As far as the solar part goes most cars have about 12 square feet of surface in the sun when the car is in the sun. 12 square feet can produce 900 watts. In four hours that would be 2700 Watt hours. A gallon of gasoline is about 37,000 Watt hours. What means is is that it is going to take over 100 days to produce the energy of one gallon of gasoline and everything has to be perfect.

Solar panels lose 40% of the energy from the sun as heat loss. If instead you used solar collectors to directly heat the water you use in your home you would save more money and energy. Solar Collector systems are much cheaper. Why convert the suns energy to electricity only to turn around an convert it to heat again to warm your water?

Photoelectric Solar panels are very expensive to produce money-wise, and energy-wise. With current technology the amount of energy that is used to produce a photoelectric panel is MORE than the amount of energy it will ever produce. The quality of Silicon Crystal required does not occur naturally and the process that it takes to produce it is very energy intensive. ( 2100-2300 degree C temps are required ) Photoelectric power has the perception of being "green" but only if you leave the production process out of the equation.

as for the money side, you might be able to come out ahead if you can buy the panels outright and recieve a tax break. Then if you live in a very sunny area, the more direct sunlight you get the more benefit you recieve.

Solar electric panels (photovoltaic) are getting popular but it’s a bit more pricey. Make sure your electric company will let you run their meter backwards when you are not using the electricity.

If you haven’t gotten a solar hot water system yet, consider a thermosiphon type system. It requires no pump, and no electricity to make all the hot water for your home.

To explain further, I would imagine that solar energy is built up to be one big energy in normal circumstances. (For lack of better way to explain.) However, would it be possible to store a certain amount of solar energy, then take some more energy from the sun and somehow take that energy and use it to increase the energy of the previously stored energy? And on and on until it’s being magnified in large amounts as you collect small amounts of energy and magnify the energy you continue to store? ….

It’s hard to explain! But I’m wondering if anyone knows if this is at all possible?

You can magnify the sunlight on its way to a solar collector or photovoltaic cell. This would let you benefit more from the cost of the device. You can accumulate the heat from a solar collector to keep heating water to higher temperatures (within limits). You can accumulate the electricity from a photovoltaic cell in a battery. Plants accumulate the carbohydrates they produce using photosynthesis.

We don’t have a practical way to store sunlight. Combining energy to produce more energy than you started with violates laws of conservation of energy.

Plastics are being developed now which can store charges (batteries), conduct electricity, produce light (flexible television screens), and I would not doubt- also provide magnetic properties. By adding silicon in different property levels of ionic charge distributions, according to the movement of electrons flowing from lower energy voids to higher, solar activation of propulsions would be easily achieved, stored, and be made available to all in need of energy supplies.

Charge current could be supplied to moving vehicles as they travel and vehicles would never need to leave the road to charge. This could be achieved by proximity of tires to the road through conductive wires located within the tires or even by methods not easily explained other than in laymen’s terms. There are methods of charging by magnetic proximity which would be enhanced due to movement. Advances in understanding the magnetic properties associated to moving aluminum allow the use of aluminum in products not to mention the use of plastics for lightweight materials of vehicles. Carbon fiber materials are perspective as well.

All surfaces of vehicles, buildings, and walkways are possible locations for the development of solar power generating surfaces.

The importance of developing systems which cover roadways are unlimited. The system should be developed with the perspective of controlling vehicles; propelling vehicles by magnetic pulse, future levitation of vehicles by mirror action magnetic repulsion now seen in superconductive materials, traffic control, and accident prevention. Tracking of all users as well as communication and information and data transfer should be implemented into the construction process. Management of surface durability and ice prevention are also benefits.

The future of vehicle self-drive systems would be highly manageable due to the construction of these roadways as well as national security. As the use of liquid fuel engines would become obsolete in the near future, everyone on the roadways could be easily accounted for at all times.

The idea certainly makes me think…I love questions that make me ponder "now why didn’t I think of that? It makes sense!" I’d like to answer a few questions and concerns which other answerers have brought to light.

Semi-trucks can’t stop hauling because America lives through the goods the truckers haul. And up here in MN, the river barges bring up alot of goods, but they can only run when the river isn’t frozen…we’d be in big trouble without the truckers running in the winter months.

The current road workers would simply switch materials, instead of laying asphalt and concrete, they’d lay solar panels and electrical wiring. And as for the oil industry employees, they can help maintain the new roadways. With a project like this, there’ll be plenty to do and there’ll be people who need that work.

If we can go from home-spun and wooden farm implements to tv and cell phones in 200 years, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to go from asphalt and oil to solar panels and magnetic cars in another 200. The colonists would never have dreamed of the things we have now, the inventions we’ve come up with. So it’s understandable that we now can’t fathom using solar panels for roadways.

How will erasing our dependancy on oil and building electro-magnetic interstate highways revert us into a 3rd world country? We’d still be thriving and expanding, we’d be moving forward. Some 3rd world countries still have public plumbing in the streets and walk further everyday for dry wood to heat their homes and hearths.

What WOULD the durability of these panels be? Would we have to reduce speed limits (which increases travel time, thus making a moot issue of conservancy and prevention) so there’d potentially be fewer accidents?

As for Star Trek, you should have watched the show titled something like "How William Shatner Changed the World". The guy who invented cell phones got the idea from Kirk’s communicator that he was constantly flipping out of his pocket.

I’d be willing to take part in such a venture as this, but I need more research done and stats provided because I can’t answer anything about another person’s concerns about CO2 or heat or friction. Plus, I have a question of my own. In the regions that get snow, plus those that flood, how will we prevent the electricity from shorting out? If I’m reading the original proposition correctly, electricity keeps traffic moving. Traffic standing still is generally something seen in big cities (or construction on the I-90 bridge here, LOL) So would little burbs of 50K people have traffic jams like LA notoriously does if the electricity shorts out?

Solar Energy
Light from the sun are discrete packet of energy. When the light shone on the solar panal which is a p-n semiconductor, electrons are excited by the sunlight, producing an electron-hole pair. these electron-holes pair will den act as a charge carrier conducting electricity. When potential difference is applied, the charge carriers will flow in a specific direction generating electricity and hence power.

Hope this helps

solar power: energy from the sun that is converted into thermal or electrical energy

So yes, both solar energy and solar power is the same in definition.