YERT Conversation 19.1: Solar Roadways

[thegoodlocust]

Nice scam you have going here - perhaps Obama can send you a half billion dollar loan like he did with Solyndra for a photo op - assuming of course you are a huge campaign donor.

Your idea of course is complete nonsense because solar panels use rare earth metals and/or silver to make. Quite simply there aren't enough materials to make these roads of yours - assuming you ever get this glass built right and it works perfectly in ways you didn't imagine (i.e. snow, ice, freezing/refreezing, etc)

[sorcerykid]

Also something to think about, the illuminated pavement markings, both words and stripes, need to be elongated (approx. double lengthwise) to account for the approach angle of vehicular traffic. Likewise, all horizontal lettering strokes need to be doubled on thickness (e.g. a capital 'E', must have each of the three arms occupying pairs of adjacent LEDs).

[stopdemockery]

Now, if you enable the panels to heat up in the winter, so the road never freezes over, you've got the whole picture.

[ImUrtastyflava]

Why isn't this being installed RIGHT NOW?!

why cant i see this in my street :O?

and why isn't this a HUGE topic!?

so is this a replacements?

is it expensive? or what?

[abqmufc]

Makes complete sense. Thank you for giving me some inspiration...I needed it with all that is going on in the world.

[FreeMeFromG]

Last one I promise and sorry for the typos.

I read on their site they have their first job, as least that is what it sounded like. At this point, more attention needs to be given to this idea. This way, when they start to make news, everyone already knows about it and has heard of it. Will make it harder to bury or disappear it.

I really hope you good folks at YERT are following this story closely and I hope even making a doc about it. This deserves the attention. Thanks Scott and YERT

[FreeMeFromG]

Have to post again and wonder why there is not at least some crazy caring billionaire out there who would through them money cause it's the right thing to do?

All that would be needed is a town and the surrounding area as proof of concept. With the specs all in place. How much could that cost? I know I can do the math for it but I think you know what I mean.

This is the perfect way to show it's doable. After that, only the energy concern will be in your way but public pressure could work.

[FreeMeFromG]

I love the presentation that yert put together that was fantastic, great job folks.

However, I really love to hear Scott Brusaw just talk about his idea also. He makes me wish I was an engineer. If I were, I would have already MOVED to Idaho and would be bothering him every single day to allow me to work with him. This is a brilliant idea and LONG over due.

We need to hear more from him. Someone should be filming the whole process, it's only a matter of time before he runs into ROAD BLOCKS.

[gokulpr]

So its more of a change management issue, than a technological issue!.... hope people and powers that be leave their politics and oblique motives(to sustain oil as the power source till it dries up for good) for a cleaner world, so that this world can go on as we know it.

[TwilightObsessor07]

As I said before on one of your other videos, this is absolute genius. However, hacking does pose a problem.Perhaps you should restrict the number of lights that can spell words to a minimum, or just restrict the amount of lights to the absolute necessary amount needed.Also, I'd love to hear when you have the solution to the road safety questions.One more thing that worries me is what if the lights begin to malfunction? Also I hope you don't plan on taking down stop signs & relying on the roads.

[Ep1cure]

Could we also use friction reduction methods aswell as the solar panels. Maglev and glide tracks could reduce friction significantly thereby increasing output significantly.

[Cooldadd4]

Great Idea...!!! This is what the country needs to start right now to boost the economy...!!! Billions of dollars for local communities & probably thousands of jobs & our own electricity & we'll be done spending our chips on oil. Come on Congress...!!!

[nutmaster1992]

How would you deal with thermal expansion?

[112428]

@nutmaster1992 Glass doesn't expand like asphalt so it's not an issue.

[Zeuts85]

With regards to who manufactures the panels: Couldn't some federal agency design a set of performance and interface specifications, and then leave the manufacture of individual panels up to the free market? Different companies could compete with one another on panel technology, and they would be allowed to sell their panels for public use provided that the panels met the required minimum specs. Couldn't panels be modularized chunks that could be swapped in or out?

[solarskyhawk]

Aloha, I proposed the solar roadway concept to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in 1997-1998. I have the ideas but no engineering degree. We have been waiting so long for this idea to materialize. We are sick to death while watching Cheney steal our National Treasures and destroy our ecosystem. Storage can be handled by charging stations that are used for off SR travel. I have some other ideas for water distribution. Is anybody interested?

