Create less horrible conditions.
Sure, I can do that. Mount the solar panel under more optimal conditions. i.e. not in roads.
If pointing the LED up is horrible because it wouldn't be visible then how about not pointing them up as a start? Done. One problem less.
The LED problem is a complete red herring! It doesn't matter
I could engineer a way to make the LEDs work (at extra cost), but that is beside the point.
This is a SOLAR ROADWAY. If it's horribly inefficient at generating solar power, what's the point?
Let's just say that you don't know how to make it happen.
I know how to make it happen, mount the solar panels anywhere else but the road!
But that's not the answer the solar roadways supporters want to hear, because they are blinded by the love of solar roadways
![Face Palm :palm:](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/facepalm.gif)
I think you calculated the return as $33/m2/year. in your calculations a road is 8m wide. A 150km piece of road, let's say a test road would return $40 million in a year. And let's say it's shit. The worst road ever. You can't stop on it, you can't see the LED's and all that. $40million as return in a year is surely enough to try it again. And again and again.
![Face Palm :palm:](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/facepalm.gif)
Lets assume 1sqm uses 4 tiles, and each tile costs $500 (inc construction, install, cabling, micro inverters, etc etc - very generous!, I have heard that their figure is about $2K? per tile alone).
So that is $2K/sqm,
So that test road you propose will cost you a ballpark figure of 2.4 BILLION DOLLARS!
![Face Palm :palm:](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/facepalm.gif)
If oyu think that number is bullshit, then compare with the cost to build a new existing road from scratch - $1M/km ($150M for 150km).
So it's very easy to see that a slar road with all it's massive concrete base, channeling, cabling, connectors, inverters, solar tiles, glass etc, could EAISLY cost 10 times that.
Let's be massively generous and assume that it will actually generate $33/sqm per year. To pay itself back in a year, each 0.25sqm tile would have to cost $33/4 = $8.25 per title
![Laughing :-DD](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/smiley_laughing.gif)
It you are going to make examples like this with some numbers, do make sure your numbers make sense first, otherwise you might look a bit foolish.