So lets see, it cost somewhere between $100k and $500k, it consumes more energy than it generates AND YOU CANT EVEN DRIVE ON IT! Kinda hard to call it a solar 'roadway' with a straight face! Typical road surface lifetime is ~20 years if you're lucky. Typical solar panel lifetime is ~20 years if you're lucky. 'solar roadways' generates ~10cents per day, giving a return on investment of 2000-10 000 YEARS with NO MAINTENANCE!
Love your work TF! Was wondering, how much time do you invest in this channel? This seems like a time draining exercise (a useful one - not arguing that). Cheers!
Fuck off? I paid the guy a fucking compliment. Or are you one of those stupid people who buy into shit headlines that Solar Roadways prints out. If you can read at all that is.
I'm going to crowd fund a project to build all roads sloping downwards. Imagine the fuel saved! You basically coast everywhere you want to go! Anybody who says it wont work is just a reactionary!
+Zonies Coasters who knows at this point? Either way they definitely got the 2 million dollars from the indiegogo campaign and even that is completely ridiculous.
Two million will add up quickly when they try to build this, it will probably be a huge failure and go in the hole. So, if Thunder makes a penny off this video technically he's correct.
Someone should really make a video where they convince Solar Frickin Idiots to adopt a cheaper material with a cool name then reveal at the very end that its asphalt. Video idea +Thunderf00t ?
I stll don't get why they(plastic roads too) always say that fact it's modular makes it better than asphalt. Asphalt is a 100% modular, you can just take it with you in a tipper truck and then put it in any shape or form you want right on the spot without having to think about it. But with a modular road surface you'd need to calculate the shape of every single module for every single turn, bend or slope and then make sure the indivdual "modules" are built-in on their exact spot. So on a curvy road with a lot of difference in height every single "module" would be different from every other "module".
It's also ignoring the fact that right now if you want someone who can repair a road, you just need someone who knows how to lay asphalt. With solar roadways you'll need to replace your road maintenance electricians who on average are about twice as expensive as your average highway maintenance person, and probably some electrical engineers to deal with any more complex problems that might arise. Even then we're not getting into how if any of the underground wiring malfunctions they'll have to rip out the whole roadway and rewire everything, and knowing how long construction on roads takes now, I'm not optimistic.
Modular roads are a terrible idea, anyone who has played with toys as a kid should know why. Even at the LEGO train shows I display at we have problem with the modular roads not being the right shapes, and that is in an ideal environment where everything is very similar already.
This has got to be a scam. No way does a qualified engineer think this is feasible when such simple calculations show how utterly silly the idea is in practice.
Erick Dominguez Then do it (okay please don't). It's not that hard since people don't seem to give a shit about if it can actually work. Remember the self filling water bottle or the bike handle rebreather.
A scam or he isn't an engineer and just doesn't have a single clue as to what he's doing... I mean, in a previous video he had to research solar panels and the effects of laying them flat vs angled, like the fuck really? As if nobody has ever tried that before and found out it was stupid nor has TF explained how it works in his busted videos either, nope none of that exists, he's working alone in a completely new field.
A lot of people insist the guy is just in over his head, but if you look back they recently bought two sections of standard solar paneling for a simple test. Flat vs angled energy production. He stated that he wasn't aware of any test done to determine something like that before, which is such an extreme sign of incompetence that the man must either be an absolute idiot or a conman.
Michael Steffensen "qualified" engineer here... WE DON'T. It's abundantly clear to any real engineer that this is a load of shyte. Clearly they didn't think it through. This would NEVER pass the concept stage with any engineering team I've ever worked with for the exact same reasons TF outlined in his first vijeyo. Same as the hyperloop. I can think of several ways to make it work and even make it reasonably safe in the case of an incident. Unfortunately none of these coincide with what's been demonstrated by the project and none of them are economically viable. There's a reason we call these people frauds and the people who fund them - "brain-free pockets". At this point I say fuck humanity, might as well get rich designing weapons!
Solar roadways were a neat idea. It's the kind of thing you come up with at the bar while drinking with your friends. But it also should have been abandoned shortly after the napkin sketch stage when someone with a calculator debunked the numbers and proved it wouldnt work
It's a place holder. he actually has this file called "Intro.mp3" that he meant to place there. That is why he says "song". But for some reason he always forget.
dariomasi9 Be careful what you ask for. Back in 1958 Ford proposed a design for a nuclear powered car. Probably a good thing there was no such thing as indiegogo back then...
Those strips they use to hold (or not) the hexagonal panels together probably wouldn't stand much in the way of harsh braking before being ripped out, so not only would an emergency stop likely break the road, but you'll be left with metal strips in the road for subsequent vehicles to run over. And even if that didn't happen it's an uneven surface so road noise would be horrendous.
Why not have invisible thorium powered cars park on those solar panels? Check mate - Thats the kind of over the horizon (and into the abyss) thinking we need!
pays for itself in 10'000 years........ well we'll see whose laughing in 12017 poopyfoot! *Assuming solar panels don't have an average life expectancy of 15 years.*
In Houston Texas the Retail price for Electricity runs 10 - 15 cents per KW Hour. I wouldn't think the power company would not give you full retail to buy back energy. I would think the power company would give you around 7.5 cents per KW Hour.
This is one of the few cases where TH-cam views seem to give out a lot of money in compared to something else. That solar setup makes the same amount of money as a TH-cam video that gets 100 views per day.
I am going to watch this video 100 times a day 5 years later just so thunderfoot can still make more money off this video than the defunct bankrupt garbage solar roadways company
Just a reminder: Consumer grade Solar Freaking Rooftops refinance themselves after about ten years, but then you usually have to replace them because they start losing efficiency. At the end, you still got virtually free electricity. This will never happen with these Solar Freaking Roadways.
kilésengati not free, not even close. After 10 years of generating power, the money you saved from the panel just covers the upfront cost. Count inflation on your original investment and the potential earnings it could have had in a 10 year investment or and you come in way behind.
Mark When you count in a "healthy" inflation of 4% p.a. you will theoretically end up with a price of ≈ $6,000 for the same panel ten years later (when leaving away technological advancements). Assuming everything - including electricity prices as well as your wage - gets adjusted to inflation, you would end up paying roughly the same value for the same product. Still, initially paying the value of today's $4,000 for one panel and then buying a new panel for the same value after ten years over and over again and you decide to leave after the life cycle of the panel ends, you will end up with a big, fat zero on your balance. When applying this to real circumstances you have to count in many other things as well as the possibility of "random" events. But even with that, you are likely to spend the same or less on a solar panel than on buying the electricity the solar panel produces, plus, you will get at least a bit more self-sufficient regarding electricity.
Those things usually come with a 20 to 25 year warranty on efficiency which guarantees that after that time, they'll still be operating at around 80%, and even after that, they'll lose about 1% per year. Hardly a reason to replace them, let alone after 10 years.
@Mark not in the UK. There are companies who will install one for free as long as you sign over the "feed in tariff" and the electricity generated for 10 years. So you don't see a benefit for 10 years then it's completely free electricity. Also even though the panels do loose efficiency it's not as steep a drop off as people make out. After 20 years you should still be getting 80%. The main loss of efficiency is people not cleaning them, and dirt after 10 years can cut 50% of the light.
What really gets me is how they expect a PARKING LOT to generate electricity. Last I checked, cars are not transparent and won't let sunlight through. The only place it could sort of work is on road in the middle of a desert with minimal traffic and no obstacles that cast shade on the road.
The best return of investment you can get from solar road ways, is to turn it off the instant you turn it off :) Remember it uses more Power than it generates, so everyday it cost you more and more money :)
Dear Thunderf00t, I just wanted to say that I really appreciate all of the content that you put out here to debunk the idiots of this world. I only wish that more people knew about your channel so that they could educate themselves on these topics. Keep up the wonderful work!
"Perhaps they are descendants of those who argued tha the earth eas flat." Actually, I find a lot of flat earth logic in the entire sales of Solar Roadways. They incessantly complain that the rational people who point out their fallacies whith physics have no data to back up their claims (when oddly enough science prdicts exactly what the results are), they rely on the sun being something it isn't, the simply cannot be contradicted, And if you do try to rely on science you are closed minded or on the payroll of someone they dislike.
Stugem S The problem isn't that tracking technology, it's that solar panels themselves are too inefficient/to expensive to justify their installation in the first place. (This is the reason that very few people install them) However that is changing fast and I expect to see panels being developed within the next 10 years that can pay themselves off within 5 years or earlier. I expect that to be the tipping point and suddenly the market booms.
