Netherlands’ Solar Roadways

In the Netherlands, civil engineers have come up with a revolutionary transportation method: solar embedded roadways. Despite initial doubts, the founders of this project raised about $2 million for the development of these roadways.

Then, after raising public and government support, a 70 meter bike path was constructed, connecting multiple suburbs in Amsterdam. The path had heavy traffic, as it was estimated that the path was used by thousands of cyclists a day. And, the functions of the road were proven to be effective. This small path was calculated to have been generating enough energy to power a small In the future, such roads are expected to generate 70 kWh per square meter per year.

The initial project had some flaws. There was a coating on the panels that shrunk due to changes in temperature. This caused peeling in this coating during the change of seasons, which needed to be repaired for the roads to survive. However, engineers have been developing a new coating that was resistant to temperature changes, which has led to less maintenance for these roads.

Also, this bike path experiment may be able to support cars. The panels on these roads are made of tempered glass that can support up to 250,000 pounds.

The company in charge of many of these projects, Solar Roadways, intends to expand on this bikeway project. With the many roads in the US taking up tens of thousands of square miles of space, there is lots of room for the integration of solar roads into our society.

Many of Solar Roadways’ road prototypes intend to improve the function of the roads as well. They include LED lighting, which may assist drivers at night. Also, these roads have a modular design, which allows for easy repair, detachment, and reattachment. Along with this, solar roads may have enough space for storing city electrical systems beneath them.

The idea of solar roadways is in its early stage. This leaves the true effectiveness of these roads undetermined, with many potential flaws. For example, more research needs to be done on the force resilience of these roads to determine if such roads can be implemented in high traffic areas. Also, replacing existing roads with solar roads may be unrealistic, and is too expensive in its current stage. Yet, civil engineers should consider innovations such as the solar road when revamping or creating new infrastructure, and figure out ways to make sustainable infrastructure ubiquitous.