Elon Musk revives his plan to power the United States entirely on solar: “All you need is a 100 by 100 mile patch in a deserted corner of Arizona, Texas or Utah (or anywhere) to more than power the entire USA.”

submitted by Orangutan from inverse.com

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[–]JasonCarswell 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Paving the roads with solar panels is a TERRIBLE idea. See Thunderf00t's videos on all the ways it fails miserably. Ultimately all variants are scams.

Putting solar panels beside roadways is as good an idea as anywhere, accessible to maintenance, raised high or on the ground, for shade in hot climates, etc. Really there's nowhere so short of land that we need to reclaim roads.

[–]FormosaOolong 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

I know there has been a lot of negativity (propaganda? I dunno) regarding solar roadways. Even if the current proposals are terrible (again, I dunno either way) we are collectively clever enough to do it well. Here's why I like it: ending toxic asphalt, using the solar-exposed space that is already public, low-profile collection, the safety factor of snow/ice automatic melting, maybe finally having a way to have wired internet delivered to that last rural mile that always gets ignored. That it could be self-diagnosing as well as networked so that it functions around any given block that fails...so many potential positives. It's important not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Possibly with some nanotechnology materials they could become doable. But right now, nothing is tough enough, transparent enough and water-resistant enough to make them worthwhile. Even their "demo" on which no cars ever drove failed miserably. And what about when they break? You know, crevices, sinkholes, big trucks exceeding weight limits, dropping steel beams on them, etc. Then it's not just "patch the hole", it's "rebuild this complex machinery"!

Also, I think that in -40 degree weather, with blizzards going for days, the efficiency gets a little bit negated. Then at that point you have to use snow removal scrapers and calcium salts, which are corrosive at low temperatures... There are a whole slew of difficulties that aren't taken into account.

To me, that "invention" is simply pot smokers' delusions: it seems fine until you have to actually build it.

[–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Exactly!