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83 Comments
- sockpuppets, on 08/18/2008, -0/+44His name is hoser. He probably tries to add hoses to anything he does.
- h0ser, on 08/18/2008, -7/+27i had a similar idea to use the roads to collect power. Except my idea use hoses that compressed air and powered a turbine every time a car drove over it.
- tjpoe, on 08/18/2008, -0/+14ya, cars would get worse gas mileage. you can't just "create" energy, it would have to come from somewhere, in this case, the car's engine would be taxed more giving it worse gas mileage.
- tim620, on 08/18/2008, -2/+16It is a neat idea. However in places like South Dakota, the roads (and parking lots) are frozen for about 5-6 months out of the year. I could see broken water pipes, and no heat generation for half the year. It would be a mess. Unless they had a way to easily shut it off during the winter months, it would be confined to the southern states.
- susanleefrnds, on 08/18/2008, -0/+12Everything on Earth possibly should be converted into solar collector.
- dericko, on 08/18/2008, -0/+11What about in a steep decline of a hill? People slam on their brakes going down those hills anyways, why not just have tons of these little "hoses" or whatever to both help slow them down and generate power?
BTW - I have no idea wtf I'm talking about.. just thinking. - mithrasinvictus, on 08/18/2008, -1/+11Wouldnt that slow down the cars?
- inactive, on 08/18/2008, -0/+9roads 2.0
- inactive, on 08/18/2008, -1/+9As long as there the heat is extracted is the crucial piece of that. Even if some is extracted, there will still be some percentage of heat loss to the air. This happens anyway, but increasing the temperature of the road would increase this effect.
- serif69, on 08/18/2008, -0/+7I'll do my part by driving faster to get out of the sun's way and create more friction energy.
- billbugger, on 08/18/2008, -0/+7Antifreeze, like what's in your car.
- joeanon, on 08/18/2008, -1/+7There is NO WAY IN HELL, implanting massive amounts of copper, which is expensive, into the already high maintenance road system is EVER going to be cost effective. Not to mention the MASSIVE inconvenience of having thousands of miles of road torn up
How will we maintain and prevent damage when the panels are spread out for miles upon miles.
Solar thermal is the most efficient of solar technologies, but this is another case of a desperate local trying to generate power beyond their means because of a lack of national
cooperation.
DAMNIT DIGG IS STILL BROKEN MY TEXT BOX IS JUMPING ALL OVER THE PLACE. Ever since the latest 'upgrade' DIGG has been a TOTAL PAIN IN THE ASS at least using firefox 3.0 - Jektal, on 08/18/2008, -0/+6Well, plant a tree.
- jimfeet, on 08/18/2008, -0/+6Everything on earth already is a solar collector. Some things turn green as a result of what they collect. Given enough time, these things will turn into petroleum.
- TheJimid, on 08/18/2008, -0/+6Roads expand and crack in the winter much easier, how cost effective would the maintenance be in places the thermometer goes below freezing?
- DeadlyCouncil, on 08/18/2008, -0/+5very true, same here in Minnesota. But not being universally applicable is the case with most alternative sources of energy, so the best thing to do is not to try and implement them everywhere, only where they are feasible. Whatever can be done to spread the demand for energy over more than just fossil fuels is a good thing. At least we've still got our wind power : P
- billbugger, on 08/18/2008, -2/+7Even erectile dysfunction.
- awtripp, on 08/18/2008, -0/+5Turn horses in to solar collectors?
- CrankyHippo, on 08/18/2008, -0/+5Im waiting for they day when my car has a hood/top/trunk with solar panels and it charges up in the parking lot, here in CA during the summer my car gets hot!
- SVOboy, on 08/18/2008, -0/+4Definitely something interesting out of WPI, the school that likes to burn things.
- inactive, on 08/18/2008, -1/+5©
- BDOUG, on 08/18/2008, -0/+3The dupe check works exactly as designed: it makes the dupe submitters laugh an evil, maniacal laugh as they blast right past it.
- enotswhat, on 08/18/2008, -0/+3as long as the pipes don't leak
- ashwinmudigonda, on 08/18/2008, -0/+3I would wait and see about this. Copper pipes? I mean isn't this metal now the scourge of home owners as vandals rip them off from their homes? This might be prohibitively expensive, unless the energy that can be produced trumps the initial investment.
- GBowski, on 08/18/2008, -0/+3@tim620 + TheJimid
Simply put, you don't put wind turbines in areas where there's no wind,
or water wheels in a stagnant lake...
Why would you implement this on roads that get ever so ***** up by cold climates?
This concept seems to be optimized by climates near the equator, where it is "warm" all year round and roads do get raped by ice as much as they do in places like New England...
[/my 2 cents] - yazheirx, on 08/18/2008, -0/+3If they could reverse it for the coldest and snowiest days then we could do away with snow plows and salt trucks. Snow removal from all the roads at once not just what roads the trucks are on now.