As someone who works in the solar field, there are many factors that affect the progression of solar. 1. The typical roof mounted PV system hooks up to the electrical grid. People have this impression that your system just generates power to your house and thats it, or that all your extra energy is stored in battery cells. While there are systems that can do that (Sonnen is one company that makes such products), they are incredibly expensive and the typical household PV system does not use them. The energy from your PV modules first is converted from DC to AC via an inverter/microinverter, that feeds it into the main service panel of the electrical grid and is used by other customers (for which your bill will be offset by the selling of your excess power) if your house is not using it. You'd be surprised how many people talk about how cool it would be to be "off the grid" when I discuss that I work for a company and are confused when I tell them how pretty much every single PV system is on the grid. 2. Like most major home renovations, installing a good solar system requires licensing, inspections, approvals from the county, HOA, and a team of professionals with at least 1 person skilled in electrical installation. with teams of knowledgeable individuals a perfect turn-around from sale to installation is close to 3 weeks. 3. Power companies do a lot to ruin it. APS and SRP in Arizona have crippled the solar market in AZ by reducing what they pay for your generation, charging you a monthly surcharge for joining the grid, and arbitrary direction requirements (that have changed) to get rebates. These things have ruined the residential solar market as all the cost offsets of financing and installing a PV system are lost in arbitrary and unnecessary costs. All that aside, Solar roadways are a complete joke, but a decent professional solar system with efficient panels (tracking systems are also not common) can produce a good amount of energy.
+Striderx254 Good, and informative comment bro :) . Most folks have the wrong impression about solar, but maybe that will change as the public uptake of this technology improves.
@Mark nope solar panels are actually way cheaper than you think. You can get a 4.5kW system now installed for as little as £3500. The feed in tariff is about £0.04/kWh. You will actually generate an average of about 20kWh per day off that, or about £0.80 per day IF you don't use any electricity yourself. If you use it all then you save £2.40 per day. That's £800+ per year saved. That would pay off a £3500 loan in 6 years. That of course does not include the government grants you can get which can make another £600 - £1200 a year difference.
He should run a Kickstarter for the amount of money the gold would cost, then buy a normal hammer and a can of gold spray paint, and then pocket the rest, lol!
Right! We should burn all the snake oil these guys sell, that might solve our energy problems. It seems that, snake oil like stupidity is an infinitely renewable resource.
In most places you would want to remove the salt, or reroute the water from flowing into the salt water. It is of really limited use. You need to be lucky to have lot of extra fresh water, which you can use.
I'd much rather harvest the energy of water tbh. Just look at the sun's power output, and now look at how much Hydrogen water contains. Draw your own conclusion.
Even if the electrical generation was high enough and they were durable enough to use as a roadway, you'd have to consider the regular cleaning that every single mile of road would need on a weekly basis. Dirt, oil, leaves, dead animal remains, debris from cars/trucks/etc would need to be regularly cleaned off to prevent sunlight penetration blockage.
Next evolution of Solar roadway: the trail of dirt. It doesn't costs money to build, it doesn't drain energy from the power grid. And you can actually use it as roadways.
I have only recently found this channel and i must say i love it, we need more people like you Thunderf00t, people that question mainstream media and overhyped bogus science projects. P.S. You said it in one of your videos, but i think you should really do it... Make a fake kickstarter for some non-existent technology and see how far you can take it, but if you do reach the goal, stay a decent human being and return the money you received with an explanation as to why this project is physicaly impossible. Maybe that way people will start questioning things by themselves, naive people need a good life lesson, but without the negatives involved... P.S.S. i figured you are a man of science, so i have a question for you Thunderf00t. What are your thoughts on controversial subjects that science usualy avoids at all costs e.g. spirituality, not religion, but the existence of spirit maybe in a parallel dimension that connects us as human beings etc. Like how psychology hasnt even figured out how our memory works yet, and all studies involving the human subconscious just stop with hypnosis and loads of unchecked theories... How historical data is based on carbon dating, which is an outdated method and is not even close to being accurate, which makes me question whether humanity as we know it has lived for as long as we are told, what if we lived with dinosaurs and called them dragons..? Or how NASA keeps denying that UFOs exist, even though there are hundreds of videos online from the space station where you see them flying around... Sorry i got a bit sidetracked and this message is huge =) still i consider myself to be at least partly a man of science but at some point you start questioning the 'truths' that are slammed into your brain by every educational institution of the world and realise that when everybody is avoiding the subject, it usually means that the questions asked pose some threat to the people on top.
It's too bad he ranted on so many points that wouldn't exist in a final product. Not that solar roadways will get there but it's the practice of insulting flaws that will be fixed in prototypes that is awkward.
I personally would fire the road worker that didn't make a flat road. That the "patio" section that was installed was installed by the creators of Solar Roadways. They are hobbyists, not engineers, with limited ability with tools, so of course it's uneven. As well, the tiles aren't in any kind of production so of course it took 3 months to replace. If you only make enough to install and don't have any in storage of course its going to take time to get production going again. Even factories have to plan runs of product because of this. So thunderf00t at this point is biting at the bone for meat. He already proved it is a non-starter and he proves very well how terrible the little amount of power that it produces is, but to attack points that wont exist in a final product is getting a little needy for argue points. I have a business degree and like thunderf00t because he explains the science that I wouldn't know about, but he just went too far in this video.
When will aviation catch up & give us solar FREAKIN' RUNWAYS?! Cuz you know these could totally stand up to 100+ ton airliner landing on them every couple of minutes for 20+ years! Plus, the LEDs could light up new numbers, so you don't have to repaint as the magnetic poles drift!
The part about Solar Roadways heating itself to remove snow and ice is perhaps the most dangerous aspect of it. The worst kind of slippery winter ways are when there's both water and snow/ice on the road surface. What happens is that while the lowest layer of snow will melt, if there's a continues snowfall, it will come to a point where the water just freezes above the melted snow. Creating a very thin layer of ice on top(on ordinary roads it's the other way around - Water resting on top of a layer of ice), which when a car drives on, with even the best winter tires will run a much great risk of losing all grip that, making the car near uncontrollable - even for the best drivers. In essence, a similar situation to when you get aquaplaning while driver over wet road surface.
I blame Elon Musk for all of this. He has somehow made far too many people believe that the impossible can be done if you just have the rarest of ingredients. A very rich business man who Is actually a good guy ''doing it for the people'. I honestly believe it is all his fault, albeit I really like the guy and I hope he can pull off say 15% of what he says he can!
Not only all these things, but as with many modern day 'smart' appliances, they have the potential to get hacked! Imagine the LEDs getting hacked and being programmed to display inappropriate imagery!
More likely to have the required road markings removed while driving, having it replaced with an infomercial. HI THERE BILLY MAYS HERE, I SEE YOU'RE DRIVING ON THE HIGHWAY IN A BLIZZARD. I'VE COME BACK FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE TO TELL YOU ABOUT BACON-V, THE WORLD'S FIRST INTRAVENOUS BACON SOLUTE. WHY EAT BACON WHEN YOU CAN INJECT IT DIRECTLY INTO YOUR BLOODSTREAM?
Makes me feel so much better about not producing anything my entire life instead of wasting millions of dollars and time and energy on fundamentally flawed concepts.
Thunderf00t what's your thoughts on putting a single tracking solar panel on top of street lamps on the side of the road? Seeing as they would already be connected to the electrical grid, that would make it way easier as far as that goes, then since they would be tracking they would clearly produce more power than this PoS, and it could reduce taxes since the city charges tax payers for the electricity used for street lights etc. Sure the initial costs would be a tad steep, but given that they would be using the most efficient method the solar panels would easily pay them selves off. I'll get some numbers for a town and see what the cost vs production would be.
I actually saw these near san francisco. In one of the residential areas surrounding the city that lays on the metro system for san francisco, the street lamps had solar panels and one of those vertical spiral wind turbines on top. It didn't seem to make that much power, but if it can make more than the power it takes to run an LED streetlamp for one night, then its probably not the worst idea.
If you're going to use money on solar power, you might as well do it properly and leave the gimmicks out of it. The more spread out they are the more in danger they are of vandalism/stealing. So it's not going to be safe anywhere outside of a city/town, in where there may be buildings blocking the sun.
malcomb bell or maybe, you can put all the solar panels in one place where there is ideal sunlight. you can have one big inverter instead of lots of microinverters. It'll be cheaper to maintain too.
Pjax_ yeah that would be great!..... if it wasn't already done, yes I understand that solar farms are far more effective that way, what I'm suggesting would not be as efficient as that, however it would supplement, and improve energy costs on cities and states. I would also recommend outfitting all government buildings with solar panels as well seeing as that would help lift a burden on tax payers. However back to the street lamp solar panels, yes it would be a bit more expensive to install with the microinverters, however that would be covered by the decreased bill to the tax payers in following years. Furthermore each one would roughly decrease the cost of each street lamp it's attached to by (a rough estimate based on solar panel output vs lamp and motor intake) 20 - 40% that's 20 - 40% that the tax payers will eventually not need to pay, and jobs for technology and mechanically inclined people to repair the units.
malcomb bell what would be the advantage of putting solar panels on street lamps vs putting it on farms? can I use the "savings" generated from more efficient solar farms to offset the cost of street lamps in the exact same way?
To be honest I'm just surprised they actually generate any power at all, at this rate. So this means the solar roadways are actually surpassing my expectations. Which isn't saying much but there ya go.
