Solar Roadways passes $1.4 million in crowdfunding: Just short of the $56 trillion required, but not

[unhappycamper]

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/183130-solar-roadways-passes-1-4-million-in-crowdfunding-just-short-of-the-56-trillion-required-but-not-bad-for-a-crazy-idea



Solar Roadways passes $1.4 million in crowdfunding: Just short of the $56 trillion required, but not bad for a crazy idea
By Sebastian Anthony on May 27, 2014 at 1:45 pm

Over the weekend, the Solar Roadways project on Indiegogo reached its target of $1 million. At the time of publishing, that figure is now north of $1.4 million, with five days left to go. The concept is verging on utopian: By replacing the USA’s concrete and asphalt roads with solar panels, we could produce three times more electricity than we consume, instantly solving just about every energy problem we have (geopolitical stuff, reliance on fossil fuels, CO2 production, etc.) It’s not hard to see why Solar Roadways has attracted so much attention and money: On paper, it really does sound like one of the greatest inventions ever. In reality, though, where, you know, real-world factors come into play, it will probably never make the jump from drawing board to large-scale deployment.

Solar Roadways, the brainchild of Julie and Scott Brusaw of Idaho, have been in development since at least the mid-2000s. The concept, as described by dozens of videos and blog posts over the years, is pretty simple: We replace roads with hard-wearing solar cells. By adding other electronics, such as LEDs and touch sensors, additional functionality has also been mooted: Illuminated road markings (and animals crossing the road), roads that melt snow and ice, and so on. Electrified/networked roads could also be a key step towards self-driving cars and wide-scale EV adoption.

To be fair to the Brusaws, they’re not exactly scammers — Scott is an electrical engineer, and most of the science checks out — but so far, despite $850,000 in grants from the Department of Transport, the couple have only built a small prototype parking lot. The Indiegogo page doesn’t exactly inspire confidence, either. Right at the bottom of the page, there’s a single line describing what the $1 million (and counting) will be spent on: “We asked for $1 million to hire an initial team of engineers to help us make a few needed tweaks in our product and streamline our process so that we could go from prototype to production.”

These engineers will be tasked with the rather difficult task of turning Solar Roadways from a utopian concept into a real-world product. I do not envy them. While no one is arguing that it would be great to turn our road system into a massive solar farm, there are simply way too many obstacles that need to be traversed — much like fusion power, cold fusion, or heck, building a frickin’ star-encompassing Dyson sphere. Chief among these obstacles is cost. While exact figures are hard to come by, there’s roughly 29,000 square miles (75,000 sq km) of paved road in the lower 48 US states. As you can probably imagine, asphalt is pretty cheap (on the order of a few dollars per square foot) — and Solar Roadways, which are essentially solar cells wedged between thick slabs of ultra-tough glass, are not cheap. Back in 2010, Scott Brusaw estimated a cost of $10,000 for a 12-foot-by-12-foot segment of Solar Roadway, or around $70 per square foot; asphalt, on the other hand, is somewhere around $3 to $15, depending on the quality and strength of the road. According to some maths done by Aaron Saenz, the total cost to redo America’s roadways with Solar Roadways would be $56 trillion — or about four times the country’s national debt.



The top piece of tempered glass on a Solar Roadways panel

[DetlefK]

1. How about simply starting with parking-lots and public squares?

[My Good Babushka]

2. Start in the cities and work your way out

What is too expensive? How cheap is war and geopolitical turmoil? Pollution that causes thousands of premature deaths and untold fortunes in medical costs? Let's go, says I.

[berni_mccoy]

3. The video is good

At first I was skeptical but they seem to have asked all the right questions and addressed a good deal of practical issues.

The crowd sourcing will help them garden the technology for real use. I look forward to this being a technology I see in my lifetime.

[Travis_0004]

4. I question the need for this

We have enough space for solar panels now, its not like the issue with solar is lack of room. Solar panels on a roof should be more efficient (they can be angled towards the sun), plus they also keep sunlight from hitting your house and reduce cooling costs in the summer.

1 million is a drop in the bucket, so I really don't have a problem with this project, but it seems to me like if the Federal government were to spend money on solar, they should start by putting panels on government buildings in the South.

[A Little Weird]

5. Cool concept

If it could really melt snow and ice on the roadways then I could see how it would be really valuable in some areas. A lot of money is spent on snow and ice removal. I don't think it's realistic to replace all the roads with this.

I would love to see a push for more solar power but I think expanding solar on buildings and homes would be a better place to start.

[Thav]

6. I need to redo my parking lot

It's about 11,000 sq feet, and would easily offset my electrical needs, generate power I can sell back, and remove the need to plow my lot. I saw this a while ago and it could generate about $6,000/year in revenue for me.

If you count in tax credits available for solar, if these qualify, then you can probably get the cost down to where it would be attractive. Plus if the LEDs were super programmable, it'd be cool to put messages and advertisements on it.

Roadways? who knows, but I look at the parking lot of a walmart and think, "that's what we need."

[Benton D Struckcheon]

7. Start with sidewalks,

and with big-box store parking lots like Wal-Mart, like the guy up there said. That's low hanging fruit. A road is a much much more difficult proposition, as it would get a lot more traffic and wear and tear.
I'm skeptical this would ever work as well. If you look at a big box, putting panels on the roof of one of those stores or putting panels over the parking spaces are both way more practical.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. And parking lots get covered with cars, normally at peak solar times

Use panels over the parking spaces, and you can angle them for efficiency, and leave the rows between the spaces more or less in shadow.