Is this too good to be true?

[Loren Pechtel]

Well, no; they don't have to pay for BOTH real estate on which to install solar panels AND a road surface, because they get the two functions for the price of one. A fairer comparison is not solar roadway costs vs solar panel costs; it is solar roadway coasts vs (solar panel costs PLUS conventional roadway costs). Then you need to check out the benefits side, and consider the savings due to fewer crashes on icy roads; better road markings; smart road markings that allow flexible traffic management; reduced pollution from other power sources; etc.; etc...

It saves the real estate--but real estate is usually a minor component of total solar cost.

As for better road markings--I realized a big problem here. That would work well at night but you'll need some awfully bright lights for it to work during the day.

2) Melt the snow on the road? You really think they produce enough power for that?!?!?! If they get enough power then the black asphalt (which absorbs at least as much energy, but just turns it into local heat rather than electricity) would also melt the snow.

Except that black asphalt doesn't have the ability to move energy from the parts of the road surface that are clear of snow (possibly hundreds of miles away) to the parts that are still snowed under.

And you could do that today. We don't--power is too expensive.

3) Run the power wires under the street? It's already often done locally (we have no poles around here) but running the bigger wires underground doesn't work too well--the wires get too hot. Not to mention that insulating the high voltage stuff is problematic. (Normally they are bare wires up there on the poles. No insulation = much better heat dissipation.)

Why would you need to have the long distance cabling under the roads? It can be managed the same way it is now. Only local cabling need go under the roads. This is not a problem.

Modern construction puts the local wires underground anyway, there's little gain here. Yeah, they don't put them in a channel--but that's because the channel costs to much to be worth it. This isn't any better, the economics still aren't worth it. And I'm not talking only about the long distance stuff--there are still poles around holding the wires from the substations.

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If something works to benefit everyone and a lot of people are on board with it, they will find the money.

Legalize marijuana and tax it to pay for the solar roads.

That's not the way economics works. Just because you want to do something doesn't mean you can afford to.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

How much weight can these panels hold? I'm worried that we wouldn't be able to put them on the highways of the US, because some of our heavy trucks weight at least 8 tons (That's 7257.48 kilograms for you non-americans) and I doubt those panels can hold that kind of weight without malfunctioning.

8 tons? 18-wheelers can go up to 40 tons.

5 tons per axle.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

The problems:

1. I don't see anything in there about impact loading from snowplows. I can't imagine this stuff would like plows very much.
2. Freeze-thaw lifting. How are these things put together? Freeze-thaw will likely want to lift some of these here, others there. There is a reason this stuff is presented in a desert.
3. Utilities! So many pavements have buried utilities. This system would need to be designed to be deactivated easily enough, and panels removed quickly so that underground work can take place.
4. Reflection? The top will have to avoid reflecting light. Solar glare is bad enough, don't need roadway glare to go with it.
5. Cost is one thing. Construction time is another. To replace all existing pavement? How long would it take to develop that much material. Do we even have the resources to build that many panels?

 

[barbos]

Solar generation is a distraction here. I don't see it having efficiency higher than 5% and with such efficiency you would have to wonder, is it it really worth it? You can build 20% efficient roof panels that would take 25% of space of these.
I have my doubts about durability, sure you can make glass which withstands pressure, but will it withstand dropping a big hammer? Also tempered glass is not designed to be driven on with constant scratching and sanding.