Hi You remember Solar freakin' Robles Well it's back. Check it out. I Got no end of emails and tweets that this is all in the news again that recently. look at this.

Solar Paving to make first public US appearance on Route 66. Look at this. It's going to come to Route 66. They're going to pave that one of America's famous highways is about to become an awesome science experiment.

All of this, it's all happening. It's all happening around 66. It's on all the press. Look at this the verge.

It must be true. Solar Always come in, come in, come in, it's on. CNET It's got to be true. They're gonna put it on Route 66 so that all sounds fantastic, but of course it's all overhyped.

Now, if you actually take a look at some of these articles, or just like, look at all the headlines and all the hype, you might think that they're actually going to pave Route 66 with these solar freakin' roadway panels. But if you read further, that's not really what's happening. What's going on here is MoDOT that's the Missouri Department of Transportation have this road to Tomorrow initiative thing they're spending millions on, no doubt. And there's five different initiatives.

One of them's the Internet of Things grown anyway. the other is, um, one of the others is solar roadways. and if we come in here and learn more. oh, oh, just a couple of lame-ass quotes.

Anyway, what's going on here is that they're actually not paving Route 66 at all. What they're going to do is pave just the walkway in front of a visitor center in Conway is it on the I-44 near Conway And it gets better. It's a massive 12 by 20 foot patcher. panels not only generate electricity to help power the rest stop, but they heat them as well because one of the big selling points of solar roadways is that it can melt snow.

Oh, hang on I'm going to facepalm Oh Unbelievable! Anyway, take it away local reporters and Local channel Ky3 they'll tell you all about it. Okay, we're threes. Linda Russell shows us where MoDOT is planning a pilot solar project in the Ozarks. This rest stop on westbound I-40 for near Conway is dedicated to historic Route 66, but it could help pave the way to the roadways of tomorrow.

This is just a really exciting project to be able to be a part of something that could be the future. MoDOT is planning a pilot project here. Solar panels that live flat on the ground. They're talking with an Idaho company called Solar Roadways and feel sure they're hexagon shaped solar panels would generate lots of talk.

We're hoping because I mean that's part of what we want to try to do is really showcase and part of why we picked this location is because of the Horta Historic Route 66. While the Solar Roadways panels are designed to be strong enough to drive on, Moda is going to first try them out with foot traffic here on the sidewalk to the rest stops main entrance. This is kind of the first phase and you know we hope in the future that we then can move it out and maybe the parking lot and then maybe into a travel area. So all that hype about paving Route 66, it turns out they're only going to do a dinky rest of the pavement and if it goes we'll oh they'll expand it out into the parking lot let alone the road.

Unbelievable. But wait, it gets better. The guy in charge of this Thom Blair There he is. They're talking about it.

and to be fair actually if you go down here he actually to quote him. he says if their vision of the future is realistic. So it turns out he has doubts. but hey, he's been put in charge of this big initiative that you know there's big money behind a government initiative to actually you know, modernize roadways and everything else.

and of course all the hype and everything else they're buying into it. but hey, probably he isn't even silly enough to go. Oh let's put it straight on the road so they're just going to pave the parking lot. But here's the kicker.

Look at this to get the most out of its solo roadway project. the department will seek crowd funding. Oh, they're already spending $100,000 on this waste of time and they want to raise more money from the public to do this 12 by 20 foot patch of panels would not only generate electricity to help power the rest stop, but heat as well to prevent ice and snow from accumulating on the surface. What's so appealing from the revenue side of it is: yeah.

if we don't have to treat roads or sidewalks or pavement anymore, you know that's that's less material, that's less chloride. That's less things that go into the environment. And also you know the aspect of getting energy. I Can't believe that people are still being sucked in to this concept.

Solar roadways have this pie-in-the-sky concept of heating up these tiles to melt snow on them to keep in snow and ice free. And this is all the data they've got on the website about this. By the way: I've never shown that it actually works and it can't because it's demonstrably impractical. I'm not going to bother going through the calculations because thankfully fellow bloggers Thunderfoot has already done it for us.

Take it away. Thunderfoot Look, it's not exactly rocket science to understand that if it was cheaper to melt snow rather than just to move it to the side of the road, then we would use flamethrowers for snow removal, not snow plows. And the reason we don't do that is because it is much cheaper just to move the snow to the side of the road. Look, it's not even a matter of a discussion.