Yeah but the power they generate is like less than 1% of what they require to operate. I'm sure once you put them in actual roads with dirt, tire wear, brake dust etc. the numbers get even worse. They have a half million dollar array that would barely power a cell phone.
Not to mention the many accidents that will happen on that road, since the surface isnt fit for vehicles to drive on, and have their panel frames getting unscrewed because of the horrible construction work. Last time I checked, glass is a horrible material to use for traction. And no, I am not going to take their word when they claim that its "Tempered Glass which provides the same or better traction than asphalt at least".
And if you did make the glass abrasive enough to have good traction and you ever wrecked a motorcycle on it without chain mail it would shred a human being. After a while the surface would just get smoothed out by traffic and wear to get slippery but they would probably just be dangerous and sharp at first. Nothing about this idea is good.
G'day, Ah, at 2 minutes in, I must say that your assumptions are off regarding Solar Tracking. The Solar Array which I run my Hut on is mounted on a 2-Axis Tracking Tower (of my own design & construction) which allows 135 Degrees of Daily Tracking (07:45 to 16:15) and 48 degrees of Seasonal Tracking...; compared to the recommended method of fixing Panels to point at the Equator at an Angle equal to Lattitude plus 23 Degrees (optimised for midwinter, y'see...), my "Asymetric Offset Wig-Wagging Tower of Power" results in a 35% to 38% increase in current generated. One factor is that PVs make less power when they're hot, because a Wire's Resistance to Current-Flow increases with temperature - & PVs are full of tiny wires - so as they heat up it becomes ever harder to get the Current out of them...; and a PV which is always perpendicular to the Sun collects more Infra-Red as well as UV, so it runs hotter than a Panel which is not held perpendicular to the Light. In practice, throwing a bucket of cold water (10 Degrees C.) onto a fixed array of PVs every 10 minutes will cool them from an average temp. of 50 C. to 30 C. ; resulting in a 35% increase in daily output, a Mud Puddle under the Array, and nothing else achieved all day for the Water-Carrier.... As to your assertion that "Flat Solar Panels are Dumb..." ; well, go ye and look on the roof of the next 100 Caravans & Winnebagos you encounter on the Roads, and I predict that you'll discover that at least 90% of them have Photovoltaic Panels permanently fixed, FLAT on their Roof... Personally, the first Streamlined Solar-Array I mounted on my Subaru 4WD was an Omnidirectional Array with 2 Panels pointing straight up & 3 angled at 45 Degrees, facing in 3 directions 120 Degrees around the sides (on a Faceted Aerofoil, to reduce Aerodynamic Drag) ; and after the Mk-1 SunFoil I quickly realised that a single larger PV mounted parallel to the Roof made more Electricity & generated less Drag at Highway Speeds. My Car has had a SunFoil (AeroFOIL which runs on SUNlight...) since 2008, because it reduces my Fuelburn by finishing recharging the Battery after I've switched the Engine off at journeys' end (my average Engine Runtime is 6 minutes...) ; and when the Battery is fully charged on Engine-Start, then the Alternator functions only as a Turnaround-Pulley for the Waterpump until the Vehicles' Electrical Consumption exceeds the Panel's output in realtime. Backtrack me to my "SunFoil Project... Playlist" to see the whole story ; you can find the (Australian Government) Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation's assessment & endorsement of my Results in "SunFoil Short-Talk...". So, "Flat Solar Panels" do indeed make very good sense, if they are to be subjected to highway-speed Slipstreams, when mounted on Automobiles & Caravan-Trailers & Camper-Vans, Trucks, etc..; but you are totally correct in saying that Glass Solar Panels are a bloody stupid thing to try to build a Road from - because for a start, Roads are always in the Shadow of every vehicle driving on them, and that's apart from the mechanical wear & tear of driving over the Photovoltaics... Have a good one, ;-p Ciao !
"and a PV which is always perpendicular to the Sun collects more Infra-Red as well as UV" I thought glass reflected most infrared and UV radiation? Could be wrong.
Hey Thunderfoot! Can you talk about how solar panels get hot and how efficient it is to heat your water and cool your panels by running water under them?
so you water cooled a solar array and using the water for taking a bath,that maybe a practical way to improve the efficiency.i wonder if that can be used for cooling the house a little bit since the heat from the roof is transferred to the water not the room below it
that won't be really efficient at all, have a look at this article: www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2090447913000403 Since solar panels get hot on the top, how you going to extract the heat ? And you sure need a pump, that will also cost energy. Here's a conclusion of the article: "The PV panels yields the highest output energy if cooling of the panels starts when the temperature of the PV panels reaches the maximum allowable temperature (MAT), i.e., 45 °C. The MAT is a compromise temperature between the output energy from the PV panels and the energy needed for cooling." And they only used a system that just sprays water on top of the panels.
I read the introduction. Clearly cooling can increase efficiency and that's even without counting the heated water as "energy gained". But even in the introduction there is enough there to make an interesting video on the topic.
MrRolnicek how are you going to use the heated water ? Let's say you're going to take a bath daily with the heated water. According to www.withouthotair.com/c7/page_50.shtml Taking one bath needs about 5 kwh. If we take a look at www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_5_6_a The residential average household cost per kwh is about 0.12 cents, meaning one bath would cost you about 0.68 cents (electricity cost only). So you need to calculate how much you would've to pay for a pump, other things like tubes, running the pump, etc. minus the kwh you gain because your solar panel runs more efficient. I don't think this will add up well.
Ok, you think it will not add up well, I think it will end up just fine. Moreover I think that whether it does or does not add up positively or negatively would make for a good video.
Hey Thunderf00t! I know there's about a hundred other reasons that solar roadways are totally impractical and a fool's errand but I was pondering one I don't think anyone has mentioned yet. When large trucks and powerful cars accelerate they can cause tremendous pinch stress on the roadway surface. The same goes for braking with a heavy vehicle like a cargo truck. As far as I'm aware one of the biggest dangers to tempered glass is a sharply concentrated force-- they deal with distributed loads well but a sharp impact concentrated at a single point (such as the sparkplug in the example you mentioned in a previous video, or a tungsten carbide "emergency window breaker" punch for evacuating cars after a water crash) is likely to cause catastrophic total failure. So what would happen if someone in a powerful car, not even talking a super-powerful car like a Koenigsegg Agra (at about 1200 joules), which can actually damage even a normal tarmac, but a more modest sports car like a Tesla model S (930 joules) or Audi A8 (850 joules) stomped their accelerator on a glass roadway? That's not even MENTIONING a large semi truck weighing up to 36 metric tons and moving at 105 Kph (typical US motorway speed) having to use its emergency brakes. The net effect would be a patch of roadway is now attempting to accelerate with that kind of impulse, and the glass immediately in front of it would be motionless. That sharp line of pinch stress is going to try to buckle one way or the other, and is quite likely to succeed. We're also ignoring the loads of those trucks too, up where I used to live in the northern US they quarry stone for gravel and concrete, and the stone is primarily granite-type rocks (thanks to the Canadian Shield). Shards of that flying off a truck at 100 Km/h would devastate a solar roadway without doubt, like the sparkplug example you cited. We know this is true because they'll gladly do the same to a tempered-glass windscreen!
I love the work that you do and your way of showing these unfounded claims to be what they are; a waste of money. My only regret is not being in a better position to support you via patron so you can keep up this brilliant work and fight the good fight. (Till then I usually share the hell ouf your your vids to help educate and spread the word.)
he used to work mostly in many European nuclear facilities so... the time when his superior got the letter saying he was a nazi he was in the Czech Republic Nuclear facility if Im not wrong
I was thinking of long scale millions and billions. Some places in Europe still use "milliard" for a thousand million and a billion would be a million million.
Is there some high need to have lines in parking lots be able to be adjusted at will? Conventional lots using paint seemed to work just fine for the last century or so.
What monstrous gaming PC do you have? The average gaming PC (with 1 graphics card) consumes on average less than 400W on demanding task like gaming and much less in idle. Under optimal conditions you could power 2 or 3 gaming PC's with those roadways.
When i was looking for the parts i noticed the trend of increasing power obv. But i didn't take into account that the power efficiency of parts would rise too, So i ended up buying a 950W PSU about 6-8 years ago, its lasted me since. I can't imagine any modern PC needing 750W+ at any given time with how power efficient parts are now.
Kennie Baillairgé You might consider getting a Kill A Watt meter and see how much power your PC uses, modern PCs use very little power at idle, load usage hasn't dropped dramatically but doing nothing you can easily see results as low as 50W (even less on low-end CPUs) and even modern GPUs idle very well too, for instance, an idle GTX1080 only consumes another 10W. www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/core-i7-7700k-processor-review-desktop-kaby-lake,8.html Dick Buttox 750W? Unless you're running some sort of crossfire/SLI setup I see no reason a system would ever need over 400W-500W PSU, even with a slightly older system, my CPU and GPU only use about 250W and I have an SSD + 3 HDDs which adds another 70-100W of max load, plus in case you're unaware, its always better to get a quality continuous 500W 80+ PSU over some cheap ass "claimed" 1000W PSU.
