The Flat Earth Society

Other Discussion Boards => Science & Alternative Science => Topic started by: Rushy on May 24, 2017, 02:09:09 AM

Title: Solar Freakin' Roofways
Post by: Rushy on May 24, 2017, 02:09:09 AM
https://www.tesla.com/solarroof

It even lets you calculate the rough cost to make your roof freakin' solar powered.

According to the calculator, it would only cost $72,500 to put solar freakin' roofways onto my house and it will generate $45,000 in electricity over the next 30 years. Wow, what a deal!
Title: Re: Solar Freakin' Roofways
Post by: Lord Dave on May 24, 2017, 04:57:39 AM
Yeah but look how cool the CGI roofs look.

Title: Re: Solar Freakin' Roofways
Post by: Pete Svarrior on May 24, 2017, 02:21:26 PM
At least this doesn't involve parking your car on top of the solar panels and doesn't claim to break thermodynamics by producing enough electricity to be useful and light up a fuckton of bright LEDs and heat your driveway so it never freezes over again.
Title: Re: Solar Freakin' Roofways
Post by: Lord Dave on May 24, 2017, 03:14:59 PM
At least this doesn't involve parking your car on top of the solar panels and doesn't claim to break thermodynamics by producing enough electricity to be useful and light up a fuckton of bright LEDs and heat your driveway so it never freezes over again.
To be fair, the prototype in Iowa seems to be doing well in the square.  So maybe... Solar walkways?
Title: Re: Solar Freakin' Roofways
Post by: Pete Svarrior on May 26, 2017, 01:17:02 PM
To be fair, the prototype in Iowa seems to be doing well in the square.
Does it? What is your measure of success here?

It barely generates any electricity at all (http://dailycaller.com/2017/04/03/idahos-4-3-million-solar-road-generates-enough-power-to-run-one-microwave/). The installation keeps breaking even in the relatively mild conditions that the test installation is exposed to (http://www.cfact.org/2016/10/19/solar-road-is-total-and-epic-failure-83-of-its-panels-break-in-a-week/), and the whole installation caught fire (https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2017/03/16/solar-roadways-are-on-fire-no-really-with-pictures/) at least once.

What they promise is impossible from a technical point of view - they simply can't generate enough electricity to power sufficiently bright LEDs for the road markings to be seen during the day (that's why the Idaho installation uses relatively dim ones (http://imgur.com/fSf3xuN)), let alone heat the road; and the engineering behind the idea is really shit (http://www.drroyspencer.com/2014/05/solar-roadways-project-a-really-bad-idea/).

You can see a live feed from the installation here (http://www.sandpointidaho.gov/visiting-sandpoint/solar-roadways). Try to catch a glimpse when it's not in the shade. And when the bloody thing isn't on fire. Live energy generation stats are available here (https://enlighten.enphaseenergy.com/pv/public_systems/V3vh1173801/overview). Over the past 2 months, the peak appears to be 1.30KWh.

They keep telling us they're doing well, but they really, really aren't.
Title: Re: Solar Freakin' Roofways
Post by: Lord Dave on May 26, 2017, 01:33:13 PM
To be fair, the prototype in Iowa seems to be doing well in the square.
Does it? What is your measure of success here?

It barely generates any electricity at all (http://dailycaller.com/2017/04/03/idahos-4-3-million-solar-road-generates-enough-power-to-run-one-microwave/). The installation keeps breaking even in the relatively mild conditions that the test installation is exposed to (http://www.cfact.org/2016/10/19/solar-road-is-total-and-epic-failure-83-of-its-panels-break-in-a-week/), and the whole installation caught fire (https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2017/03/16/solar-roadways-are-on-fire-no-really-with-pictures/) at least once.

What they promise is impossible from a technical point of view - they simply can't generate enough electricity to power sufficiently bright LEDs for the road markings to be seen during the day (that's why the Idaho installation uses relatively dim ones (http://imgur.com/fSf3xuN)), let alone heat the road; and the engineering behind the idea is really shit (http://www.drroyspencer.com/2014/05/solar-roadways-project-a-really-bad-idea/).

You can see a live feed from the installation here (http://www.sandpointidaho.gov/visiting-sandpoint/solar-roadways). Try to catch a glimpse when it's not in the shade. And when the bloody thing isn't on fire. Live energy generation stats are available here (https://enlighten.enphaseenergy.com/pv/public_systems/V3vh1173801/overview). Over the past 2 months, the peak appears to be 1.30KWh.

They keep telling us they're doing well, but they really, really aren't.
Ah.
You know more than I then.  I was looking for info on how much power it produced, thanks for finding that.


Then I retract my statement.  Its a failure on all levels.
Title: Re: Solar Freakin' Roofways
Post by: Rushy on May 26, 2017, 07:01:30 PM
While of course the title of this thread is a homage to SOLAR FREAKIN' ROADWAYS I would like to point out that solar panels on your roof is an infinitely more intelligent idea than solar panels on a road or even a sidewalk.

However, that said, solar panels on your roof can still pose serious problems. For example, if your house catches fire during the day, the fire department can't try to put it out using traditional spray-water-at-it methods because your roof has kilowatts of electricity running through it. You can't "turn off" a solar panel, so without some sort of emergency cover system, even a small fire will result in the loss of your home.
Title: Re: Solar Freakin' Roofways
Post by: Hoppy on June 08, 2017, 01:17:30 PM
While of course the title of this thread is a homage to SOLAR FREAKIN' ROADWAYS I would like to point out that solar panels on your roof is an infinitely more intelligent idea than solar panels on a road or even a sidewalk.

However, that said, solar panels on your roof can still pose serious problems. For example, if your house catches fire during the day, the fire department can't try to put it out using traditional spray-water-at-it methods because your roof has kilowatts of electricity running through it. You can't "turn off" a solar panel, so without some sort of emergency cover system, even a small fire will result in the loss of your home.
Plus I hear you're screwed when your roof starts leaking.
Title: Re: Solar Freakin' Roofways
Post by: trekky0623 on June 08, 2017, 06:19:27 PM
Might be good if you want solar panels and don't have room, or some other reason why you can't just mount solar panels on the roof.

In all other cases, all these "futuristic" suggestions are dumb. Just put the damn solar panels out in the open. Not on roads, not on sidewalks, not on rooftops, not on Mexican walls. I just do not get it.
Title: Re: Solar Freakin' Roofways
Post by: Rama Set on June 08, 2017, 07:09:06 PM
There is something to be said for minimizing transmission loss, but not at the cost of dumb ideas.
Title: Re: Solar Freakin' Roofways
Post by: Rushy on June 09, 2017, 09:41:42 PM
Might be good if you want solar panels and don't have room, or some other reason why you can't just mount solar panels on the roof.

In all other cases, all these "futuristic" suggestions are dumb. Just put the damn solar panels out in the open. Not on roads, not on sidewalks, not on rooftops, not on Mexican walls. I just do not get it.

Solar is expensive and pretty pointless as a centralized energy solution. You can't just build a solar plant and say "well that's that" because it's not possible to load balance solar. For every single watt of solar energy the plant can produce you'd need a standby generator to also produce, which is why any solar and wind farm is equipped with diesel (for wind farms) and natural gas (solar) solutions.

To put it plainly, we can't control when the sun shines, and therefore solar can never be the focal point of an energy grid.