It's simple thermodynamics. You know that conservation of energy stuff. We were going over earlier. If you want to turn one kilogram of ice at freezing point into one kilo of water at freezing point, it requires about 300 kilojoules per kilogram.

And according to the Department of Transport stats, the typical place in America gets saved 13 centimeters of snow, which is the equivalent of about 1.3 centimeters of ice. We know the target area and therefore we can calculate how much base there is to melt and therefore we know how much power is needed to melt that ice. Therefore, we can calculate the electricity bill using cheap electricity. Oh yeah, you're right.

two billion really doesn't sound very cheap. I've got a great idea for saving money. Let's replace it with a system that if it was 100 percent efficient, would cost 5 billion dollars per year. And that's ignoring the fact that these solar panels will be in the northern part of America Weather isn't much sunlight in the winter when there's even less sunlight and they're going to be covered in snow.

Which means they're not going to generate anybody power to melt the snow. So just how much money have the brochures sucked out of the community and the government? Well let's take a look here. Back in 2009 they got a hundred grand for a small business innovation research thing. then they got like art, onesies and twosies here and there from you know, just various individuals support private and then they went on to get private donations they got up to.

Then they won some 50 grand contests or something like that. And then they got a Us Dot Phase Two contract which is seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. And then of course they started their famous IndieGoGo campaign which is where it came on everyone's radar and they ultimately raised 2.2 million dollars in that campaign on Two Point Two, Six Nine. Actually, which is what this IndieGoGo in demand is.

They got an extra 60 grand is currently our only source of income at that point. Then they got a Us Dot phase to be um, just at the end of our last year and that netted them an extra seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. And this doesn't include the new hundred thousand dollar contract for this Route 66 thing. That's a total of three point Eight, Five million dollars for this boondoggle.

Oh sorry, yes, important scientific renewable energy research. So let's look at their research, shall we? I mean that they must have a lot of data now. They must have done a lot of testing since, well, 2009 when they got their first money. So they've been doing this felt like almost six or seven years or something like that.

And do remember that the IndieGoGo campaign where they got the bulk of their money was over two years ago now. So surely they've got a lot to show for it in that you know, six years or let alone two years since they got the major major money. Well let's go in and take a look at it, shall we? Let's go into their research here and have a look. So if we have a look at the Phase One research here, well, here it is.

It's there SR one panel and this is back in 2009. They needed to show that it generates its own power through the Sun Well, yeah, okay, it's a solar cell alright, and various other things. Okay, that was just the initial effort for a pavement systems apparently had to meet that and then the glass. they had to.

They only basically just research due to the very limited budget. A glass was only studied, not yet used during the this round of funding. Okay, fair enough. and the phase Two results.

where they got the seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This is back in 2011. This is five years ago and they built this the famous one outside their Garriga raj here. this test bed.

Okay, fair enough. they went to town, they did all that, ran all the trenches for the conduit and everything else and installed all their panels and it all looks hunky-dory and but okay, that's it. But where are the test results from that? Hmm, let's have a look. let's go up here: Phase Two results now.

I Won't go through this and read it in detail because it takes some time. I'll link it in down below if you want to read it yourself. But basically I don't see any real results here. Always see is them talking about if each of these four panels produced like not they did produce or anything like that.

Just if if if like it was like where's the real data show us the real data. All they seem to have here is just some data on much power, their electronics and things like that. take I mean this thing has been installed for five years. Where is the data like it? Well surely they'd have like at least a full year's worth of tract logged data on this.

Where's the graphs? Where's the production graphs? There's nothing and as far as low testing goes, all they've ever done. this is before their original IndieGoGo campaign is this: John Deere Tractor As I pointed out in my original video, this weighs under a ton And of course tractors are designed to have these large low pressure tires on them so that they spread the load evenly and they don't sink into mud and crap like that. This is like people seem to be impressed by this or look at tractor. It weighs bugger all and he's putting bugger all load on these panels.

What about if you put a you know, a semi trailer on there this thing. They've had this thing installed for like four years or something and yet like nothing. There's absolutely nothing. No real-world testing of an actual car or a truck slamming on their brakes on these panels.

