Caught a news story this morning that was a good reminder that we need new pipelines as much, if not moreso than we need pipe-dreams.
Remember the Solar Roadways Video that people were posting a few years back? I admit that I found the concept fascinating, and there were plenty of others who agreed. Many on the left were asking why we weren’t doing this, instead of promoting Keystone XL:
Why weren’t we doing this? Well, a city in Idaho ponied up the cash to run a pilot project and actually tried it. And as they found… it still needs a little work:
An expensive solar road project in Idaho can’t even power a microwave most days, according to the project’s energy data.
The Solar FREAKIN’ Roadways project generated an average of 0.62 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per day since it began publicly posting power data in late March. To put that in perspective, the average microwave or blow drier consumes about 1 kWh per day.
and…
Solar FREAKIN’ Roadways has been in development for 6.5 years and received a total of $4.3 million in funding to generate 90 cents worth of electricity.
Don’t get me wrong, I like the idea, and I think it may have merit. But the science to make it happen on a cost effective basis is many, many years away.
Someday, the technology may catch up. But until then, if we want cheap and plentiful energy in our country, fossil fuels are king. And we actually need those pipelines to bring it to market.
Its one thing to put phosphorescent material into a road or path, but you’d have to be pretty naive to fall for this scam.
The Idea is interesting. I would like to see it developed a bit more before it is ready for prime time.
Meanwhile …
Drill baby drill. and lay that pipe