Ouch! The solar road didn't go as well as planned.

[EatenByLimestone]

Hopefully they take another shot in a few years.


I'm sure lots was learned though.


https://www.sciencealert.com/the-wo...-has-turned-out-to-be-a-disappointing-failure

 

[blades]

I remember the hype on that from 2016.

 

[jetsam]

I thought it was a dumb idea because - and check my math on this- even if you had a photovoltaic material that tolerated trucks driving over it very well, motor vehicles are not famous for being transparent, and block light- and they didn't have a photovoltaic material with a track record of tolerating trucks driving on it.

You can (and the Wattway people do) argue that some roads are only shaded a low percentage of the time by vehicles.

I will argue that if you mounted cheap off the shelf solar panels next to the road, they would be shaded by vehicles (hopefully) 0% of the time, and (hopefully) rarely suffer damage from being driven on. Airborne vehicles may of course cause exceptions.

But is surface area at such a premium that ROADS are the best place to put panels? Is France out of rooftops and fields? That's a bit silly.

 

[begreen]

I was skeptical of this idea for many reasons, including tree-shading, truck load and maintenance. Conversely I like the idea of placing solar panels over larger irrigation canals. The canals provide hundreds of mile of a solid base and the solar-roof reduces evaporation.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Is canal evaporation an issue?

 

[begreen]

Is canal evaporation an issue?

Definitely, particularly in hot dry areas like the southwest. There are lots of variables including canal design, water temp, wind speed, time of day, season, etc..

Another benefit, the water helps cool the panels which increases their efficiency. India has taken leadership in this application.

"Canal-top panels, by absorbing heat, help reduce water evaporation. A 1-MW canal-top plant can save the evaporation of up to 9 million litres of water per year, according to a GSECL estimate shared with IndiaSpend, (broken link removed) enough to provide 2,500 households with 10 litres of water every day for a year. As more canals are covered, the savings increase."
https://scroll.in/article/827983/how-indias-canals-could-help-fast-forward-its-solar-energy-plans
https://www.scientificamerican.com/...lar-plants-atop-canals-to-save-on-land-water/