Why? Because it would decimate them. And what happens when you do drive on a glass surface? I Wonder And it does, you know? Rub and grind away all that glass? I Think I Don't know, but maybe something called silicosis might be an issue? I Just putting it out there. The reason that I find solar roadways fundamentally distasteful is that they've jumped people into giving them over two million dollars for a project that you in demonstrate is fundamentally unviable. With a $10 coffee pot at a damaged piece of blacktop that is, the material that they want to use is fundamentally unsuitable for its proposed purpose.

Proposing glass Roads really is as stupid as proposing chocolate frying pans. But surely after two years and raising over 2.2 million dollars from the IndieGoGo campaign and after raising the 750 thousand dollars from the phase to a research grant, what if they got only now in November 2015? a year and a half after the IndieGoGo campaign and they got the phase two funding from the US Department of Transportation for seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars only. Now are they doing freeze-thaw cycling on the things to you know to see how they can stand up to the environmental stresses. They're doing moisture testing.

They're doing sheer testing to simulate heavy vehicle braking. They've been working on these things for five. six years, seven years or something, and only now a year and a half later after they've got the latest round of funding, Are they going to simulate heavy vehicle braking it? Oh Unbelievable And simulate years of trucks of use in a matter of months? How about actually driving a truck on the thing, actually building? you know, a 50 meter stretch of this and driving a truck on it? You had the money for it. And what did they spend their indiegogo money on? They spent them on CNC machines for doing their own glass kilns for like firing their own glass, laser cutters, everything else.

So they bought all these big boy toys and it's a glass working table and a forklift and add a reflow oven? I Mean Wow Seriously like they're doing their own glass. Unbelievable. These people are clueless and still no solar test results? None whatsoever. That's it.

That's the end of the phase 2b research. after their, well, you know, the 750 thousand dollars plus the 2.2 million dollars from IndieGoGo two years ago and oh, but no wait, Hang on. wait wait. I Think this could be it.

Data collection. Oh yeah, this is there we go. We have data. We have a table.

Ah ah, what have they done? Oh oh. they've installed two commercial solar panels in like on the sidewalk. ones angled and ones flat and they're doing research. I'll leave it up to you to read it but they're doing research on flat versus angled solar panels Oh Groundbreaking research folks.

After seven years and 3.8 million dollars raised, they're just now getting around to not even testing their own panels. they're just testing commercial panels to see flat versus angled out like let me do I Need to say anymore: Do you understand that people have wasted their money on this boondoggle? Unbelievable. I Am buggered if I can find a real test results or real data on this thing I mean like are they deliberately hiding this stuff? Surely you would get like my home solar system I've been tracking the data since the day it was installed and they've been doing this for years and they've got basically bugger all to show for it. Nothing and they've had, of course the Glass Surfers.

They go into all sorts of, you know, theory and everything else but the practicality of it. Where is that? Numerical calculations? They go through some ridiculous Givens and things like that, but still no data that they're actually working on. And don't get me started on the lead thing. it's just absolutely ridiculous.

I Just know there's nothing here. Absolutely nothing. People have wasted their money. It's a complete boondoggle.

It will never, ever be practical. anyway. I've done four videos on this, going through all the proper calculations. I've sold away roadways of more solar roadways and then I've gone into Solar Obeys test results where I've actually looked at real test results from real solar road installation in the Netherlands and real rooftop solar panels between them.

But solar roadways are condemned. Monstre Bleah. Impractical. They will never work here.

It is. French Solar Road in France. They want to install a thousand kilometres or whatever. it is complete and the one in France here is at best.

It's three times the cost. you can see it there. Three times the cost for half the output. You can go run the numbers yourself.

These are real numbers from a real test. results from real solar panels on people's roofs in next to a an actual installed 70 meter solar roadways / cycleway. This is using real data. The brochures have done nothing like this.

and even then, in the best case scenario, using the Coal S Whatwe project which is infinitely more practical, infinitely more practical than the stupid hexagonal interlocking a glass ridiculous list that the brochures are trying to push here with their solar roadways. If you want to support a practical solar roadways, I Don't recommend it. But if you do want to be, if your Solar Roadways fanboy and you do want to support it, go look at the Coal S Whatwe project. I'll link it in down below and even that that it is going to be at best at absolute best.

