acidfast7

World's first solar cycle lane opening in the Netherlands | Environment | The Guardian

El Cid

So how well will rubber tires stick to tempered glass? And will any Netherlands commuters be riding with carbide studs?

fietsbob

The sound barriers along the freeways already were topped by panels
Flew Aberdeen to Eindhoven then took the bus back to AMS , which was fogged in at the time..

acidfast7

reminds me of southern Germany

fietsbob

A piezo electric slab would generate energy by being rolled over .

corrado33

Sorry guys, but this idea has been shot down by many engineers (especially electrical engineers). Watch and learn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obS6TUVSZds
Math starts around 10 minutes.

EDIT: This video goes through the math about the energy produced, money "made," and financial viability of these panels. They're extremely simple back of the envelope calculations that EASILY prove that these will NOT work.

There are many other people with similar videos on youtube.

Many many things wrong with the idea.

• No one lives in the desert where these would be effecient enough to be economical.
• Glass is very slippery, even textured glass.
• Glass will get scratched easily with ANY rock/dirt on the surface.
• Glass will get dirty really quick, who will clean these?
• Solar panels don't like shadows.
• These solar panels don't follow the sun.
• They're expensive as hell.

Not to mention the original guy lied on his campaign video, intentionally misled people to try to win "popular votes."

It'd be much more efficient (and cheaper) to build a roof over bike paths and put the solar panels there.

This is a perfect example of "pop-science" that the masses love to follow. Sure, it's a cool idea, but it's not a viable one.

acidfast7

Two counterpoints:

NL has money to burn on cycle infrastructure. This is the next step forward as they've completed their national cycle network.

The visual blight created by roofing and solar panels over the bike path is minimised.

corrado33

Agreed. They are doing exactly that, burning money. No one has ever given answers to any of the questions about the durability of the glass, or final efficiency of the panels under said scratched/dirty/flat glass. This is a publicity stunt, and once the politicians get their heads out of... the sand... they'll see that all this is is a waste of money. Solar isn't there yet, it just isn't. MAYBE if the panels were 50%,60%, or 70% efficient.

Have you ever ridden over the metal panels with grip "balls" on them? They're generally on the sloped parts of sidewalks that lead to roads. These things...



That's what the top of these panels look like. Have you ever ridden over those? It's REALLY uncomfortable. Maybe on a mountain bike it'd be fine but on any road bike or commuter? It vibrates the crap out of you.

https://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten..._big_piece.jpg

Admittedly, the bumps here are slightly closer together, but it'd still be quite uncomfortable.

Not that this matters, but the guy in the video I linked above is an avid mountain biker.

EDIT: Look, I know I'm being quite harsh on this. I'm not against technology in our daily lives. But some things are not going to work, period. Making them work would cost too much money to make they financially viable. Sometimes you have to look at the forest through the trees and stop believing that every cool project you see on facebook/internet is the best thing ever.

That's the problem with these things. They gain support from unaware and uneducated people (in that specific field) who then throw their money at the problem to attempt to FORCE it to work. If these projects went through any sort of actual engineering discussion, they'd figure out that it's not feasible.

acidfast7

Sure, on standard city bikes and they're fine. No one commutes on a road bike/thin-tyred bike in NL.

TransitBiker

"Solar isn't there yet"? It's been "there" for 25 years. This is a test to see how this system works in real world conditions. No one is touting this test strip as the answer to our energy needs, it's simply a test to see how viable the design is. As for "glass is slippery", you ever walk or ride on wet road markings? THAT is slippery as hell yet that is EVERYWHERE.

- Andy