EEVblog 1556 - SolaRoad Solar Cycleway FAILS, AGAIN!

To everyones shock, a SolaRoad cycleway installation in Maartensdijk in Utrecht province of the Netherlands only produed 26% of it's projected output, AGAIN!
When will this nonsense stop?

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#ElectronicsCreators #Solar #SolarRoad

[SeanBZA]

Time to start asking the politicians to pay for their mistakes, and have the residents of that area vote them out. Or ask for their money back, as this was doomed from the beginning, and has plenty of history of how it is a failure.

[stew_redman]

To be fair they're slowly working it out. They figured vehicular traffic was too much for the panels, so they're trying it with bikes. Maybe they'll try with just pedestrians next, then no traffic at all. Next they could maybe elevate it and angle it to catch more sunlight. Just a suggestion.

[JourneysADRIFT]

Putting them over a cycle path:
•provides shade
•cheaper
•easier to replace individual pannels
•more sun coverage
•lasts years
•no major alterations of existing infrastructure

Putting them on the ground:
•costly
•pannels encased in concret
•hard to replace individual pannels
•dirt
•people shading the panels
•flat
•short lifespan
•require full demolition of existing pathways


😂😂😂😂😂

[robertsundling]

I’d love to see a cost analysis of installing posts, etc., and building a solar-roofed shelter over top of a regular path—using regular panels—versus the cost of the special panels needed for roadways.

[gblargg]

3:50 It just shows how low their expectations were that they didn't immediately flag the half output as a sign of improper connection when first installing it.

[Dronebotworkshop]

I can suggest two ways to double the efficiency of this installation:
1 - Mount high-powered lights over the bike path, so that they are illuminated 24 hours a day. Of course you'd need to power them with another source, completely defeating the purpose of the installation, but the SOLAR PANELS would produce twice their current output!
2 - Wait about 500 million years. By then the sun will be about twice as bright as it is now, and the panels will produce twice as much energy. Plus, since all human life (and pretty well every other form of mammalian life) would be extinct there wouldn't be all those annoying cyclists blocking out the light!

[danosdotnl]

Video translation: "10% of energy needed to provide the province of Utrecht with light can be generated from this bike lane [not sure what light they mean]....[another guy stops on the bike and continues]...that is a quarter of the projected output, the original goal [idea] was to power 40 households but now it at 10 so that's a disappointment"

[kevincozens]

Dave, you have also pointed out in one of your videos how a shadow from something as small as the antenna on the roof can have such a negative impact on the output from a set of solar panels. Shadows from people walking and riding on the solar bike ways are going to be larger than the thin(ish) line of an antenna and would certainly contribute to some of the loss in yield. I wonder how many more of these hair brain solar installations we will see before these types of projects will be laughed at by the politicians and city planners that have been accepting them to date.

[kjlovescoffee]

4:05 Translation
Presenter: We can generate 10% of our provincial demand with this solar cycleway.
Cyclist: [referring to the numbers on the screen, I guess?] That's around a quarter of what was intended. The idea was to generate energy for forty households, and that became ten households, so that's quite disappointing.

Edit: left out 10% 😅

[robosilo]

we're going to need another spin-off youtube channel for just debunking solar roads every time some country decides to flush some money down the toilet with another project.

[guidologo]

translated.... first guy (an official) said it could do 10% of their territory lights, like lights nxt to the roads and such. nxt guy on a bike said it was intended to feed around 40 households but eventually could just feed 10

[conorstewart]

With that after 10 months of use photo, without knowing it was a solar panel I would not have thought it was one, it looks just like a concrete slab.

[KeritechElectronics]

I can't believe it's still a thing. When will those people even learn?

[liviu-dantimar]

If they just 'gifted' them to people that were only required to install and use them, it would of ended up back in the grid either way, even if just by offloading it, and still most likely worked at capacity to this day. But that wouldn't be as flashy, especially if they would have donated them to a commercial solar farm, like you probably would if you were a .govern... which would still have been a much better choice, might I add. Just a thought on the waste there.

[StubbyPhillips]

But all the rooftops are already covered with... no, wait.
Never mind!

[picobyte]

I'm Dutch. These solar cycle paths are a bad very expensive fail.
As you say they where known to fail from the start. But the money is free.same as for windmills at sea that rot away and need lots of electricity for their AC/DC converter islands, airconditioners and other hardware when there is little or no wind.

[lshallo]

With all the projects that have failed and are ongoing i need a helpful overview chart to keep track. This is too much :D

[Jehoofd]

As a Dutch citizen and engineer i am so sorry for the waste of time, solar panels and incompetence of dutch politics.

The only good thing we got out of it was a great video from you thx! I will now continue to curl up in a ball and cry.

[BladeScraper]

"How many times do we have to teach you this lesson, old man??"
-Everyone

[johnwest]

But Dave, they learn so much from each experimental roadway! I'm sure the next one will work! They just need to make it bigger!