Hi Welcome to another Solar Roadways video! I've done two previous videos aren't debunking. Sol Freaking Roadways was the first one and then the second one was pretty much a debunking. The results. The initial prototype test results from a prototype solar pathway.

It's not a solar roadway but a solar bike way in the Netherlands and this is a solar road with no our solar Road dot and Ill link the videos in here. If you haven't seen them, they go for like half an hour. They got all the detailed analysis, math, everything else. This one will be real quick because Solar Onl have just released the six month test results from this six month trial.

So I thought we'd take a look at it to see if the whole concept is viable or not. Let's go now. The six month trial didn't go without incident for this thing. They actually had one of the panel's like completely crack and/or shatter actually.

and here's a photo of it. It was pretty terrible. So they're looking into that, but they're these sort of things happen with prototypes. But the good thing is we have a 70 meter long solar bike way in the Netherlands that's been operating for six months and it generated so they say.

In fact, here's a graph showing the accumulated energy output over the six months. Three thousand kilowatt hours. Nice round number generated in the six month. Awesome! So what we can do now is use that figure and compare it to what you would get from a rooftop solar installation and see how stacks up.

So they put out a press release and it's been picked up by a few places and claiming that all it's generated more power than what they expected and well, they didn't really add to that, but oh yeah, it's better. The results are better than we expected and Popular Mechanics for example, picked up the article and said Oh Solar Bikeway is a shining success pardon the pun and you know they're talking it up as if it's fantastic. It's now viable and it's better than expected. I Had quite a few people contact me and coming up.

what do I think about it now. Well, it's not what I about, its what the data actually shows now. I had the idea that well, I've got my own solar system on my rooftop three kilowatt solar system I've done a video which I'll link in here, analyzing the results from that and the payback period and showing the data and and all that sort of stuff. and I thought, well I can use six months worth of data from my own system to compare it to their six months and see how it goes.

but then I thought, well, I'm here in Sydney Australia they're in the Netherlands You've got to account for solar insolation and different times in the year and all sorts of things and that's a bit messy. So I figured, well, why don't I actually get solar data from people's rooftops nearby in the Netherlands and I can use that over that exact same six month period that they had this trial over. That will be a real, you know, apples to Apples comparisons to see how viable these solar are, Bikeways and/or solar roadways are going to be. Best case because we now have this real data now the site that I'm using PV Output Dot Org where all of my real-time solar data goes.

It turns out there's a whole stack of people who have also in in the Netherlands who have also got their data fed in there. and there's a couple of systems with only within a few kilometres of the solar Robo installation. So beauty, we can suck that data out and compare it. Let's go.

So when I saw these press releases right off the bat, I sort of went, it didn't sort of pass the test. Really, it sounded like okay, yeah, it's more than it was outputting more than they expected. The three thousand kilowatt hours was more than they expected over the six months, But how much more nobody really tells you that then I tell you that in the atoms Just say oh, it's more than we expected. Therefore, oh, it must be fantastic and completely viable, right? Well, let's look at the real data now.

They claimed right at the beginning of this thing and I've also got this in my previous video as well. What they expected was 50 kilowatt hours per square metre per year. And of course they've only been out for six months. So they've got 25 kilowatt hours per square meter first six months and I know it's not over a full year, so it's not over the full solar insolation cycle, but it's over half a cycle, which is good enough so it has some peaks and it has some troughs, and it's going to average out quite well.

so the results after six months are pretty good to use for our comparisons. You don't necessarily need the full 12 months, so this is what they expected. How much did they actually get? Hmm. so as per the previous video, I estimated the width of the solar bike way based on the photos and and some other stuff, and I got a value of 1.75 meters wide roughly.

and it's a 70 meter long cycle way. So a total Square area of 120 2.5 square meters. So they generated three thousand kilowatt hours for the six months. For the 120 2.5 square meters, that's twenty four point five kilowatt hours per square meter.

Per six months, they were expecting 25. It's basically exactly what they're expecting there, and they're claiming that Oh, it's more than what we expected. Well, yeah, let I tell you how much more, right? it's bugger-all. right.

I could be slightly off on the 1.75 meters wide. So okay, let's you know I Trust them, right? I Don't think they're lying. Yes, it's more, but it's not much more. It's not spectacularly more.

It's not double. You know it's not even 20% more. You know, 50% more. It's just.

ah man. So right there it is just typical marketing stuff. and then the bloggers and that you know the websites get carried away. Oh, it's more than expected.

