Here in broken California, we can’t hardly get Cal-Trans to complete regular asphalt roadways on time or on budget. While this is a nice idea, and in a perfect world it might be a perfect solution, I don’t think it will be adopted quickly by cash-strapped state governments. OTOH, maybe Federal subsidies from carbon taxes imposed by the EPA?
The design features embedded LED lights for markers. But, it’s a trouble magnet for some kids to hack the system like has been done with construction signs. This passage from the article really told me though that he doesn’t have a clue:
Brusaw says that the solar road would cost about $4.4M per mile, but those costs are offset by not needing to build coal plants, install utility poles, and build relay stations. “The taxpayers are already paying for all of these.
Umm, there’s coal power plants being built in the USA at taxpayer expense?
Solar-Powered Glass Road Could Melt Snow Automatically
By John Brandon, Fox News
It’s being called snowmageddon – and for good reason. Snow and ice are wreaking havoc all across the United States with record wind chills and more precipitation than Siberia on a bad day. If your commute is taking three times as long as it usually does, go ahead and blame the archaic highway system.
That’s right. In the 1950s, the idea of paving America with black asphalt seemed like a good idea. Now, 60 years later, we’re still using it — and still sliding all over the road.
But what if the road itself could change?
That’s the dream for Scott Brusaw, who has a novel idea for dealing with snowy roads: replace them with a glass surface embedded with solar cells that generate power from the sun and store it in batteries for use at night. In his view, such a proliferation of solar cells could also help solve our ongoing dependence on fossil fuels, because they could feed excess electric power into the grid. He has even developed illuminated lane markings that change according to current road conditions.
His company, Solar Roadways is waiting for approval on a new $750,000 grant from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) that will help him build a large-scale prototype to test new materials and electronics, and hopefully prove that his invention works.
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This is so lame. It snowed 2 inches in Seattle in November and they called it “Snowmageddon”, “Snowpocalypse”, “SnOMG”. People need to get lives.
Precisely because there is no god.
Stop global warming. Just paint all the roads white. /sarc
Feet2theFire says:
February 6, 2011 at 3:17 pm
“Good engineers can deal with it.”
Do you have a source of ‘good engineers’ that work for free?
Just think of all those green jobs in the maintenance crew that will be needed to troubleshoot the cells, inverters. wiring and heaters; clean battery terminals, and polish the glass.
When it is snowing, or when there would be too many vehicles on the road to allow the maintenance crews or the solar rays to have access to the road surface; they can use smart signs.to tell drivers to just pull off the road .
The waiting motorists won’t mind waiting while the busy workers do their thing, or slowing down and allowing multiple car lengths between vehicles to let the sun hit the road, because they know (perhaps learned in remedial driving school) saving the Planet.is so much more important than their own sacrifice.
And when the economic stimulus from all those new green jobs trickles down, it will surely yield a surplus; which might even allow some non planet-saving tasks like maintenance on bridges, road surfaces, drainage and safety equipment.[/sarc]
@ur momisugly Jeff Alberts says:
February 6, 2011 at 3:22 pm
It’s being called snowmageddon
This is so lame. It snowed 2 inches in Seattle in November and they called it “Snowmageddon”, “Snowpocalypse”, “SnOMG”. People need to get lives.
====================================
In today’s world, many peoples “Lives” are virtual. Reality TV, Ipods, etc. take the place of the real world, and in the virtual world you can do anything. Including falling off a subway platform or walking in front of bus without any damage. It’s all make believe, until the real world catches up with you.
A while back some friends and I had a similar idea, but to use ground source heat pumps instead of solar. After a couple of pints and some beer mats, realised it was unlikely to cost in, and that was with fewer design challenges than this idea. If the TiO2 idea is to treat the glass like anti-fog glass, won’t that just reduce traction even further in wet? Looks like the guy’s managed to get some funding though, so maybe we should have saved our beer mats.
lets assume for a moment that this idea works. Enough solar energy is collected to light parts of the roadway and keep the roadway fairly clear.
What happens when it snows hard for a day and the system cannot keep up? Now the road is covered with snow and not recieving any energy. In order to clear the snow off the road it would need to be plowed. Anyone who has driven near a plow knows that when those steel blades hit the ground they send up 5 foot fountains of sparks. Please tell me how your fantastically hardened glass is supposed to survive a plow scraping the top of it with a large, heavy, bouncing chunk of steel?
maybe you could melt the snow with chemicals? what chemical can melt 6″ of snow?
I’m not against progress. I’m against progress for the sake of progress. Just because something is “possible” doesnt mean its not idiotic.
Wouldn´t it be a better solution to burn fossil fuels in order to increase global temperatures?
This phrase jumped out at me and, IMO, says all that needs to be said on the subject:
“His company, Solar Roadways is waiting for approval on a new $750,000 grant from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) that will help him build a large-scale prototype to test new materials and electronics, and hopefully prove that his invention works.
Nuff said!
Some great ideas in there, but it needs a hefty dose of reality. Smart materials and structures are part of the future, but the concepts need to be well thought out.
There are already plans for smog reducing roads and surfaces near roads in Europe: http://www.autoblog.com/2010/07/12/roads-laced-with-titanium-dioxide-could-help-us-breathe-easier/ – again expensive – 50% greater than conventional road construction/materials.
