Highway solar panels with cyclists underneath - good idea, or not?

[MrCurry]

What do you reckon? Fitting solar panels into the space between the carriageways of a fast road seems efficient to me, but I’m not sure if I would want to cycle down the middle of the road and be in the path of a lorry which potentially crosses the central reservation, swerving to avoid an accident ahead…

(edited to add further images as clickable thumbnails below main image)

 

[Boris Sprinkler]

They've probably thought of that.

 

[MrCurry]

They've probably thought of that.

Yeah, I just found some more images and attached them. The sides of the “tunnel” appear more substantial than I had assumed.

I’m not sure how you escape the central part once you’re in there, must be limited opportunities to join and leave at motorway junctions and if you run out of puff while pedalling between the exit points, then maybe it’s a bit claustrophobic being surrounded by fast moving traffic?

But for making efficient use of limited land space it seems like an idea worth consideration.

 

[platinumsage]

In the UK at least our central reservations aren’t wide enough, because we’ve already made efficient use of land space.

 

[MrCurry]

In the UK at least our central reservations aren’t wide enough, because we’ve already made efficient use of land space.

Yes, it’s not an idea which can be retrofitted to existing roads with limited width there. It needs to be integrated at the initial planning stage for new roads, so probably of limited value in western nations.

 

[A380]

The issue with solar in the UK at the moment is that, until be upgrade the distribution networks to make them intelligent, which is happening but very slowly, we have 'too much' solar already. On sunny weekend or bank holiday weekends it can be very difficult to balance the network as it is. Even with proper DN operators until someone cracks the meaningful electricity storage issue (say 50 Dinorwig's worth) we can't really benefit that much more from solar.

 

[teuchter]

That would be a totally unpleasant environment to cycle in. The shade might be welcome but who'd want to cycle any distance with no view except motor traffic on each side? Plus you'd be breathing in traffic fumes. Roads that are engineered for fast motorised traffic are usually horrible to cycle on - long, unrelenting gradients and no protection from strong winds. Plus, presumably you'd only be able to get on and off the route at certain points with long distances between them.

Looks like something thought up by someone who's never cycled anywhere.

 

[story]

Maybe those corridors can be used for automated delivery vehicles or some other small dedicated vehicles that can be shunted into receiving yards at junctions close to towns.

 

[MickiQ]

Probably be simpler to just mandate that all new buildings (including houses) have solar panels from now on

 

[co-op]

Looks like something thought up by someone who's never cycled anywhere.

Like about 95% of cycle infrastucture

 

[WouldBe]

Probably be simpler to just mandate that all new buildings (including houses) have solar panels from now on

They should have implemented that when they last changed building regs.

 

[co-op]

Probably be simpler to just mandate that all new buildings (including houses) have solar panels from now on

The cba on mass solar doesn't necessarily stack up in climate change terms - and certainly not in the mass rape of the planet required to drive the extractivist machine to dig up the minerals needed, always a disaster for indigenous peoples if anyone gives a shit about them.

The biggest easiest win is to reduce demand and one of the most obvious ways would just be to switch from cars to bicycles but even on a supposedly left-wing board like this the predictable wailing for the petrol lobby starts up the minute any scheme of any sort is proposed. We are surely fucked.

 

[teuchter]

As a location for large scale solar farms, maybe motorways might not be such a bad option. You could after all roof over portions of the entire width rather than just the central reservation. Motorways use up huge areas of land and there would be many locations where roofing over with solar panels would not be more of an eyesore than the motorway as it stands. This seems better than building on open ground that could otherwise be used for agriculture.

The cost of building them could be loaded onto users of the road network, whose activities are responsible for the climate change that we are attempting to mitigate. This would perhaps be fairer than loading the cost into housing by mandating panels on roofs.

(All of this assumes that large scale solar makes sense anyway, which it may or may not, either now or in the future, as already pointed out)

 

[IC3D]

The solar panels could power charging points for electric cars at service stations?

 

[MrCurry]

The solar panels could power charging points for electric cars at service stations?

Or provide current directly to electric cars via a suitable distribution mechanism. Say metalised tarmac and conductive tyres to provide one side of the circuit (zero volts), and an overhead cable and pantograph built into the top of the car to take care of the other (+ volts) side of the circuit? Deployed extensively enough, you get rid of the need of the electric cars carrying big, expensive, bad for the planet batteries.

 

[SpookyFrank]

The solar panels could power charging points for electric cars at service stations?

Not really, no.

 

[IC3D]

Not really, no.

 

[gentlegreen]

Or provide current directly to electric cars via a suitable distribution mechanism. Say metalised tarmac and conductive tyres to provide one side of the circuit (zero volts), and an overhead cable and pantograph built into the top of the car to take care of the other (+ volts) side of the circuit? Deployed extensively enough, you get rid of the need of the electric cars carrying big,
expensive, bad for the planet batteries.

Never going to happen for private cars, but there is an idea to provide a dedicated pantograph lane for freight - given the age of rail seems to be over ...

Energy problem solved!!!???!!!

It just occurred to me, having seen/read the second link blog, that a combination of the following two ideas might put us on the energy path with zero requirements for oil/coal/etc. 1) http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120312-wireless-highway-to-charge-cars - Tesla's idea... + (1x + Tesla)...

www.urban75.net

 

[WouldBe]

This would perhaps be fairer than loading the cost into housing by mandating panels on roofs.

Far cheaper to integrate into new builds than to retrofit. It would add a couple of percent to the cost of the house which can then be spread over the length of the mortgage.

 

[MickiQ]

Or provide current directly to electric cars via a suitable distribution mechanism. Say metalised tarmac and conductive tyres to provide one side of the circuit (zero volts), and an overhead cable and pantograph built into the top of the car to take care of the other (+ volts) side of the circuit? Deployed extensively enough, you get rid of the need of the electric cars carrying big, expensive, bad for the planet batteries.

They're currently carrying out a trial in France using induction coils buried in the road.

 

[MrCurry]

They're currently carrying out a trial in France using induction coils buried in the road.

I like my idea better. We could all drive around looking cool like this. And crashes could actually be fun.

 

[gentlegreen]

They're currently carrying out a trial in France using induction coils buried in the road.

I'm sure that will end well

Do you have a link ?

EDIT:-

this may be it...

Wireless charging road demonstrated in France, planned for Israel

Testing and planning for roads with built-in wireless charging infrastructure continues, with news this month of a successful test in France, and grander plans in Israel.

www.drive.com.au

But as was done to death in gorski's thread, inductive charging is massively inefficient thanks to inverse square law -- even with your iPhone perfectly aligned - or if buses park on pads and lower the coils (which I think they do - they were testing a hybrid bus service at the Uni where I used to work ...) ... at speed on a road with the necessary clearance it has to be a non-starter ...

Skimming references to that multi-million startup, I read references to a video of a golf cart ...