US Solar Roadways Plan Hitting Snags


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Honestly, they should be investigated by the government and arrested. IMHO the Indegogo Campaign did nothing more than fraudulently obtain $1.7M from people.

 

This has zero chance of ever panning out. It just doesn't make any logical sense to even consider this.

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Honestly, they should be investigated by the government and arrested. IMHO the Indegogo Campaign did nothing more than fraudulently obtain $1.7M from people.

 

This has zero chance of ever panning out. It just doesn't make any logical sense to even consider this.

 

If this "dumb" idea does not go anywhere, I hope Julie and Scott Brusaw repay what they obtained fraudulently  :angry:

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This hasn't even got that far, It fails at the drawing board for the reasons already mentioned.

 

Well we already know that it wont again for the reasons already mentioned.

 

And you know how much energy it will take to melt snow... How ? And you know how to waterproof the surface of the tiles so that when the snow melts off it dosnt go between the tiles .. Also how do you stop the tiles from tearing this surface apart under the varying load of the car tyre....

 

Oh who needs to worry about that sciency stuff I mean that dosnt mater :rolleyes:

READ THE FAQ

 

How much weight can these panels support? Semi-trucks get pretty heavy!

Originally, we were designing toward 80,000 pounds. That was supposed to be the maximum legal limit for a semi-truck. However, we live in logging country and a former logging truck driver informed us that they don't have scales in the woods and that he'd topped out at 124,000 pounds. So we decided that we should go for 150,000 pounds. We then learned that oil companies can get permission to move refinery equipment up to 230,000 pounds on frozen roads, so we decided to shoot for 250,000 pounds.

Both 3D Finite Element Method analysis and actual load testing at civil engineering labs showed that our Solar Road Panels can handle that and more.

Civil engineers enough for you? And when did I say it didn't matter? I said that until they test their product for a while (years), which most likely will start with small projects such as parking lots, we cant conclude one way or another even if their engineers a say so.

 

They can't just leave roads un-plowed.  Especially highways that are critical to people getting around.

 

Have they actually released any proof about the traction being better than regular roads?  The stuff looks like textured plastic, so if that's the case, it will be massively worse than regular pavement.

 

Here:

There will be some obvious obstacles such as oil spills, sandstorms, storm debris, etc. Here's the worst case scenario: if all else fails, we can replace snow plows with street sweepers where needed (vehicles with large rotating brushes). They're used here in Idaho in the spring to clear the roads of the sand that was used for traction during the winter months.

and here:

What are you going to do about traction? What's going to happen to the surface of the Solar Roadways when it rains>

Everyone naturally pictures sliding out of control on a smooth piece of wet glass! Actually, one of our many technical specs is that it be textured to the point that it provides at least the traction that current asphalt roads offer - even in the rain. We hesitate to even call it glass, as it is far from a traditional window pane, but glass is what it is, so glass is what we must call it.

We sent samples of textured glass to a university civil engineering lab for traction testing. We started off being able to stop a car going 40 mph on a wet surface in the required distance. We designed a more and more aggressive surface pattern until we got a call form the lab one day: we'd torn the boot off of the British Pendulum Testing apparatus! We backed off a little and ended up with a texture that can stop a vehicle going 80 mph in the required distance.

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