Perhaps neither of these ideas will ‘make it’, but here’s a thought – when cat’s eyes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat%27s_eye_%28road%29) were developed, I’m sure there were some that thought putting them in every road surface would be an expensive waste of money, despite the additional safety they promised.
Who knows – maybe if we discover antigravity and all ‘cars’ are then ‘hover vehicles’ glass roads could come into their own 😉
I’d like a grant for a 21st Century Mobile Traction Delivery System that will be able to move all over an area and make snow covered roads drivable!
(Snowplow with sand and salt to normal people)
Here is a much simpler idea. Simply build a peaked roof over the road. And hang down Plexiglas side walls. Similar to the old covered bridges. That would be MUCH cheaper. And by keeping most of the snow (and rain) off the road, there would be much less spalling, frost heaves, and pot holes. It would be cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. The side walls should not be completely closed to permit air circulation.
Now that may seem nuts also BUT (a) it would work and (b) be much cheaper than the proposed idea. It would even mean that road resurfacing projects would happen less often — the reduction in road maintenance costs should be subtracted from the capital costs of this scheme. Would cut down on weather related accidents also. Plus — talk about “shovel ready” work. You actually could employ a lot of people with this idea.
Yes it is crazy I will assert that. And not cheap. But it has the advantage of simplicity. And would work.
You know Sunsword , directly above is absolutely correct. It would do the same thing and be much cheaper. AND you could put solar panels on the roof as well! To power the lights inside
I think people are being very negative. The idea is brilliant, but the inventor is just missing some practical knowledge in some of the finer details. I’d think there would be enough expertise on this site to help out. I even made a list of things he doesn’t seem to know much about:
Snow
Roads
Tires
Dirt
Glass
Solar Cells
Erosion
Freeze/Thaw Cycles
Economics
Power Distribution
Frost Heaving
Cyclical Natural Interferance Systems (Leaves)
Territorialy Induced Sub Culture Markers (Graffiti)
Roadside Deposited Morning After Night Before Inducements (Puke)
Deer in Head Lights Incident Factors (Road Kill)
Might be more, that’s just off the top of my head. C’mon, help the guy out!
Can anyone help me set up a website called 550.org – the safe target for co2 levels (in response to 350.org)
Next grant application: Piezoelectric tires.
How do these road handle truck traffic? Salt is inexpensive.
Steven Hoffer says:
February 6, 2011 at 3:52 pm
maybe you could melt the snow with chemicals? what chemical can melt 6″ of snow?
Napalm.
Apparently it has quite a nice smell in the morning.
Paul in Sweden says:
February 6, 2011 at 3:10 pm
Hey Paul, did you know you have a professional basketball team named named…
The Vermont Frost Heaves?
And, in the Granite state we have…
A variety show named after frost heaves!
Back on topic, this link shows how frost heaves damages New Hampshire roads.
Now, imagine an expensive high tech solar/glass road twisted and deformed beyond recognition…three cheers for green technology!
Re: Feet2theFire says:
” …I see this being possible…
… I vote for trying it out. $750,00o? Or even $75 million – that is such a drop in the bucket. ”
Yeah? With a national debt running north of $14,200,000,000,000 and an average of $45,437 dollars PER PERSON, hey, it’s just another wad of FREE MONEY ripped out of the pocket of taxpayers… you know, people who actually work.
“…If so, it would provide lots of jobs, a huge national infrastructure project. And it would help everyone, businesses and citizens both. If they farm any of it out to China or India, though, I’d have their testicles boiled. This would need to be an America-First project.”
Good luck with that pipe dream.
Manufacturing and production capability have been exported to countries who don’t have to deal with the US EPA regulations, Labor and Wage requirements, Tax rates, OSHA requirements etc. Not only that, much of our technology, that is, in areas where we did have an advantage (at one time) has been siphoned off to places that seem to be hostile to us…
Here is an illustration of who leads the world in photovoltaic production… you know the DOMINANT player.
http://i55.tinypic.com/xmlb2t.png
Source for that image came from here:
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/29285993/World-Solar-PV-Production
This idea has been floating around for several years. I discussed it here:
http://polistrasmill.blogspot.com/2009/07/tom-swift-and-his-electric-road.html
Let’s pretend this could (chuckle, chortle, giggle) work. Let’s pretend the combined road/PVC could (choke, snort) take the stresses of traffic. Let’s
pretendfantasize that this could replace all those “taxpayer funded” (EEP!) coal plants et all.Now imagine the infrastructure and power plants we’re going to need to fabricate some 4 megamiles of sooperdooper indestructible PVCs.
When I first read about this a couple of days ago, I came to the conclusion that it was really just a scam to get his 3-place parking lot paid for.
@SSam Feb 6, 2011 at 5:34 pm:
Yep. It was American business CEOs who sold out the American worker, so they could maximize their profits. The government might have done something in the ’90s and early ’00s to stop the handover of our jobs, but the climate in the country was all about free trade and free markets, let businesses do anything they want to do, because it would all trickle down to us on Main Street. But the government didn’t lift a finger and the CEOs did what they wanted, and got their big profits stuffed in their pockets and their golden parachutes They didn’t give a hoot about anyone but themselves. And we are all competing with $3.00/day labor in China and $3.00.hour programmers in India. Don’t put the sellout of America on the government; with the free market mentality it would have never passed both houses. So we were all screwed. If it hasn’t hit all of us yet, just keep waiting. It will be a generation or two before we get manufacturing back – if ever.
Up next cars made entirely of diamonds!