Posted on 05/26/2013 11:22:35 AM PDT by Olog-hai
A lot of thought is put into how much energy we use to drive from point A to B. But what if the road itself could generate energy? Julie and Scott Brusaw, a married couple from Sandpoint, Idaho, have taken on just such a concept, which they hope will make the auto transport of the future cleaner and safer.
The idea is as simple as it is ingenious. Wherever roads are laid, solar panels could go instead. They would generate electricity, which would in turn be fed into the grid. Thus, oil is conserved twice: Electric cars could be charged with the energy produced by the panels, and the panels would replace the use of asphalt, the production of which requires petroleum.
Moreover, Solar Roadways, as the Brusaws have dubbed their invention, are heated and equipped with integrated LED screens, which act not only as street markings, but can also show warnings directly on the road. …
(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...
Bring back streetcars!
Since libs really like buses (take note of which party was in power during the vast majority of conversions from streetcar to bus, never mind the government takeovers of such systems), I’d say go for it. Streetcar systems can be built for less than $10M per mile. It’s when the libs start calling it “light rail” that the costs climb up as high as $100 million per mile . . .
How about covered in snow, ice and road sand?
Another example of why leftist should NEVER be in charge of anything.
We’re going to rock down to, Electric Avenue....
Cost/benefit:
Cost - horrendous when considering maintenance
Benefit - “In 2009 they received their first government grants to construct the prototypes.”
Benefit - “The Brusaws’ work was impressive enough that this spring, they are launching a pilot project, for which the state awarded them $750,000.”
The last sentence in the article - “It sounds almost too good to be true.”
Anybody want to finish that sentence?
Cue the typical Green reaction:
“A **COST-BENEFIT-ANALYSIS** ??? That sort of supposedly “objective” thinking is indicative of male-dominated pen*s-science. and objectifies Mother Gaia. . . “
Did I get the tone right ??? (grin)
Heheh...you got that one right!
Can one do burn-outs on them?
How would they stand up to roadkill?
Would street walkers get shocked?
I see a drop in power output in the morning and in the evening, during rush hour. If there were to be an accident, there would be similar problems
The current roads today can’t even stand up to the constant traffic of overweight haulers.........
Too bad they Warhol-ized that cover.
Streetwalkers or just pedestrians?
We can hardly keep up with maintaining our existing paved roads. As others have pointed out, imagine the maintenance issues involved with your car driving on a road that is an electrical solar panel...Think filling pot-holes is a budget issue? Imagine fixing solar-road pot holes.
I was too busy imagining what they would look like after fully-loaded eighteen-wheelers went over them . . .
LOL...all maintained by unions...Pffft!
Hate to imagine the size of crews standing around while a tenth of them are laying “solar panel” road surface . . .
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