WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: Solar Freaking Roadways 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:14.560 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.800 --> 0:00:17.560 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with iHeart Radio and 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:20.640 I love all things tech. And you know what, several 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:24.560 years ago, there was this concept that had been a 0:00:24.560 --> 0:00:27.080 few years old at that point, but it it's sort 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:32.040 of went viral, and it was this whole solar roadway idea. 0:00:32.120 --> 0:00:35.640 The idea of creating roads that are actually made up 0:00:35.680 --> 0:00:39.920 of solar panels so that your roads could be collecting energy, 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:43.600 uh through the sun and you know, generating electricity and 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:47.519 also serving as roads. An interesting idea that seemed to 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:52.040 have a lot of potential issues with it, and so 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:55.360 at the time, we decided on tech Stuff to cover 0:00:55.600 --> 0:00:59.320 that topic. So this episode originally published on June six, 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:03.720 two thousand and fourteen. It is called Solar Freaking Roadways 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:06.640 because that's kind of how it was being marketed at 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:10.920 the time. And well, let's just listen in. There's been 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:15.560 at least, if nothing else, a spirited debate both sides 0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:18.679 of the debate Internet. Yeah, I know, both sides have 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:22.160 said debate, both the the proponents and the critics of 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:28.800 said solar roadways have been um at times passionate on 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:33.160 the internet. Yeah, that's kind of my gentle tiptoeing around 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:36.960 the edgeway of saying that there's been some fairly reactionary 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:39.520 responses on both sides. So we're gonna cut through all 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:41.760 that and tell you what's going on, hopefully, and I 0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:44.679 you know, both of us are human people who also 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:47.600 have opinions about things, but we're going to try very 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:50.720 hard to be as objective as possible, and at the 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:54.720 end we will spew our opinions all over the podcast, 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:58.520 so fair warning. But at any rate, let's start off 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:02.040 with just some fun facts, fun facts about highways. Fun 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:05.000 facts about highways in the United States, to be specific. So, 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:08.800 the U. S Highway system has four million miles of roads, 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:13.080 which is about six million, four hundred thousand kilometers. Not 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:16.799 many people know this, but Lauren capable of doing miles 0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:19.800 to kilometer conversions in her head on the fly. It's amazing. 0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:23.960 So that's according to the National Atlas of the United States. Now, 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:27.720 the interstate highway system accounts for only one percent of 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:33.960 all highway mileage, but carries twenty of total vehicle miles 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:37.560 of travel, which to me says, take the surface streets. 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:41.880 That's what I usually do. Yeah, at any rate. The highways, 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:43.960 although they are a great way of moving lots of 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:47.800 cars through very quickly. Uh that that's not you know, 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:50.800 more of the roads in our our country are surface streets. 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:55.480 They're not like these big interstates certainly, but but um, 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:58.680 but highways are are pretty They cover a wide surface 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:02.200 area none the less. The average the average width of 0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:05.000 a highway lane is eleven feet, which is three point 0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:08.240 three five Wow. It works on feet demeters too, It's 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:11.600 pretty amazing. Okay. Uh So that means that if you 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:14.560 were to add up all the surface area that these 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:17.400 roads are covering in the United States, you would end 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:22.200 up somewhere around seventeen thousand, nine hundred twenty nine square 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:25.400 miles in the United States, which is forty six thousand, 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:28.560 four hundred and thirty six square kilometers. Crap. You can 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:32.240 do area too if you add another paved surfaces, so 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:37.000 we're talking about things like parking lots, sidewalks, bike lanes, 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:40.440 this kind of thing. It ends up being around twenty 0:03:40.520 --> 0:03:45.640 five thousand square miles of area or thousand, seven hundred 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:49.720 square kilometers, right, So that's a lot of space a bunch, 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:53.480 and it's not an insignificant amount. It's doing an important job, 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:56.480 you know, because some people will say that's space, that's 0:03:56.520 --> 0:03:59.800 not doing anything. No, it is, in fact doing something wasted. 