This was a nutz idea from the beginning. I bet that there were no engineers on the payroll. From The Daily Caller:
Idaho’s $4.3 Million Solar Road Generates Enough Power To Run ONE Microwave
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.
To recap - at the Equator, with clear skies, at high noon, you can get about 1,000 watts per square meter of collection area -if- that panel is optimally alligned and pointing directly at the sun. I had looked at the proposal for the roadways. Only about 20% of the roadway surface has solar panels on it, the surface is textured glass so figure about 70% of the solar energy is lost by absorption. The roadway is -duh- mounted flat so there is no optimal aiming.
To make things worse, Idaho is at 47° Latitude so you are looking at 73% available total insolation given all the conditions above, clear skies, high noon, etc... Figure 730 watts per square meter at best. Needless to say, these conditions are very rare so I am not surprised that the yields are so low. Couple to this, the developers were adding LED street markers, a communications system and online monitoring so these will suck up even more power from what little trickles in.
I feel sorry for the low-information voters who approved this. AN engineer would have shot the idea down for the folly it is in a few minutes. Of course, the developers will probably double down and say that more research is needed. The problem there is that the energy is simply not available for use. Basic mechanics and physics dictate how much energy can be drawn from a solar cell and this dog don't bark.
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