Lets get On The Solar Road Right NOW!

[sorcerykid]

@solarskyhawk Cool, I invented an idea for modular panelized electronic roads about 20 years ago back when I was in high school. It was a very detailed project, and it's what really spurred my interest in civil engineering. We should all keep in touch.

[OfficialLuisAponte]

This is such a brilliant idea! I really hope this takes off. Do you think this will help us reduce our dependence on foreign oil as well as CO2 pollution? I would love to get your opinion on this subject posted on DeathofaGasGuzzler . com. Thanks so much.

[smallfish1960]

I have seen electric trains/buses in the City, running off overhead wires,,,any reason why we couldn't add "power tracks" to the surface, and power the electric cars? Just a thought! sure would like to get involved with you guys some how, what a fantastic idea.

[shogunkai91]

there's a fly on your cup (around 3:00)

[YERTians]

@shogunkai91 Yup. It was annoying during the shoot. It is certainly dead by now. ;-)

[delb2283]

Calling all Solar Roadways Supporters! Vote for this amazing idea on the GE challenge. They could win up to 200 Million and make this a reality! There are three categories and make sure you vote for all!

[IAdvocateTheZM]

these people would love the venus project

[bosatsu76]

What is the substrate? Same as an asphalt road I assume. Tolerances would need to be much higher..

And one more thing to think about.... Birds are highly susceptible to polarized light. They use it to find water and safe landing zones (ducks, geese etc.). Has any thought been put into that?

Other than that; this is very exciting. Another example of American ingenuity.

[5botball]

hope the leds are bright enough for those sunny days

[onlydlonly420]

what happens with the settling ? or earthquakes?

[Noisegator]

@onlydlonly420 Settling and earthquakes? Same thing you do with asphalt roads - fix them.

[OrangeTang666]

This is an amazing idea, not only does it get the energy from the roads, it opens up the opportunity to run power alongside the roadways, the power can go straight into the grid.

[BoardingSchools]

Excellent Channel!! Nice Videos!!!

Please View and Subscribe our videos.

[drorjs]

storage. storage,storage. there are many great ideas about solar power but the ability to store the energy for night and winter use is the key problem.

[YERTians]

I believe that capacitors handle storage in the Solar Roadways. I'm going to be doing a follow-up interview soon and will get more detail at that time.

[dfhohj]

@drorjs what if the car stored the power so in the day recharge and drive and have the super 10 hour battery at night. Lets hope we can change soon.

[drorjs]

@dfhohj the ion-air batteries with enough capacity per volume&mass are still some 10 years away from what i've read.

[112428]

@drorjs The basic idea I believe is that it is a national grid so when the west coast is dark the east coast is powering the west coast, and the reverse is true when the east coast is dark.

[roaringflames03]

great idea. it would be a great source of green jobs. The Department of Transportation could use some of the money that they'd save to train their road repair crews in solar technology and maintenance.

[MonkDeJunk]

I agree with iamchrisweber. Scott looks too far out to the side, probably due to the interviewer's position. I'd recommend the interviewer standing a few inches closer to the camera.

[megaforcemedia]

He married a woman he met when he was 3 years old? That's kinda weird.

[iamchrisweber]

Bad eye-line on the intro interview with Scortt Brusaw.

This guy's idea is f-ing great. Feed the good, starve the bad.

[beatnik09]

Solar panels cannot be mass produced. If you create as many solar panels that are needed for this project computer would not be made for years. The amount of pure silicon needed to create both products is simply too great, and the amount able to be produced too small.

[Nichen]

That's a myth...you could fuckin use a small dot from the Sahara Desert to create the billions of siliconplates required with more to spare.

[enchantedwoodman]

Nice research supported by great intentions, Scott, but they'll be giving out free ski passes in Hell before any of the YERT technology is even considered by our perennially brain-dead bureaucrats....

[killhha]

Hah yeah. thats true. great idea but hackers who screw around with the roads could screw some shit up

[grinbunny]

Talk to disney. It would save them tons of money in power costs and would searve as a draw for tourists. No snow in Anehiem or Florida either.

[shmergen99]

Great concept Scott. Another downfall though would be snowplow blades. Steel runners on glass is not a good combination. Retrofitting the plow blades with some kind of rubber or Teflon material would be a necessity .

[oh9sunshine]

But the solar panels will have heaters to melt off the snow anyways.

