hi yes its solar roadways time again ah
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 ah
here we go again
let's whack this mole so what's happened
here there the French minister for Silly
Walks has probably seen some PowerPoint
presentation from this company is
flogging this stuff and goes ah yeah
that sounds are writing everyone loves
green technology and I'll get some votes
for that everyone will be happy yeah
we'll be world leaders yeah let's plan
to do a thousand kilometres but it
doesn't matter what politicians say or
plan to do engineering
always Trump's politics now this French
system from a company called coal less
who's part of a bigger group again like
a thirty billion dollar company they're
one of coal less is one of France if not
Europe's our biggest road infrastructure
companies there that's what they do they
build roads so if they know Road
technology so if anyone can build a
solar Road it's then they know what
they're doing this spent five years on
this countless amounts of money actually
developing this thing and I will grant
them this it is the best effort yet at
solar roadways unlike the brochures with
their ridiculous solar freakin roadways
that are hexagonal interlocking glass
panel Wang Curie things
what are they their solar freakin
roadways it's technology that replaces
all roadways parking lots sidewalks
driveways tarmacs bike paths and outdoor
recreation services with solar panels
and not just lifeless boring solar
panels smart micro processing
interlocking hexagonal solar units so
start out with that rubbish then it went
to the solar rodoanel project which I've
done a video
one and just it's just impractical we've
got a year's worth of results we're
going to analyze here very quickly and
now yes we do have the best effort yet
because these things aren't made out of
glass apparently they make they're very
thin like seven millimeters thick and
they're made out of like a some sort of
you know resin polymer material or
something like that and they actually
stick down to the existing roadway so
you don't have to rip them up and
replace them like the ridiculous
brochures system or even the solar Road
NL which come as huge big concrete
prefab blocks you just start slotting so
yeah this is the best bit yet by an
order of magnitude at least it overcomes
a lot of the issues and cost associated
with the previous projects not hugely
efficient as they admit but hey it
should actually work better as a road
surface but I won't go into the road
surface thing because hey we've had like
hundreds of years of road surface
development and technology and all that
sort of stuff and is it any good I don't
know I don't care we're just going to
look at the solar aspect now I shouldn't
need long to debunk this thing at all so
I'll keep it as quick as possible I have
done previous videos more extensive
calculations and and analysis and things
like that so click here if you want to
see those or click down below now will
very quickly go back and just analyze
the Netherlands project the Solar Road
nl1 the last video idea we looked at the
six month
test results and some people said let's
the wait until we get 12 months well we
do have 12 months test results and I
won't go through all the details but
here's a summary of the results
basically the solar Road project is a 70
meter strip by 1.7 meters for a total
area of a hundred and twenty square
meters and they've said in a press
release after one year of having
installed this thing this is a real test
on a real solar roadway or solar cycle
way as this one is it's not a road
surface ninety-eight hundred kilowatt
hours for that 120 square metres that
gives us 82 kilowatt hours per square
metre now that sounds pretty good
but hey we can compare that with rooftop
solar systems and not just my own
rooftop solar system I've done a video
and click here to see some test results
from that note I'm going to get three
rooftop solar systems within a couple of
kilometers of this actual solar road
installation and through the PV output
org website which I'll link in down
below for these three rooftop systems
here from these our users they're
plotted their data will get their data
over the same time period within a
couple of kilometres sites essentially
you know an apples to apples comparison
and this is what we get for three
different users here we got a result of
2,500 kilowatt hours 2123 and I've
actually gone through and checked the
data sheets for their solar panels got
the square area so we can calculate a an
equivalent output in square meters and
therefore 150 245 an average of 146
kilowatt hours per square meters for
these rooftop solar systems just you
know really low cost you know consumer
rooftop solar systems not the more you
know the fancier higher efficiency
commercial installations which you'd
really compare the solar Road system
against just rooftop ones which aren't
as good umm compare it 146 kilowatt
hours per square meter for the rooftop
82 kilowatt hours per square meter for
the solar Road system the solar Rhodes
is has the fifty-six percent of the
efficiency of a rooftop solar system
that's basically half half the output so
right there it's done and dusted why the
hell would you pay for solar roads that
give you half the output at best let
alone that's when they used to cycle
waste let alone we don't have any data
when they're actually used as road
surface when there's roads on there
there's traffic jams is dirt and grime
and and you know problems with
maintenance and things like that them
getting destroyed and chewed up and
whatnot
it's at best to half the output why
would you do it it's stupid but it gets
worse let's look at a cost analysis for
this thing now the CEO of colas has
actual
admitted that the cost they figure is
going to be around six euros per
watt-peak that's what WP stands for
basically per what output and they
reckon you know maybe with time and huge
volumes and things like that maybe I
don't hold your tongue at the right
angle cross your fingers and hope fit
you know some fairies can deliver three
euros per what now commercial
ground-based systems here's some data
which I'll link in down below it's a
little bit old from up 2013-14 and it is
already down to about point seven euros
per watt-peak and rooftop systems are
generally considered to be about double
a commercial Insulation that's what I
said before a commercial one is actually
going to be higher efficiency lower cost
and and all that sort of thing generally
then a rooftop system but even a rooftop
system around about one double cost one
and a half-year owes or there abouts
what peak it's going to be at rooftop
systems are still going to be twice as
good as the absolute best case
theoretical ballpark figure
that the CEO of coal ass has come up
with so when you combine the fact that
at best it's going to be three times the
cost of an equivalent at commercial
ground installation for half the output
that is six times more dollars per what
you're paying for solar roadway system
that's at best and as I said doesn't
include all the unknowns about using as
a road surface and output and
maintenance and cars on it and dirt and
grime and all sorts of crap like that
it's complete engineering Foley it's
just crazy
at like it makes no sense solar energy
is already it depends on the argument
you take is that's already sort of like
a marginal social infrastructure payback
in terms of complete life cycle and
things like that and you want to do it
on road service the worst possible
conditions you've gotta be me
and even to get down to that area ferry
pie-in-the-sky three euro
per watt-peak the French government are
aligned on a single sole contractor who
has the monopoly on this thing no
competition whatsoever to drive the cost
down are you kidding me
and for the few solar roadways fanboys
still out there their argument still
remains the same ah 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 or a
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 pave
10% of the roads in the world compel 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 is 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 in 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've got to be shared
with the gutters and the drainage in 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 no
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
just stupid this is why after five years
of development or you'll 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 on 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
you