Assuming everything's ideal, it's going to be six times more dollars per watt. It's just engineering folly. So this Route 66 thing is, that's a complete joke. The brochures are never ever going to produce anything that's remotely practical, and people still keep putting money in this thing.

And the government now want to do a crowdfunding campaign to suck even more money out of the people after they've already wasted all these tax dollars. 3.8 million dollars at least going into the solar roadways Rubbish. It will never, ever be remotely practical. I Don't think I can do this anymore.

I'll just leave you with some choice words from one of my our previous videos because I I'm done. And for the few solar roadways fanboys still out there, their argument still remains the same. Uh, it's going to get lower-cost you know, with higher volume and the infrastructure. Learn to install them and maintain them and you know costs will go down and down and down.

Yeah, well. they're still going down and down and down for regular rooftop and commercial installations as well. It's like they're still going down. There's still this huge gap of you know, six times or more.

it's probably even order of magnitude more cost dollars per what it's always going to be the case. Now, the other argument is, well. who cares about the efficiency and all that? Surely some energy output is better than none, right? The roads just sit in there doing nothing. Oh no, you don't get it.

There's a much bigger issue at stake here as a society. one of the biggest problems we've got, if not the biggest problem for a future sustainability is energy, energy supply, energy consumption. And it's our responsibility as a society to produce renewable energy systems that are as efficient as possible. They get the most bang per buck if you went and implemented solar roads on a mass scale or even a global scale as these people want to do.

you know on Save the World. didn't you know right? If we just paid 10% of the roads in the world compared the whole planet. If we did that, it would be nothing short of an ecological disaster because they would need so much maintenance. The infrastructure, the cost.

Just when you try and do a lifecycle analysis of a solar robo's it's ridiculous. Wouldn't even know where to begin. We're only just coming to terms with a proper solar systems that we have now that are done in the most efficient way possible: rooftop systems and ground-based solar systems. They're incredibly efficient, getting more efficient by the day.

They're incredibly reliable, about as reliable as you could possibly get. Why would you implement something that's an order of magnitude or more worse. Efficiency has no end of maintenance problems, and we haven't even started discussing how we're going to this system. engineering stuff involved in this thing.

not just as a road surface, but how they're all wired together. You'll note you won't find any photos or any video or anything mentioned at all about how they actually get the get the power out of these things, wire them, or together, it's all maintained. Do you have a micro inverter on each one? What are the arrangement of the arrays and all that sort of stuff, What happens, and maintenance, and everything else. Like just the system engineering involved in that.

Because if you implement them as roadways, you've got to have the channels down the sides of the road so they're going to be shared with the gutters and the drainage. And it then as an engineer as a design engineer, something has got to implement this sort of, you know, crazy idea that engineering challenges are just mind-boggling and know it's not good enough just to say it. Well, they're just challenges. we can overcome those.

No is just fundamentally facepalm worthy. Stupid. Don't put them on the roads. Sure, they might be useful in a niche application or something like that.

You know, if you want to do some parking lot or something, okay, some park cycleway or something or whatever, you know? Okay, fine, but implement them on a mass scale is lunacy. And no doing research on solar roadways is not researching new solar technology. All it's doing is taking existing solar panel technology and using it in the most abusive and most inefficient way possible. And by the way, I've been incredibly generous in these calculations here, saying you know, at best six times dollars per what it's as I said, we're going to be an order of magnitude worse.

This does not take into account the maintenance of a road service when you take a solar panel and you drive cars on top of it. Ah, are you insane? Why would you put anything on top of a solar panel? It is just stupid. This is why after five years of development or you see from these companies is just a photo of a truck just you know, parked on top of the solar panels. They haven't actually implemented a kilometer of the thing as a real Road and actually have trucks driving out and slamming on their brakes and all sorts of wear and tear for a year before you even consider such a bloody engineering folly like this.

Unbelievable. So can we Just stop this? Solar Roadways, Please It's just ridiculous. The numbers will never, ever work to put something on top of a solar panel. Oh hi, yes, it's Solar Roadways Time again.

Oh, it's like playing Whack-a-mole It all started with Solar freakin' Roadways and I did a video debunking that one. Then it was the Solar. Road In the Netherlands did a couple of videos debunking that one as well and it's back in the news again because France The Minister The French Minister for silly Walks has just announced that France intend to install a thousand kilometres of solar Road from a French company Called out what way.