This video has been making the rounds on Facebook of late, positing that much of the nation's energy problems could be solved by installing solar panels in the beds of roadways around the country, that we could install LEDs in the roadway to make the signage imminently changeable on a moment's notice. It feels obvious and has raised more than $2 million to fund the project.
...but is it really feasible?
The website Jalopnik has an article running the numbers, and their conclusion is that it's pretty well a longshot, a similar conclusion reached by the ExtremeTech website. From the ExtremeTech article...
With all that said, there’s still no denying that Solar Roadways are cool — but why not just, I don’t know, put solar panels along the side of the road? Or on the roof of your house? Or in the desert? Having built-in ice and snow melting is pretty neat, and lighting up when an animal steps on the road is cute, but neither are worth $56 trillion. Rooftop solar arrays are reaching the point where they’re actually quite cost effective in certain parts of the world — and they’re much, much cheaper than building a Solar Roadway — but adoption is still very low. As much as I’d love the US to be blanketed in green, fossil fuel-replacing electrified Solar Roadways, it just isn’t feasible. On the small scale, there could well be some companies that roll out Solar Roadway parking lots — but I think that’s about it, for the foreseeable future.
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