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:04.040 It's certainly providing a service. Yes, it provides us a 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:07.600 route to get from one point to another point, specifically 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:11.000 in the vehicles that we all depend upon, without very 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:14.480 much ruining our our vehicles or our shoes or right. 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:17.320 It's it's made up of stuff. That is, it's got 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:21.520 traction to it. It's meant to be uh as efficient 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:24.640 a system as we can really do with with a 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:28.200 lot of passive systems. Like it's a very passive system, yes, 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:32.719 and but it's relatively inexpensive and pretty functional. But what 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:36.200 would happen if we could make this stuff do double duty? 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:39.719 What if instead of just being a way, you know, 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:43.240 the the platform upon which our vehicles travel, it could 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:47.400 also help generate energy and offset our need for generating 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:50.799 power in other ways. What if we could perhaps turn 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:54.640 the entire road system of the United States into a 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:59.799 giant solar farm. In other words, we replaced the roads 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:03.119 with solar panels, were still driving on them, but now 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:06.520 not only are we all that flat space is being 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:10.920 put to further use, or even hilly space, well relatively 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:14.320 flat space. Yeah, so that's where the idea of solar 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:17.560 roadways kicked in. Uh. And then to get specific, you 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:20.640 have a husband and wife team, Scott and Julie Brussa, 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:26.400 who are the the people behind solar roadways, right, Scott 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:30.080 is by trade an electrical engineer and Julie as a counselor. 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:35.839 And apparently was Julie's idea to put solar panels on roads, 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:38.560 that was her. She just said. You know, she and 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:43.480 her husband were having a discussion about climate change, about 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:48.479 human human contributions to climate change, about pollution, about the 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:50.960 fact that a lot of that pollution comes from our 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:54.040 dependence upon fossil fuels, and she said, well, you know, 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:56.760 I realized that solar panel farms like these are not 0:05:56.800 --> 0:05:59.080 the most efficient ways of getting energy. We've talked about 0:05:59.080 --> 0:06:01.920 that on this show before. That even if you're talking 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:06.880 like state of the art, top of the line laboratory conditions, 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:12.159 at most you're hitting under ideal conditions. Reality, it's closer 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:16.960 to under good conditions and probably less than that for 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:20.599 your average performance. So you're losing a lot of the 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:23.600 energy that's hitting those panels, and you're not necessarily generating 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:25.840 a lot of electricity from the energy you're bringing in. 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:28.320 But what if we had a lot of them? Yeah, 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:31.120 what if we were able to instead of clearing out 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:32.880 land in order to make a solar farm, what if 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:35.640 we were able to utilize that space, these wide open 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:40.120 spaces that we already have, you know, using robust panels 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:44.760 that can withstand the traffic. Right, and so Scott in 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:48.800 his various videos, there are several videos that Scott Brussaw 0:06:48.960 --> 0:06:51.600 is in where he talks about this idea, said that 0:06:52.120 --> 0:06:54.960 he initially kind of laughed at the idea, and then 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:57.480 he thought, well, how would I, as an engineer, how 0:06:57.520 --> 0:07:01.679 would I go about trying to make a practical way 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:05.320 of implementing her solution? And that was the way solar 0:07:05.400 --> 0:07:08.120 roadways were born. This was not no this you may 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:10.360 have only just heard about this, but they've been working 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:14.119 on this since the mid two thousand's, so I believe 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:16.560 I think you're right. Yeah, So they started brainstorming these 0:07:16.560 --> 0:07:19.000 different ways they came up with this, uh, this solar 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:22.640 panel roadway approach. But it does mean that they had 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:25.120 to think of other stuff besides and they also went 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:28.200 beyond just solar panels right oh right, you know they're 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:32.200 they're not just there to collect energy. They would also 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:35.480 have you know, microprocessors in them and l ed s 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:39.360 which would allow you to uh, you know, like like 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:43.560 change the lanes and on a highway based on traffic patterns, 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:46.840 or move parking spots around in a parking lot. Right 0:07:46.920 --> 0:07:50.560 Like So, for example, the street that is near my 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:54.960 neighborhood is a three lane road and it has two 0:07:55.000 --> 0:07:58.160 reversible or has a reversible lane in the center. Reversible 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:01.160 lanes mean that some parts of a day, traffic is 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:04.320 allowed to go in one direction, and in another part 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:06.560 of the day traffic is allowed to go in the 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:10.200 opposite direction. And they just end up designating that with 0:08:10.640 --> 0:08:13.440 there's a sign that hangs above the road that either 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:15.680 it gives you an arrow saying yes you can drive 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:18.600 in this lane, sagred X that says please don't do that. 