Apparently walking on solar panels damages them as the First solar roadway is broken in first week
by noreply@blogger.com (brian wang) from NextBigFuture.com on (#2FGX8)
Roughly 25 out of 30 panels installed on it broke within a week after developers pumped $3.9 million into it over 6.5 years of development.
Despite massive internet hype, the prototype of solar "road" can't be driven on, hasn't generated any electricity and 75 percent of the panels were broken before they were even installed.
Of the panels installed to make a "solar footpath," 18 of the 30 were dead on arrival due to a manufacturing failure. Rain caused another four panels to fail, and only five panels were functioning shortly thereafter. The prototype appears to be plagued by drainage issues, poor manufacturing controls and fundamental design flaws.
If it had worked, the panels would have powered a single water fountain and the lights in a restroom, after more than $500,000 in installation costs provided by a grant from the state government. The U.S. Department of Transportation initially handed $750,000 in grants to fund the research into the scheme, then invested another pair of grants worth $850,000 into it. The plan, dubbed, "Solar FREAKIN' Roadways" raised another $2.2 million dollars in crowd-funding, even though several scientists publicly debunked the idea.
Despite massive internet hype, the prototype of solar "road" can't be driven on, hasn't generated any electricity and 75 percent of the panels were broken before they were even installed.
Of the panels installed to make a "solar footpath," 18 of the 30 were dead on arrival due to a manufacturing failure. Rain caused another four panels to fail, and only five panels were functioning shortly thereafter. The prototype appears to be plagued by drainage issues, poor manufacturing controls and fundamental design flaws.
If it had worked, the panels would have powered a single water fountain and the lights in a restroom, after more than $500,000 in installation costs provided by a grant from the state government. The U.S. Department of Transportation initially handed $750,000 in grants to fund the research into the scheme, then invested another pair of grants worth $850,000 into it. The plan, dubbed, "Solar FREAKIN' Roadways" raised another $2.2 million dollars in crowd-funding, even though several scientists publicly debunked the idea.
Read more@thunderf00t @eevblog Yep I was right. pic.twitter.com/13SKtszIAi
- Brendan MaC (@bmcguitar) March 6, 2017