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posted by cmn32480 on Wednesday May 13 2015, @01:49PM   Printer-friendly
from the the-future's-so-bright... dept.

Phys.org reports on a pilot project in the Netherlands to generate power from solar panels in a bike path that has so far exceeded expectations:

The first six months of the pilot phase were successful, according to a SolaRoad press release issued earlier this month. The energy yield was beyond their expectations. Spokesperson Sten de Wit said they were surprised to see the level of success so quickly. Case in point: "The bike road opened half a year ago and already generated over 3,000 kWh," he said. "If we translate this to an annual yield, we expect more than the 70 kWh per square meter per year, which we predicted as an upper limit in the laboratory stage. We can therefore conclude that it was a successful first half year."

 
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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by rondon on Wednesday May 13 2015, @02:22PM

    by rondon (5167) on Wednesday May 13 2015, @02:22PM (#182385)

    While I agree with the facts of your post, I can't and don't agree with your conclusion. It isn't stupid, because the government doesn't own very much of any of the things that you have listed. What they own a ton of is the asphalt that we drive/walk/bike on. Trying to make that resource more effective is not stupid. Squeezing efficiency out of fixed assets is how we increase our standard of living.

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  • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday May 13 2015, @02:55PM

    by Thexalon (636) on Wednesday May 13 2015, @02:55PM (#182401)

    It isn't stupid, because the government doesn't own very much of any of the things that you have listed.

    So? It's not like they couldn't have set up a loan program to install panels in any of the places I listed out, charging slightly less on loan payments than the private owner will save in electric bills. Or they could do the overhead structure similar to what's used on parking lots over the asphalt they own.

    Solar panels are great. Let's use them in cost-effective ways, though.

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday May 13 2015, @03:06PM

      by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 13 2015, @03:06PM (#182407) Journal

      In the past, many have laughed at new scientific developments but fortunately that did not deter the people doing the groundbreaking work. True, currently there are easier and more effective ways of collecting solar power, but I can't think of any that exploit road and path surfaces. There are obstacles to be overcome, sure, but what we might learn in the process could be valuable for the future and, if the final project is successful, then the Dutch will be having the last laugh. If they can solve the problems and come up with a cost-effective solution (and I accept that is a big 'if') they will be on to a winner.

  • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Wednesday May 13 2015, @10:24PM

    by urza9814 (3954) on Wednesday May 13 2015, @10:24PM (#182665) Journal

    It's still going to be cheaper and easier to put the solar panels OVER the road or path rather than UNDER it. That's what they're doing in South Korea and it seems to be working just fine. You can also put them on plenty of other government property -- reservoirs seem to be an excellent choice, as the panels operate at higher efficiency since you get free cooling. At least put some up on the roof of every government building. Once they've run out of space there, then it might make sense to start putting them in/on/along the roads.

    But really it's still going to be cheaper to go buy new property to build a solar plant on than maintaining solar roadways. Solar panels are gonna cost a few million per acre. Land is maybe a few thousand per acre. Land is not a significant part of the cost here. Probably around one tenth of one percent. So taking a HUGE hit on the reliability and maintenance costs of those panels in order to use less land is pretty stupid. Also building them in the roads means you have to use PV cells, and PV cells are not the best way to do solar. Buy a couple empty acres and you can use cheaper and more environmentally friendly mirror systems instead.