They're right rooster.
When snow hits the ground but doesn't stick (ie it melts) the ground is giving up energy to the snowflake. If enough snow flakes fall, the ground could get cold enough to not be able to melt the snow anymore and it begins to stick.
Anyway...
You guys are looking at the cost and comparing it to road construction. And it's significantly cheaper. Even with liberal estimates repaving all the roads in the US wouldn't cost even close to the national budget. (which makes me wonder where all the transportation money goes...)
Anyway the problem is that this road has 4 functions, not just 1.
1. Road. (paint, cat eyes, etc...)
2. Utility channel.
3. Storm Drainage
4. Power generation.
Start adding all that together and it starts looking like the cost of the solar roadways.
But I realized something, the solar roadways could destroy our economy.
Consider:
Right now, you can sell back power to power companies. So if the government (local, state, federal depending on road) were to have a bunch of solar panels, where does the power go? Why to the local power company. It's sold back. This means money for the government. But the power company just lost a ton of money. How much money can they lose and still stay in business?
We can apply this to home solar. How much money can the power companies lose by having to "buy back" energy before they have to close up shop? How high would the per kwh have to be to make ends meet when everyone has solar panels? So the government would have to either take over OR offer subsidies. Energy excess is a very serious problem.
If the government had to offer subsides, the subsidies would definitely be larger than the actual cost and it would cost governments MORE to have the same service.