Doesn’t matter. Much of the US roads aren’t anywhere near trees - ie the southwest. Huge amount of roads and solar power potential there too. Also, cleaning crews are a thing that have existed in the past and should again.
Replace leaves with tumbleweeds. Or whatever natural debris we have in the west.
The leaves were causing damage to the solar panels. I imagine other types of debris would do the same.
But I'd be happy to be wrong. Have you asked why this hasn't already been done yet? Or if it has (besides the example I provided), what was the outcome?
I've been living in the west my whole life and have traveled between Colorado to California through Nevada, Utah, Arizona, etc 7 or 8 times, so yes I've seen an empty western road before. Tumbleweeds was tongue in cheek but there's plenty of dirt, trash and other flying debris that will get baked onto a glassy surface out southwest.
I think the key difference is whether the panel is placed at ground level (as in a solar road) or raised (as in most large-scale solar installations where the panels are raised on mounts that can also move and track the sun). The latter is pretty much self-cleaning when it comes to dry debris because the wind would eventually blow them away onto the ground (where the former will collect them forever).
I agree on both. It (degree fouling of the solar panels) is a fact of things, but shouldn't impact things much pragmatically.
I think that we can expect the same amount of accumulation of stuff as we currently get on these roads. Its not like we're out there street sweaping these rural highways, but they're also not covered in debris.
3/4 of Nevada is owned by the federal government and is dry to the point no one wants to be there anyway. Including planets. From your list, you probably haven’t seen the part of the Southwest which I was referring to earlier. As others have said, too, maintenance is going to be a thing for any form of energy.
