Hey Readers,
So over the past few days there's been a video floating around Facebook and various other social media outlets. One of those ones that says 'Oh my god you have to watch this!' without actually telling you what it is. Which irritated me of course, I hate those kinds of things, BUT I will admit that once somebody actually explained what it was about when they posted it piqued my interest. Solar Roadways. Exactly what it says on the tin, roads and other similar surfaces, made out of smart solar panels. With heating elements, LED lighting, tons and tons of bells and whistles.
Here's the video:
Wow, what an amazing idea! Right? Right guys? Well yeah it is, it's fantastic, on the surface. However examine the issue a little closer and some cracks start to appear. Not really with the technology itself; more with the myriad difficulties in implementing it on a scale as suggested by the video. The problems themselves aren't even singular issues, they're all interconnected in a horrifying web of pitfalls and traps.
For starters there's the sheer scale of the idea. Eventually replacing the entirety of the U.S road network with this system. Now I know that they're not suggesting doing it all at once, but even so nothing on this scale has been attempted since the construction of the interstate highway network back in the 50s. (Which was actually done in order to make it easer to shift large military resources by road during the Cold War.) That was complex enough and all that required was a few hundred million tonnes of poured concrete and asphalt. This scheme requires a hell of a lot more than that. Then there's the cost. According to a study conducted in November 2003 by the Federal Highways Administration (FHWA) the cost of building just normal roads is astronomical. Adjusted to 2006 dollars the costs are (according to a report by Rails to Trails, an organisation dedicated to turning disused rail lines into hiking trails or something, I dunno I googled this and their report was the most easily interpreted source.)
Where was I? Oh yes the costs. Right, so for one mile, of one lane of a standard four lane highway in a rural area in 2006 dollars could cost between $3.1 million to $9.1 million. In urban areas that cost increases to $4.9-19.5 million per lane mile. In more extreme cases such as major cities it can cost between 16.8-74.7 million dollars per lane mile. I'm talking about standard roads here, concrete and asphalt. Those costs were for eight years ago, adjusted for inflation they're probably a lot higher now. Again I must stress, that's for standard boring highways. Looking on the Solar Roadways indiegogo site, the individuals behind it haven't actually calculated a production level cost yet, but given the complexity of the components, I doubt it's going to come cheap. All of a sudden that $2 million the indiegogo campaign looks set to generate doesn't look like all that much does it?
Then there's the jobs angle, will this create jobs? Yes. Will it also make people lose their jobs? The answer to that is also yes. The video mentions for example: LED created road markings, what about highway maintentence folks who paint the road markings today? Or the people who fill in those potholes that won't be a problem anymore? Oh sure you'll need to hire people to program the LEDs, replace any damaged panels, but both of those jobs will likely require substantial amounts of expertise. Expertise individuals working for highway maintenence currently; most likely lack. So a few menial workers lose their jobs, oh well sacrifices have to be made in order for change to take place. Correct, but the job problem doesn't end there, the video also mentions heated roadways thus negating the need for snowploughs etc. Not an issue in southerly states most of the time, but above the snowline in America, winter preparedness is a huge industry. Now do you think for a second that the companies, with contracts to provide winter preparedness services to state and local level government, are going to sit idly by as their road network is replaced by a system wherein their services are no longer required? No, which means lobbyists, which means maybe hinting to your state representatives in D.C. and local politicians as well that if they vote to approve the replacement of the road network, perhaps their company and affiliates will be forced to withdraw their support for your next election campaign. Too bad.
Then, there's the energy question. The video states that, if the entire U.S. road network were to be replaced with these Solar Roadways, it would generate 3x more energy than America consumes. Amazing! Wow! Except for one major problem. Storing surplus electrical energy is really really REALLY hard. Metal based battteries? Too inefficient and an environemental nightmare, there is emerging technology that could solve this like graphene batteres and liquid oxygen storage but again they are not cheap or simple solutions. They're also largely untested. Also, what are you going to do with that surplus energy even if you do manage to store it? Sell it? How it's not like gas or oil where you can just pipe it or ship it somewhere else. It's not going to be a profit centre for anybody.
For example, the largest provider of electricity in the U.S. by customer volume is Pacific Gas and Electric, or PG&E. It serves over 5 million customers to almost two thirds of California (the most populous state in the U.S.) and the border areas of Oregon. In 2011 it generated $14.956 billion dollars in revenue, had an operating income of $1.942 billion, a net income of $858 million and total assets coming close to $50 billion. They own nuclear plants, gas pipelines and various other parts of the energy infrastructure in the State. They're a powerful actor politically speaking. They'll have a lot of pull at various levels and they would not want to see their power stations shut down over some fancy high-tech roads thank you very much. How are the solar roadways going to work in this regard anyway? At what level with the energy production be managed? And by whom? Say PG&E were approached and were told. "hey, you can manage this part of the road network and charge for energy produced by it." Ok great, "But first you have to decomission all of your generating stations and lay a hell of a lot of people off." Not so great. The cost of decomissioning a power station is mind boggling, Especially nuclear facilities, current U.S. estimates stand at $325 million per reactor, a decomissioning of a relatively small reactor in France has cost over 480 million Euros (20x the original estimates.) The E.U. Commission estimates that over the next two decades, the decomissioning of all 150 current reactors would cost at least 150 billion Euros. The U.S. has 104 with 5 more currently under construction.
All of this is just a snapshot, this doesn't factor in oil revenue, shale gas production, coal, wood, biomass, wind, hydroelectric, etc. Energy is an enormous sector and while in theory this is a great idea, in practice it's simply not a practical solution.
It's not all bad news though, I do believe that this technology will see some use only on a limited scale. Play parks, public spaces, car parks, outdoor sports courts could all very feasibly use this tech. The United States Military will doubtless be very interested in this technology also, hard wearing easily replaceable energy producing road surfaces? That has a lot of potential for use in overseas military bases, particularly in combat zones were local power grids are unreliable. It'd be a heck of a lot more efficient than relying of fuel powered generators, less of a logistical nightmare too. Supply lines cut? Less of a worry now because at least base systems and communications won't be at risk of running out of juice. Other more foward thinking areas of the U.S. will probably adopt Solar Roadways too, San Fransisco, Portland, Seattle and various other environmentally concious towns. Europe, particularly Western Europe, may be somewhat receptive to the idea as well but frankly I cannot see this being implemented on a large scale any time in the near future. As much of a shame as that is. The politics are just far too complex, the vested interest far too entrenched.
Thanks for reading,
Wheelchairman2
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