So they put the headline, you know, a shining success and everything else makes it all viable. No, it's basically exactly what they expected. duh. So you see this sort of thing happen all the time they say, yeah, it's better than don't provide any data and then just let people's imaginations take over from there.

cuz there's a lot of people who believe, deeply, believe, religiously, believe in these solar roadways and want it to work at any cost. So they'll take this as a shining example no pun intended, well pun intended perhaps of yeah thing is so viable. So I'm gonna give this solar roadways this solar pathway a fair go. Let's take a look at the dialog as I said I Found three Local A rooftop our solar installations within a couple of kilometers of this solar cycle way and let's take a look at the data I will link in my sheet here for those who want to see the exact calculations and can double-check what I'm doing so there's no funny business.

you can go back I'll link in all the original data, everything else. You can verify exactly what I'm saying here. so let's have a look at how good this thing is. The Solar Road Three Three thousand kilowatt hours for one hundred and twenty two point five square meters I Just copied that data down here.

so twenty four point five kilowatt hours output per square meter. Okay, it's pretty good. It's actually better than I was expecting. So gadget Frank's Our installation was 811 kilowatt hours for sixteen point five square meters.

It's a little like two-and-a-half or three kilowatt roof installation, but the size doesn't matter because we have scaled it down. that's 49 point two kilowatt hours per square meters and the other two systems. You can see the data here out side by side if I overlap. The graphs are pretty consistent, so this is pretty consistent verifiable data.

but we've got three different systems. We'll take the average. The average is forty seven point two kilowatt hours per square meter. Bingo.

It's about double what we get from the solar roadways. And there you go. There's your answer: How effective are these solar roadways? Solar pathways? We have six months worth. a real engineering you know, undisputable engineering data here.

So rooftop solar has twice the output of this solar cycle way. and that's actually pretty much what you'd expect given the losses. The fact that their roof top ones are angled like a thirty degrees in an optimally angle. But they're angled.

They're not tracking, for example, but it's better to angle them. whereas the solar pathway or solar roadway is flat. of course, they lose. I Don't you know about the twenty thirty percent there? or something like that for it being flat horizontal on the ground.

And then you've got the thick glass of course, which is going to be on top all that protective clashing. And again, you know, ten fifteen percent loss there. I Think I use ten percent figure. last time that was pretty generous.

I Think in terms of loss and then they're gonna heat up more because they're you know, sealed inside much thicker glass they got and don't have airflow going under them like ones on rooftops do. And solar panel output efficiency drops with a higher temperature. So you know all these losses together you'd expect. this is, you know it's It's actually a pretty good result for the solar pathway.

Here at, you know, only only half that of rooftop soles. Always solar roadways supporters are probably jumping for joy. See, it's all you know. it's half as good as rooftop solar, that's You know that's good enough and worth the while to pave all our roads on the planet with bloody solar panels.

but it's still half the output for a lot more cost. Lot at least double. Could be quadruple the cost, let alone lifetime. The you know, the lifetime and this thing.

we haven't looked at it. it's already failed. like within the first couple of weeks a panel and already cracked. But okay, that's a prototype.

You can do that. But yeah. like rooftop solar. Really simple, really reliable.

And as I said in the previous video, solar Power technology and how you can see in my video as well, my own the solar results for my own home system. Its solar power is already a borderline marginal payback product. You have to get you know your 20-year life time out of it or 10 years lifetime out of it to get a viable payback. And I've done the calculations in terms of dollar cost payback in the previous video.

So I won't repeat them here. But you know these solar cycle where solar pathways are a lot higher cost. they're going to have more made and it's guaranteed if you think they don't Well, you don't know much about engineering at all. So have I changed my mind on solar roadways? Well, no, not at all because it's half the output at best.

This was ideal condition if you had it as a roadway and I won't go into the ridiculous practicalities and showstoppers that are involved in using glass as a road. Service might be okay for this cycle way. for example, in niche applications. Yes, as I've said in previous videos, niche applications, these things are going to.

You know they might be useful. You can get some energy out of them, but it's always going to be better to put them on poles. for example, take a look at this video. this one's in South Korea The South Koreans know what they're doing.

They paved the middle of this huge multi lane freeway. They put this cycle path in the middle of it and then covered the whole thing with solar panels. Fantastic! So they're going to get you know the mass in the same massive output as you get with the end the lifetime that you get with rooftop solar systems and solar farms for example. So they're doing the right thing and not only does it provide optimum output versus cost for the installation by not making this bloody road surface or a cycle service, putting in an above the cyclist and it provides shade as well.

you get all the lifetime benefits. That's it. It's no contest. South Koreans Have the right idea.

That's how you do a solar roadway. So there you go. Hopefully that's the last solar roadway that I have to do. We've got.

the numbers are finally in absolutely no dispute in it there. They give half the output of rooftop solar systems and then you can go calculate the the cost of building these things and maintenance and everything else to your heart's content. Rooftop solar systems and farm. You know, solar farms and things like that.

all the one in South Korea Very very low maintenance cost on these things. Very long time frame so you're going to get a really decent pay back on those solar rode solar cycle ways. Not just a bit of a fantasy. Neasha applications for sure.

Otherwise, forget it. catch you next time you.