Hay Thunderfoot, I love your videos as always and I was wondering if you could do a video on EMP (electro magnetic pulse) and the likely hood of a solar flair hitting us.
Well mathematically speaking if you, right now, fund my THORIUM FREAKING ROADWAYS project, will be generating a whole Million a Day! Don't fund Solar Roadways, Fund my totally legit Nuclear powered roadways!
No silly, the people who donated money are the liberal arts majors. The liberal arts majors were conned out of their money because they're ignorant of how science works. There wouldn't be this hoopla about solar roadways without all of money donated, thus the solar roadways is brought to you by the liberal arts majors.
Liberal arts majors are a different category of stupid. This is what happens when something is designed by a marketing team instead of someone who actually knows what they're doing. The money came from the many scientifically illiterate and foolish people in the US, as well as this failure of a government.
and remember,musk idea's is an idea,and he's not siphoning our tax either.The hyperloop is a different story, i rather think about it as a engineering challenge so we can learn more through the process,rather than wanting a proper train substitute
Mary Phillips Musk actually makes quite a bit from subsidies. To date his only unqualified success was PayPal. The early, high-end Tesla's did fairly well. Whether they'll be profitable in mass production is debatable...
At what cost? How much more than asphalt roadways? And consider the rule of thumb that "The More Complex A Thing Is, The More Likely It Is To Break down" and these useless things kept breaking down.
thunder foot has had a long history of pissing ppl off, christian zealots, feminist extremists, brexiters, science idiots... generally idiots with no common sense that don't like being called out as idiots with irrefutable evidence from a person of a high subscriber count.
How much do I have to donate to your Patreon to keep you making science videos (videos where you use science, even if it's in fields you're not an expert in, like this video, the other debunking videos, creationist or even gender/sjw stuff if you want) and to stop making opinion videos? (Like the Brexit or Trump videos, and the SJW stuff where you don't use science, and just argue feels) It's not even that I disagree with a lot of your opinions, it's just that a lot of us go to you for your science, we support you because you use science, and base arguments on fact... There are opinion channels I watch, but I don't confuse them for science channels. When you make the opinion videos on this channel, it's hard to show that you aren't biased. Trumpapolooza has the same credit as Solar Roadways. Brexit = Apocalypse has the same weight as the science that proves thorium would be a terrible substitute for gasoline in cars. Really, I don't have an issue with your opinion videos, I just think it lowers the quality of your channel to keep them here. Why not make a secondary channel? There are lots of benefits to having different channels for science and opinion. You definitely would stop getting so much backlash and hate. Please at least consider it...
Replacing Tarmacs? Imagine this somehow gets pushed through and Solar Roadways have replaced all the materials that make up the ramps, taxiways and runways. Now remember the point made about differential loading and traction. Imagine a Boeing 737, among the most widely used commercial aircraft in the aviation industry, landing on a runway made out of these. All of that weight focused on three points, rolling along a tiled surface that was originally made for cars. Now imagine if such an aircraft had to actually perform a hard landing for whatever reason; pilot error, instrument failure or even an emergency.
So lets see, it cost somewhere between $100k and $500k, it consumes more energy than it generates AND YOU CANT EVEN DRIVE ON IT! Kinda hard to call it a solar 'roadway' with a straight face!
Typical road surface lifetime is ~20 years if you're lucky.
Typical solar panel lifetime is ~20 years if you're lucky.
'solar roadways' generates ~10cents per day, giving a return on investment of 2000-10 000 YEARS with NO MAINTENANCE!
Thunderf00t i love you man... I am also fighting wars vs flat earthers
Love your work TF!
Was wondering, how much time do you invest in this channel? This seems like a time draining exercise (a useful one - not arguing that).
Cheers!
without reading this post, I am great.
Typical PA road surface lifetime is ~1 year if you're lucky.
+Xmichaud This is his full time job. I would say he spends lots of time doing this.
I love how you actually overestimated their capabilities in your calculations. And yet they mocked you. Good job Thunderf00t.
Fuck off? I paid the guy a fucking compliment. Or are you one of those stupid people who buy into shit headlines that Solar Roadways prints out. If you can read at all that is.
+Cuzeg Spiked found the solar roadways fanboy!
+Cuzeg Spiked
Right back at you, buddy!
Cuzeg Spiked, what what? In the butt?
Cuzeg Spiked What are you doing here mate ? Go laydown and recharge your brain on solar freakin roadways !
I'm going to crowd fund a project to build all roads sloping downwards. Imagine the fuel saved! You basically coast everywhere you want to go! Anybody who says it wont work is just a reactionary!
I really like this idea. I can just buy a house at the bottom of one of the largest sloped roads, and just never leave! Think of the savings!
Cars without engines. Bro I see the future and it is sloped freaking roadways.
eddiebruv lmao
Traveler Finder - Downhill in both directions. Fucking genius!
They're scared of change, descendants of flat earthers, I bet. lol
Thunderf00t is making more money on solar roadways than the people that had them installed
yeah im sure he gets 4 million dollars from those videos....
Razen twoju mat the company didn't get 4million dollars. Unless the city was dumb enough to pay them to install it
+Zonies Coasters who knows at this point? Either way they definitely got the 2 million dollars from the indiegogo campaign and even that is completely ridiculous.
Two million will add up quickly when they try to build this, it will probably be a huge failure and go in the hole. So, if Thunder makes a penny off this video technically he's correct.
+猫我蜜糖 You think people are just going to let them walk with two million huh?
I have an idea. They could use paint for the lines. Much cheaper and easier to see.
And asphalt instead of the solar panels, would also save money. Asphalt freakin painted roadways. :-)
Holy shit! This will change the world! Where do I sign up for funding Asphalt Freakin' Painted Roadways?
+halfcabmelanchol Just send your payment directly to me. I accept cash, moneyorder and Bitcoin. :-)
Someone should really make a video where they convince Solar Frickin Idiots to adopt a cheaper material with a cool name then reveal at the very end that its asphalt. Video idea +Thunderf00t ?
Cool, Asphalt with painted lines would save money. Also, LEDs get dimmer over time. They would have to replace the LEDs every 10 years.
Even if they worked, you'd have horrible glare off the glass surface in your eyes when driving.
Theo Volz I was thinking that. Imagine it as a more tame version of be out on a boat, light reflectong off water.
Plus the fact that you'd never be able to see the LEDs in bright sunshine.
I stll don't get why they(plastic roads too) always say that fact it's modular makes it better than asphalt. Asphalt is a 100% modular, you can just take it with you in a tipper truck and then put it in any shape or form you want right on the spot without having to think about it. But with a modular road surface you'd need to calculate the shape of every single module for every single turn, bend or slope and then make sure the indivdual "modules" are built-in on their exact spot. So on a curvy road with a lot of difference in height every single "module" would be different from every other "module".
You are right, there is a reason that every single road surface is a malleable "putty".
Agreed. See, the thing is, if there was something better than asphalt, WE'D BE USING IT ALREADY.
Asphalt is also 99.99% recyclable. Just throw it in a grinder and then cook it up for the next project.
It's also ignoring the fact that right now if you want someone who can repair a road, you just need someone who knows how to lay asphalt. With solar roadways you'll need to replace your road maintenance electricians who on average are about twice as expensive as your average highway maintenance person, and probably some electrical engineers to deal with any more complex problems that might arise. Even then we're not getting into how if any of the underground wiring malfunctions they'll have to rip out the whole roadway and rewire everything, and knowing how long construction on roads takes now, I'm not optimistic.
Modular roads are a terrible idea, anyone who has played with toys as a kid should know why. Even at the LEGO train shows I display at we have problem with the modular roads not being the right shapes, and that is in an ideal environment where everything is very similar already.
This has got to be a scam. No way does a qualified engineer think this is feasible when such simple calculations show how utterly silly the idea is in practice.
I'd do it for the money.
Erick Dominguez Then do it (okay please don't). It's not that hard since people don't seem to give a shit about if it can actually work.
Remember the self filling water bottle or the bike handle rebreather.
A scam or he isn't an engineer and just doesn't have a single clue as to what he's doing...
I mean, in a previous video he had to research solar panels and the effects of laying them flat vs angled, like the fuck really? As if nobody has ever tried that before and found out it was stupid nor has TF explained how it works in his busted videos either, nope none of that exists, he's working alone in a completely new field.
A lot of people insist the guy is just in over his head, but if you look back they recently bought two sections of standard solar paneling for a simple test. Flat vs angled energy production. He stated that he wasn't aware of any test done to determine something like that before, which is such an extreme sign of incompetence that the man must either be an absolute idiot or a conman.
Michael Steffensen "qualified" engineer here... WE DON'T.
