently being trialed in the Netherlands.
Since the road markings were put in place two weeks ago it has been reported that some drivers were driving along the road in the dark with their headlights switched off so that they could experience the glow in the dark effect.
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/11/glow-in-the-dark-highway-launches
First off.
Since the road markings were put in place two weeks ago it has been reported that some drivers were driving along the road in the dark with their headlights switched off so that they could experience the glow in the dark effect.
Thats dangerous as shit, and people are stupid.
Secondly. It would be much, much cheaper.
It would also advance our technologies.
It would produce, what, three (or five, cant remember) times the amount of power the US uses currently. That means we would need no more power plants, no more coal. No more nuclear power. Just solar. So yes, it would be much cheaper than having all of those plants and repairs, and disposals, and everything.
They also heat the road, so it would be cheaper than hiring plows and road departments. It would also cut off the need to re-paving and re-painting the roads.
And if a piece of roadway gets damaged, you have to either temporarily patch it several times a year, or redo that part of the road. Using big machinery and tons of people to do so.
If a section of these get destroyed. It takes ten minutes and two-four people to repair the entire area.
That glow in the dark roadway is completely unrelated.
Yes it is dangerous and stupid, but funny...
Yes it is a road that produces electricity but at what cost, how much more expensive is it than the equivelant roading, ploughing, lane marking and electricity generation costs. How durable is it, how long does it last, do you need to replace the entire road network every 5 or however many years because the surface gets degraded, or can it be resurfaced individually? Does the tire rubber wear off onto the road, how often then do you need to have them cleaned? Can it be installed on surfaced gravel or do you need to concrete it first?
For that cost you might be able to match world output many time over with some sort of orbital solar power platform, or terrestrial nuclear, not that nuclear would happend seeing as how it is bassically impossible to get smaller, cheaper, better and safer reactor designs approved... It will probably cost like 50x the price of ordinary roads.
So it might not be cheaper, it might be cheaper to just have conventional roads and power plants, roading technology has and is continuing to improve hugely. And if governments stopped using roading as a work creation program I am sure costs would come down immensely, look at these, one of them even repaves roads without shutting them down:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BoAtlIPiAQ
http://www.automotive.com/news/welcome-to-the-future-road-paver-concept-lays-fresh-asphalt-while-you-drive-104487/
>The glowing roadway is just showing how conventional roading is improving, and you can have these glowing roads and other smart road whatnot without bankrupting the entire world... And just so you know, I think its a cool idea, just not one that is economically viable.
Correct me if I am wrong, but ignoring they are not square and based on a 12 meter wide road (which from this picture looks like the common road type we have where I live) it works out to 480,000 7inch pannels per kilometer, even if they could get the cost down to 1,000USD per panel we are probably still talking about in excess of 500M per kilometer of road. America has 6,586,610, ignoring that some of those are wider than my calaculations, and that you need a few extra since they are not square, that works out too 3,293,305 Billion dollars or about 50x world GDP. I guess if you could get it down to 100USD each installed, then it would only be 5x world gdp which means it is only about 21.875x the US GDP! Ok maybe 10, maybe $10 each, then it would be 2.1875x us GDP, then it could be done at say 10% of gdp for two decades, ignoring economic growth and maintenance. But then they would have to cost $10 and last for 20 Years....
They're larger than 7 inches, though. On the Indegogo page it says that even 7 inches is a "Miniature" scale version.