Posted on 07/11/2014 9:56:41 AM PDT by Citizen Zed
The solar panels that Idaho inventor Scott Brusaw has built aren’t meant for rooftops. They are meant for roads, driveways, parking lots, bike trails and, eventually, highways.
Brusaw, an electrical engineer, says the hexagon-shaped panels can withstand the wear and tear that comes from inclement weather and vehicles, big and small, to generate electricity.
“We need to rebuild our infrastructure,” said Brusaw, the head of Solar Roadways, based in Sandpoint, Idaho, about 90 miles northeast of Spokane, Washington. His idea contains “something for everyone to like.”
(Excerpt) Read more at m.nydailynews.com ...
When you hear that the highway trust fund is empty and that taxes need to be raised because money is urgently needed for the “nation’s crumbling infrastructure,” keep in mind that the money will be spent on this type of nonsense.
How is the efficiency with snow cover, dirt, plow damage, the pounding of 18-wheelers, etc.
This was talked about and thoroughly debunked a couple of months ago here.
It seemed like a good idea, until I found out that I paid for it, but our public treasury doesn’t appear to be part-owner of the patent(s).
CLU ...you are to build the perfect system...
All it’s going to take is one 18-wheeler with a blown tire, running on its rim, to tear up miles of this stuff.
Plus, there’s no way I can think of that they can make the surface as durable as asphalt or concrete, not to mention all the traction concerns.
To me, this sounds like another great idea (which it is, at least in theory) that is so impractical as to be impracticable.
Bury them in snow. Then run vehicles over them until the snow is as hard as concrete. Then run a snowplow over them at speed. Experiment over.
The next Solyndra.
you bet your ass. This guy is brilliant. NIce barn, beautiful view, great summers, ok winters and he has figured out how to get you to pay for it all by selling a dumb idea like this.
Everybody knows that highways don’t settle, snow plows don’t ever tear anything up, tires never go flat, freeze thaw cycle never cracks anything etc.
Of course solar panels aren’t brittle and wires aren’t fragile.
No wonder the idiots are smiling... they actually got taxpayer money for this.
And when traffic is backed-up over the panels at rush hour they won’t get much light.
His wife thought it up after watching an inconvenient truth.
I keep forgetting that on average that all people are average. That is scary. It gets worse though, individually half of them are below average. That is terrifying.
May not be a bad idea for sidewalks and side streets perhaps.
“And when traffic is backed-up over the panels at rush hour they won’t get much light.”
Not just bumper to bumper traffic blocking the sunlight, but what if there is a cloudy day or if the sun goes down?
Furthermore, I find it quite a coincidence that as soon as America becomes the world’s leader in oil production, there is a big movement to make solar generating highways and parking lots.
What does this say to the oil companies that have invested billions of dollars into domestic oil and gas production and to all those men who are now employed in the energy sector?
It always looks pretty at the beginning —
Put it on a 100 foot stretch of rural road and see how it holds up through several seasons of rain, ice, snow and traffic.
SOLAR ! FREAKIN ! IDIOCY !!!!
If this went through, the guy would stand to make beaucoup money (un peu de francais).
Will they then get rid of those intensely revolting bird crunchers a.k.a. wind turbines, that make us America the Ugly.
First thing I thought of too. Efficiency when they are scratched beyond recognition from normal wear and tear. No one seems to properly test for this stuff, NO ONE. None of the methods I have seen implemented come close to real life wear and tear especially when considering accelerated life testing and simulation.
except for the theft aspect. In a nation where the caps to fire hydrants are long missing, where street light wiring is stolen on a regular basis for recycle value, not so good an idea.
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