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:22.920 By the way, I cannot tell you how many times 0:08:22.960 --> 0:08:25.760 have encountered people who absolutely have no idea how reversible 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:28.360 lanes work. They treat it like it's a turning lane. 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:31.120 They're a little bit terrifying. It is absolutely terrifying. Yeah, 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:33.840 driving in the center lane on that road is something 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:37.400 of a crap shoot at any rate. Using this approach, 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:42.040 you could actually have the information on the road itself. 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:45.640 Those led lights could spell out which lanes were permissible 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:48.560 to use during what parts of the day, so you 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:52.400 could change it on the fly, responding to dynamic condition. 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:55.600 So if traffic is suddenly very heavy coming from one 0:08:55.600 --> 0:08:58.160 direction versus the other, you could change the lanes in 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:01.320 a safe way. Or like you said, you could do 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:04.680 things like in a parking lot, designate different types of spaces. 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:09.720 Perhaps if you were expecting to have a big motorcycle convention, 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:12.320 like some parts of the country do, then you could 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:14.920 end up having a bunch of motorcycle parking spots as 0:09:14.960 --> 0:09:17.800 opposed to full sized car spots that kind of stuff. 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:19.840 And it's interesting because it means you could change things 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:22.760 based upon whatever conditions were at the time. That's not 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:25.400 the only thing these could do though. Oh yeah. They 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:29.760 also proposed to incorporate heating elements so that you could 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:32.400 melt any kind of any kind of ice or snow 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:37.440 on the roadway, thus being able to prevent terrible, terrible 0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:40.800 driving conditions, right, and you wouldn't have to use a 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:43.760 plow or actually you can't use a plow on one 0:09:43.800 --> 0:09:46.760 of these roads, because it did you'd end up scraping 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:52.480 the glass glass covering. Yeah. Um. But but also um 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:58.680 providing providing an infrastructure for carrying that collected energy collected 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:03.559 energy and big technical quotation marks UM to to get 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:05.360 it to places that need it. So, in other words, 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:07.640 there would be a kind of a corridor that would 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:10.280 run alongside the road which would help deal with the 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:13.400 runoff from that aforementioned snow and ice. Yes, yes, you 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:15.640 would have two parts of that corridor. One part would 0:10:15.640 --> 0:10:18.160 be a storm drain which would even include perhaps a 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:21.040 filtration system and pumps to move water to where it 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:24.080 might actually be used. So you could in theory treat 0:10:24.120 --> 0:10:27.679 the water on site on the road essentially as as 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:29.439 it's running off, you can treat it so it ends 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:32.400 up being useful, and then pump it someplace like an 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:37.160 aquifer or for agricultural purposes, or to another water treatment 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:42.360 facility if the water is particularly and I think that's 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:45.640 the technical term. And then you could have the cable corridor, 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:48.840 which would allow you to put power cables so that 0:10:48.920 --> 0:10:53.520 it could uh transmit the collected energy to some other system. 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:56.040 All of this. By the way, it sounds like we're 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:59.360 being vague, it's because right now the team is really 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:03.040 focusing on the solar panel part and and all of 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:06.400 this is is kind of interesting. Other ideas that they're 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:10.760 drawing into it. UM also reaching further out into the future, 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:13.480 incorporating a lot more of of smart elements to the 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:16.720 roadways of you know, doing things like if, um, if 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:19.680 a kid is crossing the street, having the street interact 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:22.280 with your car to tell you there's a kid up there, 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:24.920 don't hit that kid, right, And maybe even