[SwordPlay2]

Or start off by placing the roads in ares where it doesn't snow and is quite sunny

say - the las vegas strip?

[Davedude2000]

One great thing about this is that once the technology is in place it can start being done on a small scale. Homeowners can do their driveways businesses can do their parking lots and govt can do the roads. It can be tried in different locations to work out the bugs. Doing it on a large scale by the highway system though would be more cost efficient.

[finance888]

Congratulations. Brilliant idea.

[TouchPodiumDotCom]

This is incredible. Hope this gets brought to Canada. 10x less population, yet basically the same size as America. Would work pretty well. Oh, and I'd love to be driving on these LED-lit roads, too. That'd be kind of cool.

[ConceptVBS]

What if street racers put rubber donuts on the "roads" with their muscle cars and block the solar panels?

[BOOJANMK]

But when winter comes you spend more electricity for light, and for heat. And you are producing less electricity during the winter than summer, which means you need to store electricity somewhere to use it later, and that is the problem...

[morg3k]

Good point you bring up, because most northern regions in the USA will have that problem I'm sure. Maybe they'll get most of the power for the winter periods from the south, but now that I think of it that will be a lot of power to distribute across the US for the great distances?

[BOOJANMK]

the distribution will be the biggest problem...so wind power rocks, because there is wind in every time of the year....

[morg3k]

That's right.

[BOOJANMK]

hmmm...yes, its nice project, but you will have electricity just during the day, but what happens when night will fall? Producing electricity from solar panels is easy, but storing it, and later transform it in to 220V 50Hz (In Macedonia), that is the hard thing, and if the power is stored in a giant power stations, the transformers will be too big, and there is a big lost in that transformation (example from 12V to 220V 50Hz).

[morg3k]

You're right, but he did state that running at 15% efficiency will produce three times the power we use annually. So I think he more than accounted for nightfall, maybe even winters and long storm periods. It looks like they will have to redo the power grid to reroute power across the whole country. It CAN be done, it just needs public and political backing. And the main problem is that the mass public and politicians do not know much of anything about scientific research and benefits to us.

[BOOJANMK]

I've didnt say that it cant be done, but think little.when you use more electricity. During the day, or at night; in summer, or winter. During the summer you spend electricity just for light, and other electronic device, but during the winter you are spending more electricity for heating your house. In summer when the day is longer than the night you will produce more electricity, but you will wont use it. (part 1)

[NikoKun]

Imagine if America could cover all it's roads in this stuff, and generate way more power than it needed. I wonder what selling electricity to other countries, as a huge export, could do for our economy.

I don't really know, myself, but it sounds like a good thing.

[morg3k]

What you said makes perfect sense. And I had to give you a thumbs up, because some moron was senseless enough to give you a thumbs down.

[d3dreaper]

@morg3k the power and oil companies all got together and did one thumbs down....

[Davedude2000]

The strong point about incorporating solar into the roads as opposed to large solar fields in the desert is that you're producing power close to where its being used. Selling this power to other countries is difficult because power is lost in long distance transmition of the power. But if it works here other countries can use the same system and it will cost less to do when the process is standardized.

[yecidah]

You are SOOOOO cool Scott. May this year bring your incredible idea to reality!!

[ekuwa69]

I had thought about this before. What what would happen when the road gets dirty from the oil and dirt from cars? Wouldn't that block the sunlight and prevent it from working?

[appcookie]

glass self-cleaning will fix it. :)

Wikipedia.

[morg3k]

Or maybe road washers in washing trucks that are electrically powered, I smell jobs.

[morg3k]

They will more than likely have occasional road washers rolling through at late night hours when traffic runs low. That would kick the roads back to full efficiency once clean. It looks like even at 15% efficiency these roads will power the entire USA and then some. SO if they did clean it it might not even be that often. I'm guessing they're going to convert a lot of open desert roads rather than the jammed packed cities, which would prevent traffic jams.

[lovekisslaugh]

So exciting. Wishing you much success I can't wait to be driving on solar roads! Thanks purseedTV for sending this to me.

Peace

[alyssajoy1987]

How amazing is this idea!!!! Seriously we could solve so many of our nations problems with this one idea!

[Enviroman101]

I love it.

What a great idea. Its true we have the technology and it can be economical to go green. This is another example.

[YERTians]

Obama totally needs to hear about this!!

[juanceroyer]

@YERTians then let's make it happen!!!!...maybe start by making this vid have more views...could be a start