It's frankly a very bad sign of the ratio of koolaid to science that this project ever got greenlit.https://www.sciencealert.com/the-world-s-first-solar-road-has-turned-out-to-be-a-disappointing-failure …
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I am not up on the science, but I wonder if there is a way to do roadway electricity with the piezoelectric effect?
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Engineering difficulties aside, I think that would bleed energy from the vehicles themselves, reducing their mileage and generally being a net negative. There's something on Wikipedia but it seems to be gibberish. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_harvesting#Energy_from_smart_roads_and_piezoelectricity …
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That's exactly why I don't present options like I know what the hell I'm talking about.
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Apparently the US military tried something similar with soldiers. "DARPA's effort to harness 1–2 watts from continuous shoe impact while walking were abandoned due to the impracticality and the discomfort from the additional energy expended by a person wearing the shoes."
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Let's see... If they want something that can obtain energy from sunlight and is almost impossible to destroy, they might try paving the road with kudzu.
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floating solar is the better meme solar in that it actually works and is sensible
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Desert solar is best. HVDC lines to the coasts.
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"best solar" different from "meme solar" but sure, desert is attractive but building that infrastructure is very hard and more local distributed resources have probably been underrated because they have less transmission loss, require less upkeep etc
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HVDC transmission losses are quite small, for what it may be worth.
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Moreover, unit maintenance costs are lower at scale, particularly given the simple repetitive nature of solar panel arrays, and local uses ignore enormous differences in opportunity costs and corresponding real estate pricing-- which often dominate overall amortized costs.
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That said, I am generally of the view that solar panels should be installed essentially wherever they make economic sense. The more the merrier. We have an enormous misallocation of power generation tech to resolve, and every little bit helps.
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absolutely — utility-scale solar is much cheaper/more efficient and should be promoted & enabled with grid infrastructure and market reform there is a place for distributed resources though. some of its value is overlooked because it is harder to quantify. local resilience, etc
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Hmm. Good thinking. Make sure some of the machines are diesel powered and leak oil. That'll keep em clean.
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Okay, when you put it that way…
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Did they consider just... putting in a field of panels nearby?
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. Banned in Sweden. SubGenius, Zhuangist, white-hat troll. Defrocked mathematician. Brain problems.