Solar Panels, Eh?

[*insertusernamehere*]

Well now I feel stupid and that someone invaded my mind, BECAUSE I THOUGHT OF THIS YEARS AGO AS A CRAZY IDEA AND MY MOTHERS RESPONSE WAS "oh yeah that sounds cool, go be an engineer and make it"

And now I'm sitting here, sharing this video (if you haven't seen it yet) with you all here today. Still struggle bus-ing my way through college. I wonder if my..er...uhh..their idea will ever actually happen though... great concept.

Now that I'm older I still stand behind it...after all I CAME UP WITH IT. I just can't imagine how it would hold up to cars and trucks and accidents and burnouts. I'm also afraid it would play a big part in phasing out internal combustion engines

Just did a little more research and I'm surprised this didn't show up on my little nerd feed sooner. Did anyone know about this?

[JPolen01]

Saw this a few years ago. That's about all I know.

[BLINGMW]

yup, seen articles about them for years. I'm sure it'll still be a long time until we see one. If you still want to "be an engineer" there's still a lot of materials science problems to work out AFAIK

[D_Eclipse9916]

Saw this a few years ago. That's about all I know.

Because it's popped up multiple times over the past few decades.

[D_Eclipse9916]

yup, seen articles about them for years. I'm sure it'll still be a long time until we see one. If you still want to "be an engineer" there's still a lot of materials science problems to work out AFAIK

To be fair, a little research has revealed that the government has funded grants into research for solar roadways since 2009. With the price of asphalt going through the roof (yay gas prices affecting everything), battery and solar panel cells dropping in price, and a push from the public for alternative energy sources; this might be the closest we get to a "jump" in innovation for it.

[CaptainHenreh]

There's a bunch of reasons why this is dumb. We could power half the nation with a few* square miles of the mojave, and that doesn't require solar cells you can drive on. The tech exists, right here, right now:

That's Solar 2, built in the 80's, proven technology.

No need to develop a pv cell that you can drive on. Just build tech that already exists and plug it into the grid. Oh, it's expensive? Oh, there's way, way cheaper alternatives on the market? Oh, it's an economic challenge, not an engineering one? Well damn, I guess solving the world's problems is more difficult than exhaling your smoke and saying "Man, you know what would be cool? If, like, roads could be powered by the sun, maaaaaaaaaaaaan."

That's not a dig on you, Matt. I just get tired of being told that pipe dream buzzfeed bullshit rehashed from 50's science fiction is gonna solve the world's problems.

[Sully]

I didn't read or watch the video or whatever but yea I'd have to agree with Rex. If we were in the future and every square foot of space was consumed by people, roadways may be the way to go but then we'd be in flying cars and the buildings would be so tall, the road would never see light. If they can develop cells that can stand up to abuse like cars then they must have cells that can stand up fairly well to sand at this point and their are thousands of miles of desert to use up. Also I feel skyscraper walls would be a better alternative then a road way

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[HAULN-SS]

yup, seen articles about them for years. I'm sure it'll still be a long time until we see one. If you still want to "be an engineer" there's still a lot of materials science problems to work out AFAIK

Professor warne(s) in the math dept at jmu are both materials science people if you want to talk to someone

[Evan]

Well now I feel stupid and that someone invaded my mind, BECAUSE I THOUGHT OF THIS YEARS AGO AS A CRAZY IDEA AND MY MOTHERS RESPONSE WAS "oh yeah that sounds cool, go be an engineer and make it"

And now I'm sitting here, sharing this video (if you haven't seen it yet) with you all here today. Still struggle bus-ing my way through college. I wonder if my..er...uhh..their idea will ever actually happen though... great concept.

Now that I'm older I still stand behind it...after all I CAME UP WITH IT. I just can't imagine how it would hold up to cars and trucks and accidents and burnouts. I'm also afraid it would play a big part in phasing out internal combustion engines

Just did a little more research and I'm surprised this didn't show up on my little nerd feed sooner. Did anyone know about this?

I dont want to sound harsh, but anybody who has ever had a mild interest in solar energy and an imagination has COME UP WITH IT too. (Same with solar shingles and windows, which are almost here, and make 100000% more sense than this) And honestly, an idea and executing an idea are very very very very different things.

Unfortunately, in the real world it just doesnt work. PV cells are incredibly expensive since they use silicon as the substrate layer. There have been advancements in using plastic and even printable materials instead of silicon (with a HUGE hit to efficiency) but even then, why would you want to put that on roads? Stuff that is at ground level that is frequently blocked from the sun while it is being used? How do you maintain it, service it, patch it, etc?
Maybe in a few hundred (thousand) years, when the entire planet is covered with cities like coruscant and there is no room everything will be covered in a nanoparticle solar energy producing coating. Until then, there is more than enough room to put solar farms in plenty of places where they wont be covered or driven on.

And dont think that we are going to be able to power cars like a metro train or bumper car from it either, solar energy isnt very energy dense on a per area basis.

[*insertusernamehere*]

So wait...why don't they just make more of those desert panels?? That sounds a lot more cost effective than digging up/resurfacing all the roads in the United States of America...

Also, they should make hats with solar panels so we can charge our phones on the go, like if we're at a festival and outside all day or something.

As for me being an engineer, that would never happen. I tried that shiz and it ain't for me. I'll stick to Geology. There are enough challenges for me here

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[CaptainHenreh]

So wait...why don't they just make more of those desert panels??

Because sending west virginians to demolish mountains for combustable rocks we can burn for electricity is cheaper.