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When we go on the sunny roads
Solar energy - or rather, the methods of its transformation into electricity - there is everywhere, penetrating even into the remotest corners of the globe. Houses are supplied with solar panels, solar cells are embedded in small appliances, even glued jacket. Why not equip their roads? In fact, solar road projects attract a lot of attention from around the world. Some even promise to charge electric vehicles on the move.
Netherlands built the first solar road cycle track, in 2014. France in January came even bolder - announced plans to build 1,000 kilometers of solar road, which will provide the energy of five million people in the next five years
. That's not all. Solmove German company plans to equip with solar panels German roads, and the Solar Roadways Idaho received three rounds of funding from the US government to test its technology.
"We have interested customers from all 50 states and most countries around the world, - says Julie Byursou, co-founder of Solar Roadways along with her husband, an engineer Scott. She says that before taking the open road, they tested their panel in non-critical areas: in parking lots, on sidewalks, and also in its own way
. "We are negotiating on some very interesting projects", - she says. Missouri Department of Transportation wants to install such panels in recreational areas along the highway I-70. The couple said that tempered glass panels offer asfaltopodobnoe grip, bear the weight of commercial trucks semitrailers, include LEDs for marking and contain heating elements to melt snow and ice.
Are solar panels really cover the roads of the future? The initiators of this see endless possibilities, but others raise questions about the cost, efficiency and durability.
"We just put our solar panels on the existing road surface", - says Jean-Luc Gauthier, inventor Wattway technology that will be tested this spring in France before its polycrystalline silicon layer will be applied to the real road. Gauthier, Technical Director of the construction company Colas, says that was inspired by the fact that the road looking at the sky, and therefore can collect solar energy.
"Surfaces that occupy the road in each country, is truly enormous - Byursou wrote on his website. - If you use this space to double solar farms, the consequences will be very positive, including for climate change. " They believe that if you put them to panels on the roads and pedestrian paths the US, there will be three times more electricity than is consumed.
In addition, such panels could recharge electric vehicles, primarily for parking. With the proper amount of solar equipment with the necessary roads and vehicles (for energy extraction from the induction cookers), it would be possible to charge them even while driving.
cost problem
"In theory, solar road - it's a great idea. But the question is the cost, "- says Mark Jacobson, a professor of engineering at Stanford University, which offers a fully translated America for renewable energy
. "If you put aside the dust, especially the black dust of tires and exhaust gases that will quickly cover panels, continuous movement will reduce the radiation," - said Jacobson, adding also that such a panel would have to change and repair more often than any other.
Furthermore, although the equipment of roads with solar panels will not be associated with the cost of land acquisition, as is the case with solar farms, these panels can not be rotated for optimum sun exposure. In general, he is afraid that the solar road will not be able to compete on price.
"Installation of photovoltaic cells in the road at first seems an insane idea - wrote in the report IDTechEx, an independent research and consulting firm. - But further study has shown that most of the problems easily overcome, and even at low efficiency local electricity is a useful application »
. Despite the high cost, solar road could well be suitable for places where the road paved for the first time, said the company's chairman Peter Harrop. So roads are needed first followers for further development.
However, the emergence of solar Road in London, he does not wait, because the city roads are often dig for underground works.
In the Netherlands, the same sympathetic to solar energy. In the first year 300 000 motorcycles and bicycles broke the 70-meter stretch linking two suburbs of Amsterdam. Officials say the SolaRoad produced more energy than expected - enough to provide an electric-powered three families
. Solar Roadways has yet to solve the problems with the production process, as do solar cells by hand is very expensive. Yet the road with such a coating would be very useful: they can melt the snow and prevent the water from freezing. Especially it would be useful in parking lots, entrances, sidewalks and bicycle lanes.
Netherlands built the first solar road cycle track, in 2014. France in January came even bolder - announced plans to build 1,000 kilometers of solar road, which will provide the energy of five million people in the next five years
. That's not all. Solmove German company plans to equip with solar panels German roads, and the Solar Roadways Idaho received three rounds of funding from the US government to test its technology.
"We have interested customers from all 50 states and most countries around the world, - says Julie Byursou, co-founder of Solar Roadways along with her husband, an engineer Scott. She says that before taking the open road, they tested their panel in non-critical areas: in parking lots, on sidewalks, and also in its own way
. "We are negotiating on some very interesting projects", - she says. Missouri Department of Transportation wants to install such panels in recreational areas along the highway I-70. The couple said that tempered glass panels offer asfaltopodobnoe grip, bear the weight of commercial trucks semitrailers, include LEDs for marking and contain heating elements to melt snow and ice.
Are solar panels really cover the roads of the future? The initiators of this see endless possibilities, but others raise questions about the cost, efficiency and durability.
"We just put our solar panels on the existing road surface", - says Jean-Luc Gauthier, inventor Wattway technology that will be tested this spring in France before its polycrystalline silicon layer will be applied to the real road. Gauthier, Technical Director of the construction company Colas, says that was inspired by the fact that the road looking at the sky, and therefore can collect solar energy.
"Surfaces that occupy the road in each country, is truly enormous - Byursou wrote on his website. - If you use this space to double solar farms, the consequences will be very positive, including for climate change. " They believe that if you put them to panels on the roads and pedestrian paths the US, there will be three times more electricity than is consumed.
In addition, such panels could recharge electric vehicles, primarily for parking. With the proper amount of solar equipment with the necessary roads and vehicles (for energy extraction from the induction cookers), it would be possible to charge them even while driving.
cost problem
"In theory, solar road - it's a great idea. But the question is the cost, "- says Mark Jacobson, a professor of engineering at Stanford University, which offers a fully translated America for renewable energy
. "If you put aside the dust, especially the black dust of tires and exhaust gases that will quickly cover panels, continuous movement will reduce the radiation," - said Jacobson, adding also that such a panel would have to change and repair more often than any other.
Furthermore, although the equipment of roads with solar panels will not be associated with the cost of land acquisition, as is the case with solar farms, these panels can not be rotated for optimum sun exposure. In general, he is afraid that the solar road will not be able to compete on price.
"Installation of photovoltaic cells in the road at first seems an insane idea - wrote in the report IDTechEx, an independent research and consulting firm. - But further study has shown that most of the problems easily overcome, and even at low efficiency local electricity is a useful application »
. Despite the high cost, solar road could well be suitable for places where the road paved for the first time, said the company's chairman Peter Harrop. So roads are needed first followers for further development.
However, the emergence of solar Road in London, he does not wait, because the city roads are often dig for underground works.
In the Netherlands, the same sympathetic to solar energy. In the first year 300 000 motorcycles and bicycles broke the 70-meter stretch linking two suburbs of Amsterdam. Officials say the SolaRoad produced more energy than expected - enough to provide an electric-powered three families
. Solar Roadways has yet to solve the problems with the production process, as do solar cells by hand is very expensive. Yet the road with such a coating would be very useful: they can melt the snow and prevent the water from freezing. Especially it would be useful in parking lots, entrances, sidewalks and bicycle lanes.
