andrewducker: (Default)
andrewducker ([personal profile] andrewducker) wrote2018-09-24 12:00 pm
danieldwilliam: (Default)

Re: Solar Roads

[personal profile] danieldwilliam 2018-09-24 12:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, to be fair to your priors, I don't think the study has run long enough to conclude that the solar panels won't crack. A normal solar panel is expected to last 20 years. Evidence suggests that they are lasting longer and suffering less degradation in performance than expected. So, if the road solar panels are lasting for a few years, that's okay but they need to be lasting for 15-20-25 years before they have overcome the "not cracking" criteria.

My view is that is always going to be better to stick a solar panel almost anywhere else than the roadbed. On a roof, on a roof over a road, on a raft on a lake, on a hat, on the side of a wall because the stuff you have to do to a solar panel for it to survive on a road is almost always going to be more expensive than putting it anywhere else where also making it perform worse and it will be pointing in the wrong direction.
jack: (Default)

Re: Solar Roads

[personal profile] jack 2018-09-24 02:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Good point. Ok, that's more like what I was originally expecting.