Awesome Stuff: Alternative Energy
from the solar-freaking-roadways dept
For this week's Awesome Stuff post, we've got three separate projects that have something to do with alternative energy -- some more ambitious and nutty than others.- First up, we've got Trinity - The Portable Wind Turbine Power Station. Usually, when people think of personal alternative energy sources, solar is the first thought. However, these guys have built what appears to be a relatively small wind turbine power station. They describe it as portable, though that may depend on your definition of portability. If you have a big bag it'll work, but it's not something you'd slip in your pocket. Oh yeah, also, you need wind. Of course, since it also has a fairly massive 30,000 mAh battery, in many cases, it may act more as just a typical portable battery rather than a wind turbine. But, still, how often do you get to say you've got a wind turbine to charge your phone? Wind freaking turbine.
- Okay, moving a bit more into more traditional alternative energy, there's the SPOR Solar Battery charger. Yes, portable solar chargers aren't particularly new, but this one seems nice and compact. The creators of this project point out that they were going for a Goldilocks-level solution -- something in between the chargers that are too big and bulky and the useless keychain-sized ones. This one is looking for the sweet spot.
- If we're going to talk solar, why not go big. Super big. Crazy, ridiculous big. You may have heard about this project, because it's gotten some press, but some big dreamers are working on a project to build solar freaking roadways. If you replaced the roads with solar power, you'd be able to generate quite a lot of power -- as well as making the roads much smarter, including variable road lines, automatically melting snow and ice, and even analyzing and treating stormwater for pollution. It's a crazy ambitious goal, but quite cool too. As they repeat in their pitch, it's solar freaking roadways. And they've actually already received two rounds of funding from the US Federal Highway Administration, and a variety of other grants and prizes, including being chosen by Google as one of their "Moonshots."
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Filed Under: alternative energy, awesome stuff, solar power, wind turbines
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The first will get something done, even if it's just finding out what parts of the plan aren't feasible with current technology, the second, not so much.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H901KdXgHs4
As a civil engineer I agree with the video.
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http://jalopnik.com/why-the-solar-roadway-is-a-terrible-idea-1582519375
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Roadway traffic
military equipment including tanks, you know those HEAVY things. Run a tank or two over the hexagons and see what works or not. Now try three abreast and 10 in length, the roadbed would be rubbish.
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Re: Roadway traffic
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Re: Roadway traffic
Can your Solar Roadways handle army tanks?
Our current M1A2 Abrams tank weighs about 68 tons, or 136,000 pounds. That's a little over half of what our Solar Road Panels have passed load testing for.
When I was in the Marines, I was temporarily assigned to a supply company in Japan. I issued tank tracks with rubber "feet" which allowed the tanks to drive down the highways without causing significant damage to the asphalt. The Solar Roadways will have no problem handling a convoy of tanks!
http://solarroadways.com/faq.shtml
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Everyone naturally pictures sliding out of control on a smooth piece of wet glass! Actually, one of our many technical specs is that it be textured to the point that it provides at least the traction that current asphalt roads offer - even in the rain. We hesitate to even call it glass, as it is far from a traditional window pane, but glass is what it is, so glass is what we must call it.
We sent samples of textured glass to a university civil engineering lab for traction testing. We started off being able to stop a car going 40 mph on a wet surface in the required distance. We designed a more and more aggressive surface pattern until we got a call form the lab one day: we'd torn the boot off of the British Pendulum Testing apparatus! We backed off a little and ended up with a texture that can stop a vehicle going 80 mph in the required distance.
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An article that analyzes solar roadways
- who will fund it
- if the regular roads can't be maintained who will put in solar panels
- why not use ALL THE UNUSED AREAS before replacing used areas like roadways
- solar panels that lay flat and collect rubber and grime are guaranteed to be less efficient than those on roofs that point at the sun
etc.
http://www.equities.com/editors-desk/stocks/technology/why-the-solar-roadways-project-on-indi egogo-is-actually-really-silly
Ehud
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30,000 mAH Battery!
Or 30,000,000,000 nano-amp-hour battery?
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