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Solar FREAKIN Roadway, are they real? (Patreon)

Published:
2014-05-31 17:25:39
Imported:
2026-06
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So on indiegogo, 'Solar Roadways' has raised over 1.7 million dollars as I post this. I was part tempted to put my timelapse of merely driving on ONE road from coast to coast in this video (@30 x time normal speed it would still take over an hour!) just to give some perspective to the size of the infrastructure that they are proposing to build.... all without having even established if they have suitable materials for it! -There is no problem with having your head in the clouds, as long as your feet are on the ground!

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Solar FREAKIN Roadway, are they real?

Solar FREAKIN roadways is a nice idea, but then again is a pogostick that can hop to the moon as a cheap, reusable trans-orbital vehicle. Is it plausible though. Well it basically proposes the union of 3 or 4 technologies. LED lights, solar panels, and glass roads.

Comments

Anonymous

This was worth the wait! This kind of thing is why I support you on Patreon, Thunderf00t. It's awesome that you can do these but then again, it is sad that you have to.^^ Thanks.

Anonymous

So, the tl;dr of this is : «Use stuff for roads that is mainly good for driving on. And put solar panels where they work best, are safe from harm and easy to wire up.» Sounds simple? Well, not simple enough for the people that spent 1.7m to back «solar freaking roadways» Thanks thunderf00t.

Anonymous

Thanks Thunderf00t I love your videos and I am stoked I can support you as the world sorely needs more people like yourself.

Anonymous

Most engineers I know (my daughter, for example) are well acquainted with the notion of feasibility but I'm reminded of Concorde - the jigs were assembled before anyone thought to objectively study market feasibility.

Anonymous

Thank you for encompassing my reactions to this proposal in a witty and well-supported manner. This is brilliant.

Anonymous

The sad thing is though - look at the downvotes on YT. In only a few days it has more downvotes than a good chunk of the WDPLAC videos got in months. The "solar cells magically fix everything so stop questioning it" group is growing more cultish each day.

Thunderf00t
>>72211

its very sad, but reality checks just leave a bad taste in the mouths of those who want to sell, or buy fantasy. Reading the comments is even more depressing. People just dont want to accept the reality of the practical difficulties of building a road out of glass.... let alone one that incorporates solar cells, lighting and energy transport.

Alamandorious

Actually, I have to bring a few things up. I'm only about half-way into the video, and I largely agree with you TF, but you've made a few mistakes about your power grid analysis. Being an electrician and having worked in a solar field building it, I can say that adding infrastructure to support these 'miraculous' roads, if they were remotely feasible, wouldn't be as bad as you've laid out. First, the tiles would likely be connected in series-parallel banks, meaning there would be a number of tiles connected in series, then paralleled with another equal amount of tiles connected in series with one another. In turn, each bank would connect to a power inverter, which would turn the DC power into AC power. A certain number of these would then connect to a junction point to a step-up transformer, which could the transmitt the power via the established electrical grid to the nearest substation, and from the distributed wherever. It would still require additional funding after the US was bankrupted to create the relatively small additional amount of infrastructure support, but no need to create a whole new grid. Aside from that, another exceptionally good video and a great way to hopefully prevent the people who watch it from chipping into what is an obvious scam. I expected to hear about these two being criminally prosecuted by the courts on some news program sometime in the near future.

Anonymous
>>73176

A query on that (given the US has a differing grid setup :P ). Using the inverters to push a cell bank up to domestic levels is quite feasible, but what is the range it can go before it has to plug into a local substation/transformer to boost it to 11,000V for transmission to the zone substation? A home or local installation is easy due to the distribution transformer being just down the street but much further and line losses make further transmission at low AC levels pointless. (apologies if I have the voltages/terms wrong - not a Usian ;) ) Mainly asking because a fair chunk of the road networks outside city/residential areas don't have domestic lines along the road (well in AU anyway). They usually have the 300KV long range power towers or the slightly smaller 66KV Zone towers, and you are not going to plug a solar array directly into those without a lot of work and equipment. Also if they are going to use the grid to power their snow melters and the LEDs at night, then they need this same infrastructure to provide power as well as distribute it. So not only does the grid have to provide the current level of power output (for when cells dont work) is has to have capability to provide more power for all this extra gear. On Edit: Are roads the purview of the States or Feds in the US? I can wait to see the political fights about who would pay for it.