Out of Pod Experience

this sounds like a great project that could really help in our daily lives. what do you think? https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/solar-roadways#home

Neat, but niche item.

Some old info I heard god knows where said that in US 1 mile of road cost 1 million USD. This shite will make it 2 mil USD per 1 mile. It aint going to happen :)

Don't forget that the panels loose efficiency, they will need to be replaced something like 15-20 years later.

Interesting opinions, I do love the idea. there are so many things that do cost more then what we currently use. Only I think it is worth it to spend more money to get more return from it then from something cheap that does not have as great return.

This totally legit newspaper blows the lid off this idea. Don't do it people! We're all going to die!

The concept sounds amazing. But mechanics i have worries about.

Theres a similar idea being floated at the moment in Tokyo. To build covered walkways that are roofed with solar cells over the pavement and across the first lane of the big roads so people waiting for taxis wont get wet.

The cost is something astronomical and an engineering professor at Todai pointed out that it would only generate only about 4-5% of the energy Tokyo needs in a year. Still, 4-5% isnt to be sneezed at and the concept ideas looked so damn cool.

They dont salt the roads bar the motorways here in Japan.

They just use winter tires in the north.

In feb when we had crazy snow all the cars were moving around like they were on a pinball table. Made me even more glad that i take the train to work.

I would pay higher taxes that would benefit us like this. I don't like paying taxes on useless crap that seems to go on most of the time.

Oh I must agree! Why pay for it myself when I can force others to pay for it. So I become a politician/lawmaker, invest my monies into the company, start contracting this company with taxes to churn out roads etc while I get filthy rich regardless if the tech actually works or is viable for long term usage. Invest in batteries manufacturing, battery recycling research, specialized disposal companies and their landfills, maintenance projects, the monies to be made off taxes could be astonishing. Rich!

You know it's always a bad idea if it takes taxes to do it rather than a company just selling it's goods to people because they have a good product. People making driveways with it? Sounds good. Parking lots, sure thing. Al Gore making another billion or two? meh.
I mean I see no problem with private investments. If such a thing is good, it would in itself make money and self-sustain. It should cost tax payers $0. It should be good enough to sell off excessive power onto the power grid. It's shouldn't be yet another bridge to nowhere project.

Solar power is one of my top five preferred power sources (cold fusion #1 if they crack the mystery). But like Gray said, it still has it's drawbacks, especially with it's price. It also has environmental problems, as far as with solar farms as has been reported. Then you have the fields it generates, which I'm not quite convinced is healthy for biological life forms. The tech really needs to be made more efficient, which slowly it has been. And if it gets to the point of being safe and efficient, I think building it into roads may become an obsolete idea. Even in the transition to being a good tech, not so easy to just continually upgrade all the city streets when the 3yo tech is outdated by the new tech. Tech should be as such that we don't even notice it in our lives, just in the background serving our needs.