The Solar Arch: Keeping Roads Cool and Lighted

[Guest]

Turning hot sunlight into energy, not a climate irritant

The Solar Arch: Keeping Roads Cool and Lighted : Read more

 

[jrocks84]

Hopefully they can survive a car crashing into the side of it... otherwise a car crash could destroy a LOT of those at one I would think.

 

[Computerrock1]

That would be increadible in areas such as, well almost everywhere

 

[sliem]

How and who will they clean these from bird poops?

 

[maxiim]

That would be incredible here in AZ. Especially right now....

 

[jsschneidereit]

[citation][nom]sliem[/nom]How and who will they clean these from bird poops?[/citation]
prisoners, caltrans, volunteers? sounds cool to me! I hope they'd do something like that, maybe make all cars have a secondary electrical motor and have a wire type thing that hooks into the ground under these just like a rail car and is powered on long distances and when you go to residential roads your gas engine (or whatever else you have) kick's back in and you save gas and the planet! wooo

 

[rtfm]

How many years of sunlight would it take to recoup all the energy used to build those things (and lay the cables to connect them to the grid)?

 

[sublifer]

Too many of these might also keep solar powered cars from working.

 

[Clintonio]

[citation][nom]sliem[/nom]How and who will they clean these from bird poops?[/citation]
The same kind of guys we pay to repaint our bridges. It'll be far more worth it too!

 

[FUtomNOreg]

http/solarroadways.com/intro.html

 

[ikoliss]

its not a bad idea..
but in the winter when it snows, how will this be of any use?
or when there is enough bird poop to cover the the entire panels

 

[sublifer]

keep forgetting to mention, solar panels are not a viable energy source. It takes too much energy to make them and they slowly lose the ability to produce electricity. They're really just solar activated batteries. Swap the panels with wind turbines or solar concentrators and it might be a more viable project, though I don't know if solar concentrators on a scale like this would work great... maybe with concentrators spaced every so often...

 

[nforce4max]

[citation][nom]jrocks84[/nom]Hopefully they can survive a car crashing into the side of it... otherwise a car crash could destroy a LOT of those at one I would think.[/citation]

You got that right, these would last a week if installed along I-35. Why only limit this to the roads when they can be used in roofing since we have countless wall-marts and fast food joints. If they would at least use these to cover up those hideous parking lots and store fronts life in the city would be more tolerable with out the heat that comes with it. I live next to H.E.B and the heat from the pavement killed of my potted garden. Those in the meteorological business refer to cities as "heat islands".

 

[JohnnyMash]

Illuminated. Or lit. But lighted?

OK I'll ask. I understand that it is wasted energy, and it can cause buckling, but "anyone based in areas that can maximize the Solar Arch", how is "reducing the heat retained by roads is also a worthy cause"??

 

[Assmar]

[citation][nom]jsschneidereit[/nom]prisoners, caltrans, volunteers? sounds cool to me! I hope they'd do something like that, maybe make all cars have a secondary electrical motor and have a wire type thing that hooks into the ground under these just like a rail car and is powered on long distances and when you go to residential roads your gas engine (or whatever else you have) kick's back in and you save gas and the planet! wooo[/citation]
LOL, I don't think everyone, at least in the USA, has CalTrans

 

[WheelsOfConfusion]

Tarmacs can also be used to harvest heat and send it to nearby communities in the form of hot water. Photovoltaics may be sexier, but thermal solar power is just as important to consider.

[citation][nom]sublifer[/nom]keep forgetting to mention, solar panels are not a viable energy source. It takes too much energy to make them and they slowly lose the ability to produce electricity. They're really just solar activated batteries. [/citation]
Over their rated lifetimes, most solar cells do actually produce surplus energy. There are also formulations that use less silicon to reduce the energy intensity of their manufacture. I'm not sure were people keep getting this idea that it takes more energy to make them than you'll get out of them.

 

[mowston]

Maybe they could just pave roads with something that doesn't absorb as much heat and put the panels on people's roofs.

 

[Guest]

Yeah I'd say lets wait until we can embed the panels in the roadway itself. Then there would be no additional strucuture, and the power cables could be buried as well.

 

[maloney]

I was more impressed with the solution I read about somewhere where the solar panels would replace asphalt (with a clear protective layer between vehicles and the panels). No worries about an endless tunnel of solar panels on that idea.

 

[michaelzehr]

Following up what others are saying, I'm not at all clear the benefit of putting them over the road outweighs the cost of the arch. If the idea is to make use of public right of way, put them on the side of the road, on lower/cheaper poles. That's an awful lot of concrete with the only benefit of providing shade to the road. (Maintenance is also more expensive if the solar panel is above the road instead of off to the side.)