the part 0:11:25.040 --> 0:11:27.800 of the street the kid is on lights up so 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:31.000 you can see that and that to see it visibly, right, So, yeah, 0:11:31.080 --> 0:11:32.920 it would have to have some sort of pressure sensors 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:35.640 in there that that would somehow be able to differentiate 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:37.840 when a kid is on there versus say someone on 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:42.800 a bike or car or you know. But we're getting 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:45.520 ahead of ourselves, right right. But you know, all kinds 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:49.120 of interesting stuff like that is stuff that they talk 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:53.760 about in their promotional material. Yeah, and they obviously, in 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:57.120 order to get support because it was an Indigo go campaign, 0:11:57.120 --> 0:12:00.360 which means it's crowdfunded, you know, they were asking people 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:04.120 to to contribute money to this project so that they 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:07.240 could test the feasibility of it. Keep in mind, this 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:09.840 is to test the feasibility, not saying that this is 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:13.600 going to to launch them into implementing this on a 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:16.040 wide scale. We'll get into more about that in a second, 0:12:16.640 --> 0:12:21.439 but um, it also uh was a way of saying, hey, look, 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:25.120 we can improve our infrastructure in multiple ways. If there 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:28.520 is a damage a damaged panel, someone could pop out there, 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:31.320 knock a panel out, put a new panel in, and 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:34.520 they're done. It's none of this put a big sheet 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:37.319 of metal over a pothole business that happens in Atlanta 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:40.760 all the time. Or that we'd be able to take 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:43.880 all the power cables and telephone cables and take them 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:48.520 off of suspended lines and bury them within this roadway, yeah, 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:51.640 in that cable corridor, which means that when you have 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:53.920 really bad weather, you don't have to worry about those 0:12:54.320 --> 0:12:58.120 power lines being snapped by ice or something and then 0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:01.240 becoming a hazard to anyone who happens be walking by. Now, 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:06.240 in order to go from this sort of brainstorming proposal 0:13:06.400 --> 0:13:10.840 idea to reality, they they noticed that there were some 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:16.040 pretty significant challenges. Sure, Um, you know, first of all, 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:19.839 you photovolt takes are very delicate, so you're going to 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:23.400 need a really strong surface in order to protect them 0:13:23.520 --> 0:13:28.320 from you know, trucks exactly. Yeah, you have to have 0:13:28.520 --> 0:13:31.840 something that was going to keep them from breaking under 0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:36.000 the the consistent pressure they would be under from vehicles 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:38.680 running over them. But the early if you're talking about 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:41.360 like a highway where you've got hundreds of thousands of 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:45.840 vehicles in any given month, and some of those being 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:50.440 incredibly heavy, like trucks pulling huge amounts of cargo, you've 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:52.640 got to have something that's gonna withstand that kind of 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:55.320 that kind of wear and tear, right in order to 0:13:55.480 --> 0:13:57.960 accomplish this, and also you know, have it be transparent 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:01.360 so that it can also collect sunlight. Yea, As it 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:04.120 turns out, if you made it really super strong but 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:07.360 it was opaque, the solar panel part has has problems, 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:11.600 right um, tempered glass they figured is the best way 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:15.360 to do this. The problem one of the problems with 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:18.959 tempered glass is that you can't really paint on it. Yeah, 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:20.920 So that's why they came up with the idea of 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:23.720 using the l e eds to demonstrate light. That meant 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:25.560 that they were going to have to pick some pretty 0:14:25.600 --> 0:14:27.280 bright L E. D s. We'll talk about that when 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:31.160 we get to the criticisms part. Sure, Um, but yeah, 0:14:31.280 --> 0:14:34.480 then also they wanted to make sure that the light 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:38.240 was going to pass cleanly through that glass. The glass 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:40.200 needs to be clear. It can't be you know, if 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:43.160 if you have a colored glass, that that's telling you 0:14:43.200 --> 0:14:46.640 immediately that there are certain ways that are never going 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:48.160 to get there. Yeah, they're not going to go through 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:52.280 necessarily reflecting. So you want that to be clear glass, 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:55.040 and it needs to be arranged in a way that 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:59.560 the physical arrangement of any kind of coding on top 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:01.480 of photo takes is going to have very much to 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:04.600 do with the way that light refracts and and reflects 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:07.720 down through it. Yeah, So it's that ends up affecting 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:11.840 the efficiency of that particular solar panel. They said that 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:16.120 these solar panels would be around fifteen percent efficient, although 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:18.800 as far as I know, no independent testing has been 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:21.000 done of the solar panels, not that I'm aware of, 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:23.440 although I do currently only have a very small test patch. 