$4.5 million project generates just $36.86 worth of electricity so far
Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach
Back in 2014, Anthony Watts pointed out an upcoming project called “Solar Roadways”. This was a project to put solar panels on roads. Hey, what’s not to like? Plenty of roadway space, put it to double use, we get free energy from the sun, right?
Well, as Anthony presciently commented at the time …
All in all, it’s a colossal green tech train wreck, but these clowns may be laughing all the way to the bank, or they may be shysters, either way, there’s a sucker born every minute.
Since a few years have now passed, I thought I might update the information about the project. The first rule of investigations, of course, is “follow the Benjamins”. This saying comes from the fact that Benjamin Franklin appears on the US $100 bill … so here is the funding of the Solar Roadways project.
$100,000 – 2009 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) for a “Phase I feasibility study”.
$750,000 – 2011 SBIR grant from the DOT for Phase II to develop and build a solar parking lot. They put panels on a 12 x 36 foot (4 x 11 m) parking lot.
$2,200,000 – 2014 Indiegogo funding from the easily deceived.
$750,000 – 2015 SBIR contract for further research
$750,000 – 2016 SBIR contract for yet more research.
So to date, they have received $2,350,000 from you and I, the US taxpayers, and another $2,200,000 from mining that seemingly endless source called “a fool and his money are soon parted”, for a total of $4,550,000.
And what did we get for this four and a half megabucks of lavish private and taxpayer funding?
First, the solar parking lot. Here are the founders of the company with their monumental achievement …
Wow … that’s plenty impressive … dare I ask what happens to the electricity output when cars are parked on the parking lot, or is that just too practical a question?
Next, the solar test roadway, which is in Sandpoint, Idaho. Twenty-five of the first thirty test panels died within the first few weeks. They were replaced by panels that delaminated …
So the delaminated panels were replaced again. But to be fair, who would have ever guessed that driving loaded semi-trucks over solar panels might do some damage? … well, to be fair, you and I could have guessed that, but clearly they couldn’t. I suppose that’s why they needed so much funding.
In any case, the system has now been in operation with thirty panels for a couple of years. Being an inquisitive and curious sort of fellow, I went to their website to see how well they are doing … I found the following:
On its best day, Tuesday, May 9, 2017, as shown in the graphic above the thirty panels generated a total of 1.3 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity … and on the most recent day, yesterday, it generated 0.25 kWh of electricity. On average, since it was started the production has averaged about 0.65 kWh per day.
The system went into operation on March 22, 2017. It has been in operation for 378 days, during which time it has generated about 246 kWhrs of electricity.
Now, my home electricity is expensive due to the asinine “renewable mandates” put into place by Governor Moonbeam here in Californistan. I pay $0.15 per kilowatt-hour, which is about double the cost charged in neighboring states where they haven’t drunk the green Koolaid.
And at that rate, the total of 246 kWhrs of electricity that cost $4,450,000 is worth about $36.86.
Gotta love these green pipe-dreams … enjoy the sunshine, dear friends, it will do more good smiling down on you than it would by shining on solar panels on the roadways.
As always, my best regards to everyone,
w.
My perennial request: When you comment, QUOTE THE EXACT WORDS YOU ARE DISCUSSING. I get grumpy when people make unsubstantiated claims that someone is foolish for saying something somewhere sometime …
I think i read in the Netherlands they wanted to do the same on the street,but only for bikes.
Eventually, inability to see the obvious can no longer masquerade as ignorance and becomes recognized as stupidity.
Once is ignorance, twice is stupidity, three times or more is mendacity.
3 times or more is psychosis.
Sadly the true believers have no memory and don’t care when claims are demolished anyway. Faith will overcome reality, Thunderf00t’s comprehensive debunking regardless. https://youtu.be/P90Y71ThfQs
Sandpoint, ID??? Why not someplace in a southern location where they get decent sun year round?
Yes I know where Sandpoint,ID is I go camping/fishing about 60mi west of there every summer.
Solar Road fails miserably…. in other words…
It performed as expected.
The solar road is “performance art”. The actors performed as expected.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2016/12/worlds-first-solar-road-opens-in-france/
https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/news/a19362/france-planning-over-600-miles-solar-panel-roads/
https://www.ecowatch.com/this-solar-road-will-provide-power-to-5-million-people-1882163208.html
All these French solar road articles date from 2016. I could not find anything from later years.
Albert Einstein: Only the Universe and human stupidity are infinite, and I am not sure about the Universe.
Ségolène Royal, the enviro-lunacies ministry (and mother of his children) of former Président François Hollande, who promoted that solar road BS, is now “ambassadrice pour les pôles arctique et antarctique”.
You read that right, she is OFFICIALLY ambassador for the poles. (We call her ambassador for the pingouins and the polar bears.)
Ségolène Royal named ambassador at the Arctic and Antarctic poles
– Who is she?
