Haven't done the sums but maybe for every 1,000km of solar panel road you could have 1km of maglev road.I'm no engineer and only vaguely understand the laws of thermodynamics, but what has that got to do with my idea? My idea doesn't imply that you are creating more power than you are taking in, only that if all the road systems were made from solar panels that you could produce enough electricity for a maglev road system.
Last edited by Dilbert_X (2009-09-12 02:57:39)
The Tesla Roadster is by far the best-known electric car of the moment -- despite the company only having sold about 700 of the things. A high price point hasn't kept the car from capturing the minds of enviro-minded gearheads everywhere, of which there must be quite a few working at SolarCity. The California-based solar installation firm has created four Tesla charging stations along Highway 101 between Los Angeles and San Francisco, with a fifth coming online next month. The (apparently free) chargers provide a 240V charge at 70 amps, blowing away Eberhard's RFMC rapid charger and bringing the cars to full capacity in only 3.5 hours. Why, that's just enough time for a nice lunch and a bit of shopping. Sadly the plugs only work with Teslas, but will be retrofitted once some other suitable EV comes along in suitable numbers.
Until we get a decent above-room-temperature superconductor (which will probably take several decades unless there is a HUGE breakthrough, if it is possible at all), that won't be happening.Burwhale wrote:
Theres a new sloar cell made at the moment that has the flexibility of cloth. That would mean it would be tough enough to sit under the clear road surface. I would like to see this plan developed further ( dont think the maglev thing would work though).
Do you mean the flexible solar cell or the Maglev thing?Spark wrote:
Until we get a decent above-room-temperature superconductor (which will probably take several decades unless there is a HUGE breakthrough, if it is possible at all), that won't be happening.
Maglev. You need big magnets and lots of them thus superconducting magnets, but it's way too expensive to use current high-temp superconductors on such scales because of the cooling needs.Burwhale wrote:
Do you mean the flexible solar cell or the Maglev thing?Spark wrote:
Until we get a decent above-room-temperature superconductor (which will probably take several decades unless there is a HUGE breakthrough, if it is possible at all), that won't be happening.