It's abundantly clear to any real engineer that this is a load of shyte. Clearly they didn't think it through. This would NEVER pass the concept stage with any engineering team I've ever worked with for the exact same reasons TF outlined in his first vijeyo. Same as the hyperloop. I can think of several ways to make it work and even make it reasonably safe in the case of an incident. Unfortunately none of these coincide with what's been demonstrated by the project and none of them are economically viable.
There's a reason we call these people frauds and the people who fund them - "brain-free pockets".
At this point I say fuck humanity, might as well get rich designing weapons!
I wonder how many solar panels they could have bought for £2 million? They could probably cover the whole town's roofs in solar panels.
Saggytits give the citizens their own solar installs? repave every f'd up road in town? or waste it on solar roadways...
Yes! I like it.. solarsaggytits.
Solar freakin' saggytits!
This improved my evening
"There have always been people who hate change!"
It's because the change you're offering is about as believable as Pixie Dust!
Wait, I thought Pixie Dust was a thing? Surly it can't just be sugar that is in Pixie Sticks?
scottthewaterwarrior
No, he means from the Disney movie.
Flyingferrets5 Well, the change being offered can be believed when you're snorting pixie dust.
But- magic beans are real!
I detest change. Does nothing but rattle around and scratch my phone.
Solar roadways were a neat idea. It's the kind of thing you come up with at the bar while drinking with your friends. But it also should have been abandoned shortly after the napkin sketch stage when someone with a calculator debunked the numbers and proved it wouldnt work
Apparently these guys did not yet harnessed the power of Calculator let alone the math.
"So" is the first word of most Thunderf00t videos. :)
It is and I find it extremely annoying, for some reason. Actually, he says "song" which is even more annoying.
So?
It's a place holder. he actually has this file called "Intro.mp3" that he meant to place there. That is why he says "song". But for some reason he always forget.
Still better than some channels doing their overly enthusiastic "Hi Guys!! :D" equivalent.
As long as we are being nitpicky, he also seems to say "ashphalt" and not "asphalt"
How did none of the backers check the math behind this thing?
'Merica!
I would guess two things, greed(investment) and the more prominent attribute in this world, ignorance.
Because math makes their brains hurt.
Some probably did and then didn't spend their money on it
Meminjo physics*
I just want nuclear roadways tbh.
dariomasi9 Who needs cooling towers when snow can be melted by the waste heat? ;P
dariomasi9 Be careful what you ask for. Back in 1958 Ford proposed a design for a nuclear powered car. Probably a good thing there was no such thing as indiegogo back then...
Fusion Freaking Roadways!
In just 10yrs you'll gain radioactive powers like your favorite super heroes!
dariomasi9 singularity freaking roadways!
Those strips they use to hold (or not) the hexagonal panels together probably wouldn't stand much in the way of harsh braking before being ripped out, so not only would an emergency stop likely break the road, but you'll be left with metal strips in the road for subsequent vehicles to run over. And even if that didn't happen it's an uneven surface so road noise would be horrendous.
Why not have invisible thorium powered cars park on those solar panels? Check mate - Thats the kind of over the horizon (and into the abyss) thinking we need!
pays for itself in 10'000 years........
well we'll see whose laughing in 12017 poopyfoot!
*Assuming solar panels don't have an average life expectancy of 15 years.*
ramone shakes Their life expectancy is about a day or two.
ramone shakes best comment ever!!
ramone shakes Technically we already live in 12017
Cuzeg Spiked No it's believed that about 10,000 ago the first form of human civilization started so some people say 12017
Ain't religion a thing? Even non christians count the years like one...
Solar freaking roadways is a series on this channel now
This solar roadway topic is almost not educative anymore (because everything is clear by now) but it became a f*ckin hillarious comedy show! xDDD
In Houston Texas the Retail price for Electricity runs 10 - 15 cents per KW Hour. I wouldn't think the power company would not give you full retail to buy back energy. I would think the power company would give you around 7.5 cents per KW Hour.
This is one of the few cases where TH-cam views seem to give out a lot of money in compared to something else. That solar setup makes the same amount of money as a TH-cam video that gets 100 views per day.
I am going to watch this video 100 times a day 5 years later just so thunderfoot can still make more money off this video than the defunct bankrupt garbage solar roadways company
Just a reminder: Consumer grade Solar Freaking Rooftops refinance themselves after about ten years, but then you usually have to replace them because they start losing efficiency. At the end, you still got virtually free electricity. This will never happen with these Solar Freaking Roadways.
kilésengati not free, not even close. After 10 years of generating power, the money you saved from the panel just covers the upfront cost. Count inflation on your original investment and the potential earnings it could have had in a 10 year investment or and you come in way behind.
Mark When you count in a "healthy" inflation of 4% p.a. you will theoretically end up with a price of ≈ $6,000 for the same panel ten years later (when leaving away technological advancements). Assuming everything - including electricity prices as well as your wage - gets adjusted to inflation, you would end up paying roughly the same value for the same product. Still, initially paying the value of today's $4,000 for one panel and then buying a new panel for the same value after ten years over and over again and you decide to leave after the life cycle of the panel ends, you will end up with a big, fat zero on your balance.
When applying this to real circumstances you have to count in many other things as well as the possibility of "random" events. But even with that, you are likely to spend the same or less on a solar panel than on buying the electricity the solar panel produces, plus, you will get at least a bit more self-sufficient regarding electricity.
Mark That's why most people jump at those government subsidies that net you solar panels for your home.
Those things usually come with a 20 to 25 year warranty on efficiency which guarantees that after that time, they'll still be operating at around 80%, and even after that, they'll lose about 1% per year. Hardly a reason to replace them, let alone after 10 years.
@Mark not in the UK. There are companies who will install one for free as long as you sign over the "feed in tariff" and the electricity generated for 10 years. So you don't see a benefit for 10 years then it's completely free electricity. Also even though the panels do loose efficiency it's not as steep a drop off as people make out. After 20 years you should still be getting 80%. The main loss of efficiency is people not cleaning them, and dirt after 10 years can cut 50% of the light.
SOLAR FREKIN 50 CENT ROADWAYS
What really gets me is how they expect a PARKING LOT to generate electricity. Last I checked, cars are not transparent and won't let sunlight through. The only place it could sort of work is on road in the middle of a desert with minimal traffic and no obstacles that cast shade on the road.
AgentAndroid Solar panels + Sun = Power, for them, it doesn't factor in cars :P
Stop, stop! It's already dead!
davewxc You don't take any chances. A senator supported this after all. Burn it with fire!
no, it's right there, government supported and all
Clone36
There's no need for that. They did that by themselves a while ago.
Yeah and his name was "Crapo". It doesn't get more appropriate than that. Crapo supporting crap.
Sadly, It's not dead :(
Thunderf00t isn't breaking dreams the startups are breaking dreams for the gullible!!!
But after 13689.253936 years you have the money again!!
minus repair costs.
also minus he power they consume...
No you didnt watch the video, there is so much heat so it can remove snow.
Ok, let's say 20000 years
The best return of investment you can get from solar road ways, is to turn it off the instant you turn it off :)
Remember it uses more Power than it generates, so everyday it cost you more and more money :)
It's gotten easier to become a snake oil salesman these days.
Typhoonbladefist haha so true, but on a serious note, i have a cancer cure serum and its for sale for only 3 easy payments of 29.99
Matthew Baran Do you want some radiation protection serum against fukoshima?
LeFlavius_NL too late already sold out. I'm selling an apartment on a skyscraper hanging from an asteroid if you're interested.
LeFlavius_NL Yes! It's made from a mix of plastic from air and solar roadways. It uses a hyperloop as an elevator!
LeFlavius_NL Don't forget to pack your magic underwater breathing gills! We have a pool filled with water extracted from air!
Thunderfoot NEVER STOP!!! U got a fan from puerto rico here n I love ur videos n watch them as soon as I seen they came out.
Dear Thunderf00t, I just wanted to say that I really appreciate all of the content that you put out here to debunk the idiots of this world. I only wish that more people knew about your channel so that they could educate themselves on these topics. Keep up the wonderful work!
At least our grandchildren will look back and think...
"They actually believed in solar roadways?"
And have a good laugh about it.
Once thunderfoot got you by the leg, he doesnt let go does he? ,)
Nope, and in order for him to do so he has to bite down harder (ratcheting jaw)
Chris Mitchell Then he goes on to the other limbs until you bleed out
Oh but he does let go but only after the leg falls off :)
Only if you belive your legs is unbreakable.
He won't stop until every backer feels shame.
Thunderf00t's guide how to lose faith in humanity
Oh god, I'm so happy to see you're still doing videos Thunderf00t
"Perhaps they are descendants of those who argued tha the earth eas flat."
Actually, I find a lot of flat earth logic in the entire sales of Solar Roadways.
They incessantly complain that the rational people who point out their fallacies whith physics have no data to back up their claims (when oddly enough science prdicts exactly what the results are), they rely on the sun being something it isn't, the simply cannot be contradicted,
And if you do try to rely on science you are closed minded or on the payroll of someone they dislike.
how about they invent cheap sun tracking solar panels that are affordable for poor people
Stugem S but that would require actual research and engineering!