– A bipolar.
It’s a general feature of research that all the focus is on the next great idea but there is almost no scrutiny of past funding. What happened to those millions given in past grant awards. Universities frequently purchase equipment worth hundreds of k or even millions of dollars / euros etc. It fails to work as expected or simply proves to hard to operate or unreliable. So it just gets abandoned and gathers dust. Meanwhile the same researchers get busy and excited with the next megabuck grant application. The funding agencies seem to look only forward, never back in time to check the productivity of previous research awards.
A much more robust technology is needed to exploit solar energy in road surfaces. One possibility might be to bioengineer a photosynthetic cyanobacteria or an alga that would live in the asphalt of a road and do something useful. For instance there is research interest in the green alga Botryococcus braunii which secretes hydrocarbons. Something like this could maybe be bioengineered to lay down heavy long chain hydrocarbons.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07388550290789513
Why would this be useful? What would be the deliverable of such an organism making roads green? It would not be electricity. But it might be a self-repairing road. If a crack ot pothole appeared in the road, the green road-bug could secrete long chain hydrocarbons which would mix with and bind to dust and dirt to make new asphalt, and in time fill up the hole.
Also if the resident single celled organism made the road into a pleasing shade of green, that could be psychologically soothing to drivers (especially in California) and maybe even reduce stress and road-rage in drivers.
A bacteria in the roadway that produces oil.
Now there’s a lawsuit waiting to happen.
A perfect example of what happens when you combine the stupidity of government, with the ingenuity of shysters.
You might have just found the single sentence that correctly describes 99% of human economic activity.
OPM is the world’s greatest resource.
Inspirational. I might start a solar assault rifle company with some research projects into solar bump stocks and green tipped ammo.
The change of albedo with solar panels will heat the surroundings.
Compared to blacktop?
The results could have be much better if they had placed the solarpanels not on the road but above them as a kind of roof. The panels would not this easy be destroyed. If would have cost less en generate more electricity. It could work well for roofs of parking garages. But pannels on the road? This is what you get if a bussiness plan is just based on subsidies. I have seen more crazy plans. In a new housing project they place solar pannels on the northside of the roof. It must be very nice to live on taxpayers money.
How do you plan on suspending these panels?
If by roadside pillars, how do you plan on protecting the pillars from cars, without killing the drivers in an accident?
Placing solar panels on the northside of buildings works where I live, in the northern hemisphere, not so much.
Maybe they based their designs on an Australian research project. 🙂
For a long time they have been building solar pannel covers in parking lots that provide covered parking and solar eletric energy. I assume that the solar panels on the covers last a lot longer because they are not run over all the time and they are better at producing energy because they are not covered by parked cars all the time. Because of much better alternatives already in production and use, the effort should have not gone further than the first phase I study. Who ever reviewed the phase one study and approved a phase II should be fired for being incopetent.
Does anyone ever check the companies accounts to ascertain how the $4.5 million has been spent to achieve such poor results.? Are their accounts for the last four years available for public scrutiny?
I have a solar road in front of my house.
It is asphalt.
It gets very hot in the summer.
It doesn’t produce any electricity either but at least cars can drive on it.
Perhaps I should start an Indiegogo page.
Thing is, this solar roads concept has been thoroughly dismissed as nonsense a long time back, yet it STILL gets new funding. That is worrying. It means that the various administrations can’t spot a scam even when it jumps up and bites them.
It’s almost like fear, politics, misinformation and selective vision make for bad decisions..
It’s got me thinking. If I install my roof solar panels under the roof sheathing (i.e.: in the attic), it would have multiple benefits:
Protect the panels from falling debris, hail, high winds.
Eliminate any potential roof system leaks from brackets and other penetrations.
Eliminate the esthectic impact on the house.
And as a bonus, I can save on the project costs by value engineering out the wiring since that’ll result in only a neglible reduction in power output.
It’s all in how you think about it! I’ve got that grant application form around here somewhere…..
As a bridge engineer (I have to know a few things about roads) I could add that pavements are something that a huge amount of effort goes into. Asphalt vs. Concrete, the type and exact asphalt mix, the design of each component is designed specifically per project based on environmental, traffic loading, traction requirements and other factors. States pay a lot of money for asphalt mix design. Therefore, replacing asphalt with an inferior (significantly) wearing surface is a tough sell. The electric cars will slip and slide on glass like they’re playing hockey. And the politicians will have to answer for the number of dead people on roads. Glass is never going to be a road material. Ever.
How much time will it take to turn a glass like material on a road surface, into a dirty matte surface? Even if coated CVD diamond.
A lot of the effort you describe, goes into making the surface quieter and less prone to surface-water build-up (and the resultant aquaplaning) in wet weather. There is now a porous asphalt which solves both these problems. Unfortunately (AFAIK) it is not as hard-wearing and needs to be replaced more frequently.
