Dear God, do these people NEVER learn?! (rhetorical)

Solar Railways...

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Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!

Didn't watch the vid, but most of the comments are as expected, I do remember seeing the odd fresh turd between the rails.

I must say I like the IDEA, but with all these solar roads, paths and now talk of railways, it seems that they simply are not bothering to evaluate if it can even work at a practical level.  I guess that is Thunburg's generation of uni graduates - come up with ideas that sound nice, but are completely impractical in the real world, but cos they don't really live in the real world....

In the vid, Dave is going on about how much SERIOUS vibration there is in a train rumbling along, and how one of a couple of main things that solar panels REALLY dislike, is vibration, cos you will crack them.  That does not even seem to have been given any consideration at all.

You'd lay all the panels, and two trains later, most of the panels will have microcracking problems due to the vibration.  I mean, did ANYONE in the team who thought up this idea, stand at a level crossing while a train rumbles past and not how much vibration there is?  It is usually so massive, you can feel it coming up your feet and legs.  Solar panels would absolutely LOVE that......

This is a major issue with many of the next gen of uni students as far as I can see.
They think up good IDEAS, but have no practical understanding of where you CAN'T use something like solar panels or why you CAN'T do an idea that way.  They think they can just lay thousands of panels between the tracks, and you have GW's of solar energy.  No thought given AT ALL to vibration or dirt settling on the panels and rendering them basically useless.

And the governments seems to be equally stupid with no understanding of how something like that can never work, and throw wheelbarrows of cash at a project like that, just cos they call it green energy, meanwhile insisting that YOU pay every cent of your tax bill so they can throw it all at BS like this.

Sorry - starting to rant.

Sigh....

"We're all doomed. DOOMED!" - Frazer on Dad's Army

Tonight's TV, talk of charging large EV trucks from embedded energy transfer coupling coils in main highways; so as the truck travels along at 90 Kph it gets pulses of charge current via a coupled coil under the track interacting with the perhaps kilometers of coils in the road.

Nice idea in the lab, will never work on NZ highways as our roads are too bumpy, the coil-coil coupling distance would be all over the place with terrible efficiency.

The EV truck charging setup would work in Australia, where trucks stop overnight for rest stops.
Maybe service stations that the trucks stop at for food and truck laybys and overnight stopping points could have charging coils fitted.
Then again it may just be easier if the trucks just plugged in overnight.
Or better still that we used trains to transport more freight and only used trucks from railhead to destination.
Pete

@Grogster
Yes, Totally Agree......There is So much insanity.
I used to see the rail deflect down at least 50mm in places when 60t Loco's  cross the fish plates (rail joints), on some rail lines that where not in every day use, I swear the track would sink about 100mm with the 90T loco on it, so there is a lot of movement and vibration to deal with.

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Nice idea in the lab, will never work on NZ highways as our roads are too bumpy, the coil-coil coupling distance would be all over the place with terrible efficiency.

Not to mention the amount of cable required.

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Or better still that we used trains to transport more freight and only used trucks from railhead to destination.
Pete

India has done this for years. they drive the trucks up onto the flat wagons.
Edited 2023-03-25 18:14 by Revlac

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they drive the trucks up onto the flat wagons.

If the trucks are electric they could switch to powering an appropriate railway loco instead, more efficient and less wear and tear than road travel... and then recharge when the train gets into cities..  it'll happen tomorrow hahaha  

In fact the desert is ideal for large solar farms, recharging swappable electric truck batteries. I bet the govt comes up with standard battery formats next week    
Edited 2023-05-25 21:59 by zeitfest

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In fact the desert is ideal for large solar farms, recharging swappable electric truck batteries. I bet the govt comes up with standard battery formats next week

I had a few thoughts about that.....And honestly its a waist of batteries, that amount of batteries that would be required, it would be far better to use them, powering many houses instead.

The farms as well would be better using bio fuels or something, when the come up with better stuff.
Edited 2023-05-25 22:10 by Revlac