Stugem S The problem isn't that tracking technology, it's that solar panels themselves are too inefficient/to expensive to justify their installation in the first place. (This is the reason that very few people install them)
However that is changing fast and I expect to see panels being developed within the next 10 years that can pay themselves off within 5 years or earlier. I expect that to be the tipping point and suddenly the market booms.
As someone who works in the solar field, there are many factors that affect the progression of solar.
1. The typical roof mounted PV system hooks up to the electrical grid. People have this impression that your system just generates power to your house and thats it, or that all your extra energy is stored in battery cells. While there are systems that can do that (Sonnen is one company that makes such products), they are incredibly expensive and the typical household PV system does not use them. The energy from your PV modules first is converted from DC to AC via an inverter/microinverter, that feeds it into the main service panel of the electrical grid and is used by other customers (for which your bill will be offset by the selling of your excess power) if your house is not using it. You'd be surprised how many people talk about how cool it would be to be "off the grid" when I discuss that I work for a company and are confused when I tell them how pretty much every single PV system is on the grid.
2. Like most major home renovations, installing a good solar system requires licensing, inspections, approvals from the county, HOA, and a team of professionals with at least 1 person skilled in electrical installation. with teams of knowledgeable individuals a perfect turn-around from sale to installation is close to 3 weeks.
3. Power companies do a lot to ruin it. APS and SRP in Arizona have crippled the solar market in AZ by reducing what they pay for your generation, charging you a monthly surcharge for joining the grid, and arbitrary direction requirements (that have changed) to get rebates. These things have ruined the residential solar market as all the cost offsets of financing and installing a PV system are lost in arbitrary and unnecessary costs.
All that aside, Solar roadways are a complete joke, but a decent professional solar system with efficient panels (tracking systems are also not common) can produce a good amount of energy.
+Striderx254
Good, and informative comment bro :) .
Most folks have the wrong impression about solar, but maybe that will change as the public uptake of this technology improves.
@Mark nope solar panels are actually way cheaper than you think. You can get a 4.5kW system now installed for as little as £3500. The feed in tariff is about £0.04/kWh. You will actually generate an average of about 20kWh per day off that, or about £0.80 per day IF you don't use any electricity yourself. If you use it all then you save £2.40 per day. That's £800+ per year saved. That would pay off a £3500 loan in 6 years. That of course does not include the government grants you can get which can make another £600 - £1200 a year difference.
when are you actually going to make this golden hammer?
He should run a Kickstarter for the amount of money the gold would cost, then buy a normal hammer and a can of gold spray paint, and then pocket the rest, lol!
I want to complain to the government about throwing away my taxpayer dollars on this trash.
We'd have unlimited energy if we could harness the power of salt. So much free salt in the world right now.
You Know Youve Been Trolled or stupidity
Right!
We should burn all the snake oil these guys sell, that might solve our energy problems.
It seems that, snake oil like stupidity is an infinitely renewable resource.
In most places you would want to remove the salt, or reroute the water from flowing into the salt water. It is of really limited use. You need to be lucky to have lot of extra fresh water, which you can use.
Why don't we convert all the mass in salt into pure energy and send it to countries we have issues with to help ease foreign affairs?
I'd much rather harvest the energy of water tbh. Just look at the sun's power output, and now look at how much Hydrogen water contains. Draw your own conclusion.
One of the most hostile environments is the common roadway in climates with 4 seasons and we know that solar panels are very fragile sooooo....😯
Even if the electrical generation was high enough and they were durable enough to use as a roadway, you'd have to consider the regular cleaning that every single mile of road would need on a weekly basis. Dirt, oil, leaves, dead animal remains, debris from cars/trucks/etc would need to be regularly cleaned off to prevent sunlight penetration blockage.
Is Mike Crapo his real name, or did you name him that? Please tell me there's not a family named Crapo.
There was a teacher in my middle school who Crapo was her last name.
Damn TFoot is a savage with these numbers
Next evolution of Solar roadway: the trail of dirt. It doesn't costs money to build, it doesn't drain energy from the power grid. And you can actually use it as roadways.
I have only recently found this channel and i must say i love it, we need more people like you Thunderf00t, people that question mainstream media and overhyped bogus science projects.
P.S. You said it in one of your videos, but i think you should really do it... Make a fake kickstarter for some non-existent technology and see how far you can take it, but if you do reach the goal, stay a decent human being and return the money you received with an explanation as to why this project is physicaly impossible. Maybe that way people will start questioning things by themselves, naive people need a good life lesson, but without the negatives involved...
P.S.S. i figured you are a man of science, so i have a question for you Thunderf00t. What are your thoughts on controversial subjects that science usualy avoids at all costs e.g. spirituality, not religion, but the existence of spirit maybe in a parallel dimension that connects us as human beings etc. Like how psychology hasnt even figured out how our memory works yet, and all studies involving the human subconscious just stop with hypnosis and loads of unchecked theories... How historical data is based on carbon dating, which is an outdated method and is not even close to being accurate, which makes me question whether humanity as we know it has lived for as long as we are told, what if we lived with dinosaurs and called them dragons..? Or how NASA keeps denying that UFOs exist, even though there are hundreds of videos online from the space station where you see them flying around... Sorry i got a bit sidetracked and this message is huge =) still i consider myself to be at least partly a man of science but at some point you start questioning the 'truths' that are slammed into your brain by every educational institution of the world and realise that when everybody is avoiding the subject, it usually means that the questions asked pose some threat to the people on top.
My rooftop solar panels produced 30.2 kW yesterday, and that was just a bit better than normal
You mean kWh
Next; Flying Solar-Panels around the earth
Thunderf00t makes maths so enjoyable😁😂👍
The Random Cast make math great again
It's too bad he ranted on so many points that wouldn't exist in a final product. Not that solar roadways will get there but it's the practice of insulting flaws that will be fixed in prototypes that is awkward.
Dylan Watts - Can you give some examples?
I personally would fire the road worker that didn't make a flat road. That the "patio" section that was installed was installed by the creators of Solar Roadways. They are hobbyists, not engineers, with limited ability with tools, so of course it's uneven.
As well, the tiles aren't in any kind of production so of course it took 3 months to replace. If you only make enough to install and don't have any in storage of course its going to take time to get production going again. Even factories have to plan runs of product because of this.
So thunderf00t at this point is biting at the bone for meat. He already proved it is a non-starter and he proves very well how terrible the little amount of power that it produces is, but to attack points that wont exist in a final product is getting a little needy for argue points.
I have a business degree and like thunderf00t because he explains the science that I wouldn't know about, but he just went too far in this video.
Dylan Watts Hey, what better exercise is there than beating a dead horse? Especially when the horse refuses to acknowledge that it's dead?
Almost everything you debunk (bust) is well within my lowly plumbing & heating qualifications re thermodynamics. Absolutely breathtaking.
In 10 000 years we'll live like kings!
When will aviation catch up & give us solar FREAKIN' RUNWAYS?! Cuz you know these could totally stand up to 100+ ton airliner landing on them every couple of minutes for 20+ years! Plus, the LEDs could light up new numbers, so you don't have to repaint as the magnetic poles drift!
Too funny!
The part about Solar Roadways heating itself to remove snow and ice is perhaps the most dangerous aspect of it. The worst kind of slippery winter ways are when there's both water and snow/ice on the road surface. What happens is that while the lowest layer of snow will melt, if there's a continues snowfall, it will come to a point where the water just freezes above the melted snow. Creating a very thin layer of ice on top(on ordinary roads it's the other way around - Water resting on top of a layer of ice), which when a car drives on, with even the best winter tires will run a much great risk of losing all grip that, making the car near uncontrollable - even for the best drivers. In essence, a similar situation to when you get aquaplaning while driver over wet road surface.
Dear Thunderf00t, stupidity never gets old and you doing a great job telling people to see through it´s makeup and disguise.
I blame Elon Musk for all of this. He has somehow made far too many people believe that the impossible can be done if you just have the rarest of ingredients. A very rich business man who Is actually a good guy ''doing it for the people'. I honestly believe it is all his fault, albeit I really like the guy and I hope he can pull off say 15% of what he says he can!
Still bringing the Thunder to those who prey on the less well-informed, I see.
OH MY GAAAHD SOLAR FREAKIN' ROADWAYS! I CLAPPED!
I KNOW WHAT THAT IS!!
AT ATS AT ATS AT ATS!
How utterly embarrassing for a government to have invested in this and not have conducted a feasibility report to truly investigate this
I love how you always round up to give the people you destroy the best odds
Next Project for solar roadways: a Dyson Sphere
Thunderf00t, you have three too many zeros on that half a billion at 15:50
Upright Spectre yea ur right
Not only all these things, but as with many modern day 'smart' appliances, they have the potential to get hacked! Imagine the LEDs getting hacked and being programmed to display inappropriate imagery!
Yes please.
More likely to have the required road markings removed while driving, having it replaced with an infomercial.