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:28.040 That's uh yeah, speaking of I mean, you know, the 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:30.600 road systems, like Jonathan talked about at the top of 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:34.320 the show, are big you've got a lot of them. Yeah, 0:15:34.400 --> 0:15:37.960 and so one of the big challenges that they really 0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:41.000 haven't addressed yet. Uh. You know, they're looking at it 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:43.680 from the positive perspective, which I totally understand. They're so like, 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:46.320 look at this, this is going to create millions of jobs. 0:15:47.200 --> 0:15:50.360 But millions of jobs means you have to pay those people. Uh, 0:15:50.400 --> 0:15:52.880 and it also means that you're going to run into 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:57.480 a lot of equipment costs and manufacturing costs, materials. What 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:01.160 are you going to do while you are retrofitting a highway? 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:03.520 You know, what what exactly is going to take place 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:06.080 with this? Because we don't even know what their proposal 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:09.200 is for the replacement part. We don't know doesn't mean 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:11.600 that they're going to play solar panels on top of 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:14.680 pre existing infrastructure. Are we going to have to dig 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:17.240 up all of the roads right? What where are people 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:20.120 going to drive while that's going on? You know, there 0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:21.880 are a lot of questions here that are going to 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:25.920 be a big challenges. And then of course, you know 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:28.800 there's cost, like we kind of just said, attached to 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:32.520 all of this, not only logistical costs, but very real 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:35.480 money dollar costs, or as very real as money, and 0:16:35.520 --> 0:16:39.440 dollars ever, are right, that's an entirely different conversation that 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:43.040 we've also had. But uh yeah, I mean these are 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:46.120 things that they had to take into account, all right. 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:52.120 So the first prototype they built was a rectangular prototype. 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:54.120 It was our square really because it was it was 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:57.600 twelve feet by twelve feet that's about three point seven meters. 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:00.760 Like cow, you're on the ball today, all right, So yeah, 0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:03.240 it was this. It was really to test the idea 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:06.280 to to try the l e eds to create the 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:09.520 microprocessors that communicate with each other. They do so wirelessly 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:13.520 by the way. They do this uh kind of messaging 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:17.719 system between them. Um, the videos are pretty cool, like 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:21.960 he showed, Uh, I guess it's I assume it's his 0:17:22.040 --> 0:17:25.920 daughter who stands on a panel that's separate from the 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:30.160 the huge solar panel, the twelve foot one, and when 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:33.879 she steps on it, it creates that flashing pattern on 0:17:33.920 --> 0:17:36.160 the panel she steps on and then it spells out 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:39.560 slow down on the test panel, yeah, the giant one. 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:42.840 Then he also did things like created a maze, a 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:45.360 little like Pacman style maze that kids could run through 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:47.680 on this solar panel, which just really showing that the 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:50.359 L E D s could in fact show Yeah, they 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:53.760 could be all sorts of different patterns. Um. So that 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:56.399 was the first prototype. But that, of course is not 0:17:56.520 --> 0:18:00.800 what the the current panel looks like. The current panels 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:04.160 are hexagonal in shape. I'll talk about that in a second. Now, 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:06.480 they decided to use glass, like we said, to be 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:09.359 the protective layer because it let's light pass through and 0:18:09.400 --> 0:18:13.160 the compression strength is good. Now they keep on saying 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:17.080 it's somewhere between steel and stainless steel for compression. I 0:18:17.160 --> 0:18:19.800 keep in mind, there are lots of different types of strength, right, 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:24.239 there's tensile strength, there's compressive strength, there's the you know 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:28.000 how how impact sort of strength. There's all these kind 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:30.320 of different approaches that you have to look at. And 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:32.040 in fact, they needed to find a glass that was 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:37.240 going to be shatter proof, which not that