Glass roadways with anti-slip surfaces will be incredibly noisy and extremely dangerous in wet-weather.
It would probably be cheaper to have panels 10 feet over the parking lot, less potential damage risk, with the added benefit of shade against the sun (and protection from rain). I’m giving away this idea for free, no grants needed.
Semi’s are a lot taller than 10 feet.
On occasion, even taller loads are transported on flatbeds.
Standard height is 13′ 6″. In most states/areas the measurement posted on the signs of overpasses and bridges are the height of what will safely pass under. IOW if the sign says 13′ 6″ it means that a load with a maximum height of 13′ 6″ can pass under it safely.
But that doesn’t go for everywhere. NYC for example posts their clearances based on curb height. I have driven under the raised rail running over Broadway in Brooklyn pulling a 13′ 6″ high trailer when the clearance signs said 12′ 10″. I’ve been told they do this to allow for snow on the road but I really don’t know for sure why they do it differently than every place else.
As a driver an OTR driver of a big truck one HAS to learn to read the signs and understand how to interpret them. Places like NY make that harder. Not only are clearances measured differently in NYC their mile markers and exit numbers do not follow the standards used in almost all the other states.
I have never “topped” a trailer but there have been times I’ve had my head out the window looking up to see if I’m going to clear as I creep under and the issue is in doubt. One has to be very careful and know that on most trailers the rear of the trailer will ride slightly higher than the front. I have had to go under arched stone overpasses where I had to go down the middle of the road to clear a few times. It was the only way to get to where I had to go.
Wow – where do you live in California? I pay closer to 22 cents per. You must be ignoring “transmission fees.”
Every time I fly in an airplane I look down and marvel and how tiny humans footprint really is. Roads are not terribly visible from 30,000ft. But giant factories and warehouses roofs sure are! Why not put solar fields up on top of those roofs? That sure as hell makes more sense than paving roads and parking lots with solar panels (as others have pointed out, it isn’t good to crush or scratch a solar panel nor block the sun from it by parking over it)! And it makes much more sense than destroying a forest or desert ecosystem by putting up mammoth solar arrays or wind mills our in a pristine park! Stop destroying nature to create “renewable” energy, damnit! We in the petroleum industry have a far smaller footprint than any damn “green energy” company! Put your stupid solar panels on ROOFS, damnit! Use that wasted space, don’t take up more!
I thought driving trucks over solar panels was just dandy. Same goes for Agilent and Tektronix equipment. What better place than roads cold there possibly be for solar panels? Roofs? No way, you can’t see them.
And I genuinely haven’t a clue about the USA (I could call upon that little yellow dangly man inside a Google map maybe) but in the UK, roadside verges are always so very verdant and strong growing. So much better growing than the fields just behind them normally. And on quiet roads how the verge creeps across the tarmac/concrete whatever
Despite all the Agri-Tech lavished on the fields.
(As a peasant, now retired, it was my Professional Duty to notice these things. Old habits etc etc)
Why the extra strong greenery next to all those dreadfully polluting cars?
Possibly nitrogen oxides from vehicle exhausts but the verge would get hit by overshoot from the farming activity. Extra CO2?????
I’d guess organic compounds from old asphalt/bitumen being broken up by UV & traffic plus tyre/rubber dust.
Ever left an old car tyre out-of-doors for a decade or more? They go green, mouldy and disintegrate don’t they. What’s eating them? Somebody makes a feast there’s no doubt.
All of which increase soil organic matter which feeds the soil bacteria – hence the plants.
Also not least, ordinary (mineral/rock) dust being ground into ever finer particles by moving traffic. Then Humic Acid produced by the bacteria attacks the dust and the plants are in foody heaven.
Would that sort of thing happen with glass roads and electric cars?
How much carbon oxide is being captured by all that greenery?
How much (extra) water does it transpire. Does it offset the heating effect of the black asphalt?
Do folks pushing all this ultra clean super tech know these things, do they even notice?
Do they even think?
sigh. So many questions
Here’s some good science to do regarding asphalt.
On a summer evening, at sunset plus/minus an hour, visit your local town/city park.
Take shoes and sox off and take those ten happy little thermometers cross country. They”ll luvvit.
Take them over grassy areas (shaded and in-the-open), the kid’s sandpit, tennis court maybe, cement flags and also tarmac and concrete paths.
Without spoiling your fun, let’s just say that those who insist that asphalt has a (global) heating effect may have some thinking to do on the way home…………… with regard UHI and how/what causes it.
Ah. Problem solved. In theory.
October 2012
Characterization of Solar Roadways Via Computational and Experimental Investigations
Rajesh Kanna Selvaraju
The University of Western Ontario
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2220&context=etd
My nuclear-generated home electric bill is $.05/kwh.
Every single road anywhere gets beat up by vehicles within a few years. Sure, let’s cover them with sensitive electronics. How about using up the roof space first (of course roofs have their own issues…).