HI THERE BILLY MAYS HERE, I SEE YOU'RE DRIVING ON THE HIGHWAY IN A BLIZZARD. I'VE COME BACK FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE TO TELL YOU ABOUT BACON-V, THE WORLD'S FIRST INTRAVENOUS BACON SOLUTE. WHY EAT BACON WHEN YOU CAN INJECT IT DIRECTLY INTO YOUR BLOODSTREAM?
MacDeath Imagine Pepe on every street in every city...
Makes me feel so much better about not producing anything my entire life instead of wasting millions of dollars and time and energy on fundamentally flawed concepts.
13,698 years to pay for itself, that's amazing. They just have to be more durable than humanity's time on Earth so far.
Thunderf00t what's your thoughts on putting a single tracking solar panel on top of street lamps on the side of the road? Seeing as they would already be connected to the electrical grid, that would make it way easier as far as that goes, then since they would be tracking they would clearly produce more power than this PoS, and it could reduce taxes since the city charges tax payers for the electricity used for street lights etc. Sure the initial costs would be a tad steep, but given that they would be using the most efficient method the solar panels would easily pay them selves off. I'll get some numbers for a town and see what the cost vs production would be.
I actually saw these near san francisco. In one of the residential areas surrounding the city that lays on the metro system for san francisco, the street lamps had solar panels and one of those vertical spiral wind turbines on top. It didn't seem to make that much power, but if it can make more than the power it takes to run an LED streetlamp for one night, then its probably not the worst idea.
If you're going to use money on solar power, you might as well do it properly and leave the gimmicks out of it. The more spread out they are the more in danger they are of vandalism/stealing. So it's not going to be safe anywhere outside of a city/town, in where there may be buildings blocking the sun.
malcomb bell or maybe, you can put all the solar panels in one place where there is ideal sunlight. you can have one big inverter instead of lots of microinverters. It'll be cheaper to maintain too.
Pjax_ yeah that would be great!..... if it wasn't already done, yes I understand that solar farms are far more effective that way, what I'm suggesting would not be as efficient as that, however it would supplement, and improve energy costs on cities and states. I would also recommend outfitting all government buildings with solar panels as well seeing as that would help lift a burden on tax payers.
However back to the street lamp solar panels, yes it would be a bit more expensive to install with the microinverters, however that would be covered by the decreased bill to the tax payers in following years. Furthermore each one would roughly decrease the cost of each street lamp it's attached to by (a rough estimate based on solar panel output vs lamp and motor intake) 20 - 40% that's 20 - 40% that the tax payers will eventually not need to pay, and jobs for technology and mechanically inclined people to repair the units.
malcomb bell what would be the advantage of putting solar panels on street lamps vs putting it on farms? can I use the "savings" generated from more efficient solar farms to offset the cost of street lamps in the exact same way?
To be honest I'm just surprised they actually generate any power at all, at this rate. So this means the solar roadways are actually surpassing my expectations. Which isn't saying much but there ya go.
Yeah but the power they generate is like less than 1% of what they require to operate. I'm sure once you put them in actual roads with dirt, tire wear, brake dust etc. the numbers get even worse. They have a half million dollar array that would barely power a cell phone.
Not to mention the many accidents that will happen on that road, since the surface isnt fit for vehicles to drive on, and have their panel frames getting unscrewed because of the horrible construction work.
Last time I checked, glass is a horrible material to use for traction.
And no, I am not going to take their word when they claim that its "Tempered Glass which provides the same or better traction than asphalt at least".
And if you did make the glass abrasive enough to have good traction and you ever wrecked a motorcycle on it without chain mail it would shred a human being. After a while the surface would just get smoothed out by traffic and wear to get slippery but they would probably just be dangerous and sharp at first. Nothing about this idea is good.
G'day,
Ah, at 2 minutes in, I must say that your assumptions are off regarding Solar Tracking.
The Solar Array which I run my Hut on is mounted on a 2-Axis Tracking Tower (of my own design & construction) which allows 135 Degrees of Daily Tracking (07:45 to 16:15) and 48 degrees of Seasonal Tracking...; compared to the recommended method of fixing Panels to point at the Equator at an Angle equal to Lattitude plus 23 Degrees (optimised for midwinter, y'see...), my "Asymetric Offset Wig-Wagging Tower of Power" results in a 35% to 38% increase in current generated.
One factor is that PVs make less power when they're hot, because a Wire's Resistance to Current-Flow increases with temperature - & PVs are full of tiny wires - so as they heat up it becomes ever harder to get the Current out of them...; and a PV which is always perpendicular to the Sun collects more Infra-Red as well as UV, so it runs hotter than a Panel which is not held perpendicular to the Light.
In practice, throwing a bucket of cold water (10 Degrees C.) onto a fixed array of PVs every 10 minutes will cool them from an average temp. of 50 C. to 30 C. ; resulting in a 35% increase in daily output, a Mud Puddle under the Array, and nothing else achieved all day for the Water-Carrier....
As to your assertion that "Flat Solar Panels are Dumb..." ; well, go ye and look on the roof of the next 100 Caravans & Winnebagos you encounter on the Roads, and I predict that you'll discover that at least 90% of them have Photovoltaic Panels permanently fixed, FLAT on their Roof...
Personally, the first Streamlined Solar-Array I mounted on my Subaru 4WD was an Omnidirectional Array with 2 Panels pointing straight up & 3 angled at 45 Degrees, facing in 3 directions 120 Degrees around the sides (on a Faceted Aerofoil, to reduce Aerodynamic Drag) ; and after the Mk-1 SunFoil I quickly realised that a single larger PV mounted parallel to the Roof made more Electricity & generated less Drag at Highway Speeds.
My Car has had a SunFoil (AeroFOIL which runs on SUNlight...) since 2008, because it reduces my Fuelburn by finishing recharging the Battery after I've switched the Engine off at journeys' end (my average Engine Runtime is 6 minutes...) ; and when the Battery is fully charged on Engine-Start, then the Alternator functions only as a Turnaround-Pulley for the Waterpump until the Vehicles' Electrical Consumption exceeds the Panel's output in realtime.
Backtrack me to my "SunFoil Project... Playlist" to see the whole story ; you can find the (Australian Government) Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation's assessment & endorsement of my Results in "SunFoil Short-Talk...".
So, "Flat Solar Panels" do indeed make very good sense, if they are to be subjected to highway-speed Slipstreams, when mounted on Automobiles & Caravan-Trailers & Camper-Vans, Trucks, etc..; but you are totally correct in saying that Glass Solar Panels are a bloody stupid thing to try to build a Road from - because for a start, Roads are always in the Shadow of every vehicle driving on them, and that's apart from the mechanical wear & tear of driving over the Photovoltaics...
Have a good one,
;-p
Ciao !
"and a PV which is always perpendicular to the Sun collects more Infra-Red as well as UV" I thought glass reflected most infrared and UV radiation? Could be wrong.
the only big channel to make more than one video on stuff in Idaho
Senator Crapo, what an apt name for this solar roadway
Hey Thunderfoot!
Can you talk about how solar panels get hot and how efficient it is to heat your water and cool your panels by running water under them?
so you water cooled a solar array and using the water for taking a bath,that maybe a practical way to improve the efficiency.i wonder if that can be used for cooling the house a little bit since the heat from the roof is transferred to the water not the room below it
that won't be really efficient at all, have a look at this article:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2090447913000403
Since solar panels get hot on the top, how you going to extract the heat ? And you sure need a pump, that will also cost energy. Here's a conclusion of the article:
"The PV panels yields the highest output energy if cooling of the panels starts when the temperature of the PV panels reaches the maximum allowable temperature (MAT), i.e., 45 °C. The MAT is a compromise temperature between the output energy from the PV panels and the energy needed for cooling."
And they only used a system that just sprays water on top of the panels.
I read the introduction. Clearly cooling can increase efficiency and that's even without counting the heated water as "energy gained". But even in the introduction there is enough there to make an interesting video on the topic.
MrRolnicek
how are you going to use the heated water ? Let's say you're going to take a bath daily with the heated water. According to
www.withouthotair.com/c7/page_50.shtml
Taking one bath needs about 5 kwh. If we take a look at
www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_5_6_a
The residential average household cost per kwh is about 0.12 cents, meaning one bath would cost you about 0.68 cents (electricity cost only). So you need to calculate how much you would've to pay for a pump, other things like tubes, running the pump, etc. minus the kwh you gain because your solar panel runs more efficient.
I don't think this will add up well.
Ok, you think it will not add up well, I think it will end up just fine.
Moreover I think that whether it does or does not add up positively or negatively would make for a good video.
"our cars will block out the sun!"
"then we will generate solar energy in the shade!"
... actually no you won't :(
Hahaha. Niceeee
Your $500 000 000 000 in the video should have three less zeros. ;-)
Hey Thunderf00t! I know there's about a hundred other reasons that solar roadways are totally impractical and a fool's errand but I was pondering one I don't think anyone has mentioned yet.