I'm sure I will think of this again this winter when I am stuck in a 2 hour trip home at 4 mph when a major storm roles through the Chicago area. - skintigh, on 08/18/2008, -0/+3You're just jealous they have the #1 fire protection engineering department in the world, a wind tunnel just for fire testing materials, and that they are always on the Discovery channel. And their fight song rules:
e to the xdydx
e to the xdx
cos(sec(tan(sin(3.14159))))
e i radical pi fight 'em fight 'em WPI
woot - minorthreat, on 08/18/2008, -0/+3would increasing the temperature of the road increase the wear on your tires also?
- yngtimmy, on 08/18/2008, -0/+3I am for all kinds of ideas as far as energy goes. - including nuclear. If we can power just the street lights and stop lights with it (providing its cost effective) go for it. Use the land that was cut down for transportation and give it a double use. Why not?
- GothAlice, on 08/18/2008, -0/+2We will eventually fall back to that point.
- repmekevets, on 08/18/2008, -0/+2his title sounds more intriguing. but i went your submission and dugg you up if that makes you feel any better...
- mnemy, on 08/18/2008, -0/+2Hmmm... doesn't sound like a workable idea just yet. Asphalt moves. There's this one freeway near my house that was built over a landfill. The road is made out of asphalt, and over time, large dips appear because parts of the road sink because the landfill compresses over time naturally. They have to lay out new asphalt fairly frequently to make the road drivable.
If you put copper pipes in there, they will certainly break. Sure, not all roads are as unstable, but I can see maintenance of not only the roads, but the piping beneath it's surface becoming an absolute nightmare.
Plus, have you ever had to run across a street barefoot during the summer? Increase the temperature even more and that's mighty uncomfortable. Animals wont be none to happy either. - kbear1, on 08/18/2008, -0/+2Great, another boondoggle to suck attention away from anything that could actually work, like nuclear.
Look, for those of you who weren't around in the 70's, they were saying solar was going to save the day back then. I get a little jaded and smell a rat when results don't show up after 30 years, but the articles read the same. One thing you've got to realize is that EVERYTHING you read in business magazines is propaganda (or you could call it PR is that's less offensive). I wish I had learned that much earlier.
Now what gets really funny is it's the Oil and Coal interests that pay for this propaganda, so that 20 years from now nothing will have changed. Just think about it. - Zomgondo, on 08/18/2008, -0/+230 years ago the price of oil crashed enough to make everyone forget that any other source of energy ever existed. Now that oil is likely to remain expensive, we've got an additional 30+ years of technological progress under our belt, and worldwide concern about global warming, it's a good bet that solar is here to stay.
- hiPpymIck, on 08/18/2008, -0/+2most plants are only 1% efficient
- except sugar cane which is 7%
but they do have the advantage of being
natural living things..and looking nice - BlatheringIdiot, on 08/18/2008, -0/+2I want my flying car.
- NexusV2, on 08/18/2008, -0/+2@joeanon - Yes wind turbines collect a lot more power, but they are the fugliest things on Earth. This type of technology however cannot be seen. Which makes it even better.
Also it's going to be a helluva lot easier to get land for this as it's already there, it just needs to be changed. - Bhatch514, on 08/18/2008, -0/+2Ethylene glycol
- MxM111, on 08/18/2008, -0/+2Actually if you remove tires from the car and put them on the road instead you may get some electricity generated from what is right now is lost as a heat in tires. I do not think though that you can recover significant amount...
- NexusV2, on 08/18/2008, -0/+2Wooo service pack for reality!
- BurgerDST, on 08/18/2008, -0/+1Frakkin-A right they are!
- BurgerDST, on 08/18/2008, -0/+1Paint the roads white and reflect the sun. That might help global warming. The world needs all of the ideas we can get. I'd start by solar or wind powering all of the street lights.
- MWeather, on 08/19/2008, -0/+1Or just use regenerative braking, like every hybrid in the world does.
- h0ser, on 08/19/2008, -0/+1could even use them to replace traditional speed bumps in malls and speed restricted streets.
- tsunamisteve, on 08/19/2008, -0/+1If you can build a solar road, you can build a tire capable of pulling energy from it. Combine this with a panel on the roof of your car and think you'd be rollin'.
- supermanred, on 08/19/2008, -0/+1This is a fantastic idea, but...
I've always thought this:
The first person to invent a system that gets FASTER the MORE people use it will be a billionaire and save the world.
I've run my brain on overdrive and can't think of any system that would do this, but eventually someone will figure it out!
Hey, remember when the more people wanted a file, the SLOWER it was to download?? Then someone invented bit-torrent which actually sped up downloads for more popular files.
The guy or girl who invents bittorrent for actual highway/city traffic wins.
Now, get to it! Just don't forget to mention Paul Alves (Supermanred) when you claim your award! And hey, send me a few bucks I could use it right now! - avengingturnip, on 08/19/2008, -0/+1And then there is a question of what to do with the heat collected on hot days. It does not automatically become electricity. The only thing you will have is a tank full of hot water on the hottest days of the year. Big flippin' deal.
- h0ser, on 08/19/2008, -0/+1running over the tubes wouldn't effect gas mileage that much. It would use a combination of the many cars together to create energy. I'm not talking about enough energy to power a whole town, but it'd probably create enough power to light up the roads.
- syncomm, on 08/18/2008, -0/+1Thanks!! ;) I'm just curious if there is something I'm missing. I've been submitting things for some time, but I've never received more than a handful of diggs
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