Do we still need rooftop solar panels when...

[ButchDeal]

Well, no. Right now you have maintenance for the roads, and maintenance for the panels. By combining the two it is very likely that maintenance, as a whole, will go down. Maintenance will still be required for both - but by reducing/eliminating the requirements for salting and plowing, and by reducing the impact of rain (less water = slower pothole formation) it is quite likely road maintenance will decrease.

It is often said that in places like Minnesota, there are two seasons on the roads - winter and construction. One of the reasons for that is the effect of weather and temperature extremes on roads. The weather in Minnesota is very hard on roads, and reducing that impact could be a win/win.

you will be adding solar maintenance to the road maintenance schedule thus disrupting more traffic. I don't see them making a roof out of the solar so water is still going to be on the roads, and thus will have to still salt them. This salt will of course cause more maintenance on the PV modules and racking as well as vibrations, and accidents.

Weather might be hard in Minnesota but it is like harder in mid states. See it is the freezing and thawing that causing most road issues. Minnesota would have less thawing with a long cold winter. mid states, like WV, PA etc have freeze thaws some months twice a day. Also the additional shadowing of the roads will make keeping them ice and snow free more difficult as well, likely causing to have to use more ice melt products, and cause more accidents.

[peakbagger]

Germany at one point was offering very generous incentives for solar. They were at the level that third parties would rent roof space. It was a gold rush for several years until the hangover on the federal budget hit. There were developers that were mounting panels vertically on the sound barriers used on many highways to deflect road noise from neighboring homes. I also saw some installations in the median strips . These are lot more passive than panels stretched over the road. The sound screens use existing structure. Not sure on the median strip installations.In areas with freezing conditions covering a road way is a problem as icing of the road happens more often. The movement of traffic distributes the deicing chemical for quite a distance so corrosion could be a issue.

[Markyrocks69]

I cant wait until solar is so common in my area that the electric companies will not only have their own solar farms but they'll just charge each customer a flat 100-150$ plus taxes and fees just to be connected to the grid....

[SunEagle]

I cant wait until solar is so common in my area that the electric companies will not only have their own solar farms but they'll just charge each customer a flat 100-150$ plus taxes and fees just to be connected to the grid....

Unfortunately most POCO's are financial driven so a simple connection fee of $150 will never work for them.

[Markyrocks69]

Unfortunately most POCO's are financial driven so a simple connection fee of $150 will never work for them.

Lol I meant like every month

[J.P.M.]

How would any of the above analysis change the decision between two proposals, one with a 6 year payback and another with a 8 year payback. You have been asked that question before and never responded.


Depending on one's cost of funds it doesn't take sophisticated financial analysis to make a wise investment that will reduce costs.

I agree in the case of a large corporation where due diligence is required, NPV and other analysis would be required. I spent many years of my career in that kind of environment where it was necessary for the shareholders or the financial institutions financing projects.

When was I ever asked ? I must have missed class that day. Or, I might have been doing the smart thing and avoiding a non productive verbal pissing match with you. Even if I had been asked, the answer, as you pose the question, is sort of a no brainer - all other things being equal, the one with the shorter payback. Duh ?! Do ya' think ?

But, having nothing to do with the subject of this thread, if you want to continue the blather, open another topic.

[Ampster]

You didn't miss class that day. You actually said you would respond to the question in a few days. The question was posed by another person in that thread. I was just an observer and enjoyed the backpedaling enough to make a note to see if you would ever respond. At least we now have an answer that it doesn't take NPV or Roi analysis to decide between two similar proposals.

[jflorey2]

you will be adding solar maintenance to the road maintenance schedule thus disrupting more traffic. I don't see them making a roof out of the solar so water is still going to be on the roads, and thus will have to still salt them. This salt will of course cause more maintenance on the PV modules and racking as well as vibrations, and accidents.

I lived in Massachusetts for four years. Not once did they salt the roads during rain, even if it was forecast to freeze later. Snow, on the other hand . . .

Weather might be hard in Minnesota but it is like harder in mid states. See it is the freezing and thawing that causing most road issues. Minnesota would have less thawing with a long cold winter. mid states, like WV, PA etc have freeze thaws some months twice a day.

Exactly. And a road cover (even a partial one) will significantly reduce freezing and thawing, the same way a carport reduces temperature swings.

[jflorey2]

I cant wait until solar is so common in my area that the electric companies will not only have their own solar farms but they'll just charge each customer a flat 100-150$ plus taxes and fees just to be connected to the grid....

That would work, provided there are also astronomical fees for any power you buy. They have to make money somehow.

[J.P.M.]

That would work, provided there are also astronomical fees for any power you buy. They have to make money somehow.

Sort of an after the deed is done type of thinking, I often wondered if the POCO's and consumers of their product as well as the entire idea of distributed (residential) scale electricity generation and indeed, the entire idea of alternate electrical energy generation would have been better off if, in the beginning, say around the late 1990's or so, the utility industry had seized on the idea of PV and gained control of the residential market and leased systems or roof space from users of their product.