When large trucks and powerful cars accelerate they can cause tremendous pinch stress on the roadway surface. The same goes for braking with a heavy vehicle like a cargo truck. As far as I'm aware one of the biggest dangers to tempered glass is a sharply concentrated force-- they deal with distributed loads well but a sharp impact concentrated at a single point (such as the sparkplug in the example you mentioned in a previous video, or a tungsten carbide "emergency window breaker" punch for evacuating cars after a water crash) is likely to cause catastrophic total failure.
So what would happen if someone in a powerful car, not even talking a super-powerful car like a Koenigsegg Agra (at about 1200 joules), which can actually damage even a normal tarmac, but a more modest sports car like a Tesla model S (930 joules) or Audi A8 (850 joules) stomped their accelerator on a glass roadway? That's not even MENTIONING a large semi truck weighing up to 36 metric tons and moving at 105 Kph (typical US motorway speed) having to use its emergency brakes. The net effect would be a patch of roadway is now attempting to accelerate with that kind of impulse, and the glass immediately in front of it would be motionless. That sharp line of pinch stress is going to try to buckle one way or the other, and is quite likely to succeed.
We're also ignoring the loads of those trucks too, up where I used to live in the northern US they quarry stone for gravel and concrete, and the stone is primarily granite-type rocks (thanks to the Canadian Shield). Shards of that flying off a truck at 100 Km/h would devastate a solar roadway without doubt, like the sparkplug example you cited. We know this is true because they'll gladly do the same to a tempered-glass windscreen!
I love the work that you do and your way of showing these unfounded claims to be what they are; a waste of money. My only regret is not being in a better position to support you via patron so you can keep up this brilliant work and fight the good fight.
(Till then I usually share the hell ouf your your vids to help educate and spread the word.)
They used tax payers money? I am going to demand a refund.
One Stoned Bastard xD
Taxation is theft
Solar road are the future
12 cent a day...
Nice money 💰💰💰
And a nice and warm road to drive on
:3
Your 500 million has three zeros too many. Just nitpicking.
he used to work mostly in many European nuclear facilities so... the time when his superior got the letter saying he was a nazi he was in the Czech Republic Nuclear facility if Im not wrong
ccricers in Europe there would still be to many zeros.
I was thinking of long scale millions and billions. Some places in Europe still use "milliard" for a thousand million and a billion would be a million million.
I'm glad that I am not the only smart guy to make mistakes like this!
Is there some high need to have lines in parking lots be able to be adjusted at will? Conventional lots using paint seemed to work just fine for the last century or so.
title cracks me up,my student ass makes more money than that million dollar investment
16:00; you say "half a billion", display 500,000,000,000 (half a trillion)
good vid though
It doesn't even produce enough energy to run a modern gaming PC :V
What monstrous gaming PC do you have? The average gaming PC (with 1 graphics card) consumes on average less than 400W on demanding task like gaming and much less in idle. Under optimal conditions you could power 2 or 3 gaming PC's with those roadways.
When i was looking for the parts i noticed the trend of increasing power obv. But i didn't take into account that the power efficiency of parts would rise too, So i ended up buying a 950W PSU about 6-8 years ago, its lasted me since. I can't imagine any modern PC needing 750W+ at any given time with how power efficient parts are now.
Kennie Baillairgé You might consider getting a Kill A Watt meter and see how much power your PC uses, modern PCs use very little power at idle, load usage hasn't dropped dramatically but doing nothing you can easily see results as low as 50W (even less on low-end CPUs) and even modern GPUs idle very well too, for instance, an idle GTX1080 only consumes another 10W.
www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/core-i7-7700k-processor-review-desktop-kaby-lake,8.html
Dick Buttox 750W? Unless you're running some sort of crossfire/SLI setup I see no reason a system would ever need over 400W-500W PSU, even with a slightly older system, my CPU and GPU only use about 250W and I have an SSD + 3 HDDs which adds another 70-100W of max load, plus in case you're unaware, its always better to get a quality continuous 500W 80+ PSU over some cheap ass "claimed" 1000W PSU.
In the decked out gaming PC my buddy just built the fans and liquid cooling pump use more energy then the rest of the computer.
Dick Buttox yes it easily does. What fucking computer possibly runs over 1000w?
Hay Thunderfoot, I love your videos as always and I was wondering if you could do a video on EMP (electro magnetic pulse) and the likely hood of a solar flair hitting us.
You're taking beating a dead horse to a whole new level.
Well mathematically speaking if you, right now, fund my THORIUM FREAKING ROADWAYS project, will be generating a whole Million a Day! Don't fund Solar Roadways, Fund my totally legit Nuclear powered roadways!
shalol You're not Kirk Sorensen.
Solar Roadways, brought to you by the liberal arts majors, thank you for your support.
Ty Brady XD Never laughed so hard XD
Whaaaaa nooo
In the solar freakin roadways video they said that they're an engineering couple!!!!!! damn hater
No silly, the people who donated money are the liberal arts majors. The liberal arts majors were conned out of their money because they're ignorant of how science works. There wouldn't be this hoopla about solar roadways without all of money donated, thus the solar roadways is brought to you by the liberal arts majors.
Is there any evidence that most people backing are liberal arts majors? Don't they get science and math classes?
Liberal arts majors are a different category of stupid. This is what happens when something is designed by a marketing team instead of someone who actually knows what they're doing. The money came from the many scientifically illiterate and foolish people in the US, as well as this failure of a government.
By the way Thunder when are you gonna' get to that millions in change thing or more of Musk's stuff?
god yes... 'millions in change' is just one of the most outrageously stupid things ever! Musk in their too somewhere :-)
well,at least he's using his own money
not our freaking tax
and remember,musk idea's is an idea,and he's not siphoning our tax either.The hyperloop is a different story, i rather think about it as a engineering challenge so we can learn more through the process,rather than wanting a proper train substitute
Mary Phillips Musk actually makes quite a bit from subsidies. To date his only unqualified success was PayPal. The early, high-end Tesla's did fairly well. Whether they'll be profitable in mass production is debatable...
Aron Septianto he should have just made an aerodynamic enclosed maglev train. Would be much cheaper
At what cost? How much more than asphalt roadways? And consider the rule of thumb that "The More Complex A Thing Is, The More Likely It Is To Break down" and these useless things kept breaking down.
Their current estimate - which is for driveways and the like, not roads - is $525 per square foot. That however does not include labour and prep.
I love how your brain works brother,please keep that beautiful "vid" footage rolling
some zeros too much at 15:45...
Here we go again!!!
This is almost as stupid as hanging skyscraper. heehe
Knut Ove No. This is stupid, but the hanging skyscraper is an order of magnitude more stupid.
I genuinely thought that the hanging skyscrapers are a joke (or lame science-fiction).
These videos don't get old.
I would think that, by now, the daisies over the corpse of this horse were already gone to seed. Further concussion is superfluous.
The first rating was negative...
A 18 minute video gets thumbs down and thumbs up after being out for less than a minute. Something doesn't add up.
I know, who are the dislikers really?
it was me
thunder foot has had a long history of pissing ppl off, christian zealots, feminist extremists, brexiters, science idiots... generally idiots with no common sense that don't like being called out as idiots with irrefutable evidence from a person of a high subscriber count.
Could be people who dislike him talking about this again? Just speculating.
They out pretending to go discover America when Columbus already came back to Europe.
How much do I have to donate to your Patreon to keep you making science videos (videos where you use science, even if it's in fields you're not an expert in, like this video, the other debunking videos, creationist or even gender/sjw stuff if you want) and to stop making opinion videos? (Like the Brexit or Trump videos, and the SJW stuff where you don't use science, and just argue feels) It's not even that I disagree with a lot of your opinions, it's just that a lot of us go to you for your science, we support you because you use science, and base arguments on fact... There are opinion channels I watch, but I don't confuse them for science channels. When you make the opinion videos on this channel, it's hard to show that you aren't biased. Trumpapolooza has the same credit as Solar Roadways. Brexit = Apocalypse has the same weight as the science that proves thorium would be a terrible substitute for gasoline in cars.
Really, I don't have an issue with your opinion videos, I just think it lowers the quality of your channel to keep them here. Why not make a secondary channel? There are lots of benefits to having different channels for science and opinion. You definitely would stop getting so much backlash and hate. Please at least consider it...
Can you do a debunking video for the circular runways? It really does my head in
Replacing Tarmacs?
Imagine this somehow gets pushed through and Solar Roadways have replaced all the materials that make up the ramps, taxiways and runways.
Now remember the point made about differential loading and traction.
Imagine a Boeing 737, among the most widely used commercial aircraft in the aviation industry, landing on a runway made out of these. All of that weight focused on three points, rolling along a tiled surface that was originally made for cars.
Now imagine if such an aircraft had to actually perform a hard landing for whatever reason; pilot error, instrument failure or even an emergency.
great video (as always)...... please dont stop , we need your knowledge :)
Bruh you can just tell by the damn ad, ITS INFORMAL AS HELL