unusual. I mean, 0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:40.160 we've seen bulletproof glass, so it's not like this kind 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:43.520 of stuff doesn't exist. Sure, And and tempering glass is 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:45.800 they talk about it on the site and it's one 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:48.880 of the things that they get very right. I think, 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:51.320 and as far as I know about material science, that 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:56.240 that the tempering process does more or less that that 0:18:56.320 --> 0:18:59.119 thing of of making things very strong and can also 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:03.240 involve um, you know, shatter resistant coatings or you know 0:19:03.280 --> 0:19:05.360 the kind of glass that's used for example, in car 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:09.680 wind shields to uh that that will crumble rather than 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:12.360 charting right right, you won't end up with these these 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:16.040 incredibly sharp shards of glass. You would have this sort 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:20.959 of glass rubble that would be a pain to clean up, 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:23.920 but not so dangerous, yes, less less dangerous. Um. And 0:19:23.960 --> 0:19:26.080 they also needed to pick one that they could add 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:29.960 a texture to the top of so that vehicles could 0:19:30.000 --> 0:19:32.479 have traction on them. That's kind of important because if 0:19:32.480 --> 0:19:35.159 you would imagine just driving a vehicle over you know, 0:19:35.320 --> 0:19:39.400 like a glass mirror, that would suck. Not to be fair, 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:43.399 rubber against glass is that you get some attraction. But 0:19:43.960 --> 0:19:46.760 add water to that because I don't know if you've 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:50.280 been outside, but sometimes it rains, and sometimes it rains 0:19:50.280 --> 0:19:53.440 when you need to drive somewhere occasionally. So they were 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:57.919 looking at raising like they have actually another hexagonal pattern 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:01.640 on top of this giant hexagon that is repeated that 0:20:01.840 --> 0:20:08.800 creates the texture so that it helps tires grip the road. Um. 0:20:08.920 --> 0:20:14.080 They claimed that the gripping tests were outperformed asphalt. Uh. 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:17.520 I don't know exactly how all those tests were conducted, 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:20.040 but that's that's the claim. Yeah. I also believe that 0:20:20.040 --> 0:20:23.439 they claimed that the the pattern of the glass acts 0:20:23.560 --> 0:20:26.320 like a like a prism to help direct the light 0:20:26.520 --> 0:20:30.520 down into the photovoltaics beneath it. And as for the 0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:32.480 l E d s, those are light emitting diodes. We 0:20:32.600 --> 0:20:35.840 talked about that in the past. Diodes are very basic 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:39.600 electronic components, one of the basic components in electronics. So 0:20:39.640 --> 0:20:42.119 anyone who happens to have worked with electronics, like if 0:20:42.160 --> 0:20:44.600 you build a circuit, you've probably at some time or 0:20:44.600 --> 0:20:48.840 another wired an LED to some sort of circuit. They 0:20:48.840 --> 0:20:51.119 don't require a lot of energy. They can put off 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:55.040 a fairly bright light depending upon the LED that you're using. Um. 0:20:55.160 --> 0:20:57.959 Scott Brusol also claims that the prism like nature of 0:20:58.000 --> 0:21:00.879 those hexagons that Lauren was just talking belt also allow 0:21:01.080 --> 0:21:03.800 the led s to project light out six different ways. 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:05.840 I have no idea what that means. I think he's 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:10.840 talking about, um, you know, for for that pattern. Oh, 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:16.360 I see, I see capacity right right, Um, it's certainly interesting. Uh. Anyway, 0:21:16.640 --> 0:21:20.119 then we got the heating element, right, which are you know, 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:23.280 similar to the wires that might run through your your 0:21:23.280 --> 0:21:26.359 rear windshield. That that helps you defrost your car in 0:21:26.400 --> 0:21:30.080 the winter. And uh, he says. Bruce Saw says that 0:21:30.119 --> 0:21:32.600 the tests showed that heating the heating element works well 0:21:32.880 --> 0:21:35.159 and can prevent snow and ice from forming on the 0:21:35.240 --> 0:21:39.639 road itself. They show off a a single solar pedal 0:21:39.760 --> 0:21:43.359 hexagon test photos yes, surrounded by others covered in snow 0:21:43.400 --> 0:21:46.760 that have not had the heating element turned on. Uh. 0:21:46.840 --> 0:21:49.840 Then you would have some form of other sensors in 0:21:49.840 --> 0:21:51.679 the in the panel, because you would have to have 0:21:51.720 --> 0:21:54.400 them in order to detect pressure for the other element. 0:21:54.480 --> 0:21:57.240 We were talking about where an animal or child or 0:21:57.320 --> 0:21:59.560 something else is in the road, and thus the road 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:01.959 is to acting that and alerting the drivers to it 0:22:02.600 --> 0:22:05.120 so that they can prepare themselves. Like I could see 0:22:05.119 --> 0:22:07.240 this being really useful in lots of different ways. Like 0:22:08.040 --> 0:22:10.880 in California, my wife and I went on a road 0:22:10.920 --> 0:22:15.560 trip where we went down a road that frequently would 0:22:15.600 --> 0:22:18.440 get covered up by by mud slides during the rain, 0:22:18.520 --> 0:22:21.320 and it was pouring down rain, and sure enough we 0:22:21.960 --> 0:22:25.800 had to skirt around a couple of mud slides. And 0:22:25.840 --> 0:22:28.479 when you've got a precipitous drop to the Pacific Ocean 0:22:28.520 --> 0:22:30.800 on the other side of it. That's somewhat of a 0:22:31.640 --> 0:22:35.120 nerve wracking experience. We have more to say about solar 0:22:35.280 --> 0:22:46.200 freaking roadways, but first let's take a quig break. Now. 0:22:46.240 --> 0:22:50.320 I mentioned that the microprocessors had little Wi Fi elements 0:22:50.320 --> 0:22:53.160 in them that allow them to talk to each other communication. Yeah, 0:22:53.200 --> 0:22:55.919 the important part of that would be. One of the 0:22:55.960 --> 0:22:58.800 important parts of that, besides sending the messages so that 0:22:59.119 --> 0:23:01.760