Thursday, December 15th, 2016
Stephan: I think the solar roadway, bikeway, and now sidewalk trend is one of the most interesting wellness fostering technological developments going on. It is going to have an enormous impact on many aspects of our culture. If you think a few steps ahead what kind of civil infrastructure would that engender? What is the most wellness oriented way to let the petroleum infrastructure wither, as it will? Although I am afraid, with the incoming administration that the United States will not be a leader, nonetheless I think the rest of the developed world is going to go to EV very quickly -- say 30 years.
The missing link will be some kind of blue tooth that allows vehicles, bikes, even people holding devices to charge as they pass over these solar surfaces. And built into it will also be high speed trains. And there, again, the U.S. has already fallen behind. Our train infrastructure dates back to the 1930s.
Short air flights will become infrequent, and ultimately disappear because jet engines put out too much carbon and commercial solar or battery powered flight is barely nascent.
And as all this takes off for the next four years the U.S. is going to be committed to the perpetuation of carbon energy.
Solar sidewalk pavers close up.
Credit: Platior
Move over, solar freakin’ roadways. A Hungarian startup is generating energy from sidewalks with its pavers.
Although conventional wisdom has it that road and sidewalk surfaces aren’t the optimal placements for harvesting solar energy, that hasn’t stopped the development of ‘underfoot solar’ products, as this latest entry into the sector illustrates. Platio, based in Hungary, has developed its own version of a solar generating paving system, and is working on a sister product that converts kinetic energy from footsteps into clean electricity.
The current Platio system is built around monocrystalline silicon cells mounted in tempered glass, which are then embedded into a framework of injection-molded recycled plastic, and the pavers are said to be durable enough to stand up to daily traffic. Multiple Platio pavers are connected by clicking them together “like LEGO bricks,” and the company shows three different color options for matching or coordinating with existing pavements.
The solar pavers don’t look to be heavy hitters when it comes to energy production, considering that they won’t be tilted toward the […]
Exciting development!!