There are many options that governments of all world plan to reduce climate change, solar highways are one of them. However, even though is an innovative and flashing proposal, we must ask, are those feasible? In today’s journey we will try to answer that question. Join us and explore more about the advantages and disadvantages of a highway of this kind.
What a solar highway is?
Before ask ourselves if a solar highway is functional or not, we have to answer what is it, because we need to know it as much as possible to understand all the advantages.
A solar highway is a road which surface is covered with panels of photovoltaic cells. These must be constructed with materials that allow to resist heavyweight traffic and store energy that comes from sun.
At the same time, panels must be constructed with enough resistant materials to withstand the pass of private vehicles and heavyweight; for example, using silicon or tempered glass.
All this allows them to be clean energy generators.
What is their purpose?
The aim of these futuristic roads is to accumulate solar energy and the one that cars generate by driving on photovoltaic panels. This energy can be used to provide electricity to 1 sector of society, from street lighting to road signage & charging of electric vehicles.
Are solar highways feasible or not?
Theory says that at long term, solar highways will benefit everyone, due would represent a new model to store and provide electric energy in different areas.
Being motorized transport the most used in the world. Create solar highways would be translated as a strong electricity storage. However, even though the proposal is good in theory, in practice show us disappointing results.
Some countries tried to be pioneers in the installation of this kind of highways, being France the first with a solar highway in 2016; its name was waterway solar highway, with 2,800 photovoltaic panels that would cover 1km of length. Its cost was $5.2 million.
Unfortunately, their panels started to break after the inauguration and people commented that noise cars generated when passing over it, was too much. However, the most severe was that the 150.000 kw per hour of electricity that were thought to generate per year, in 2018, got 80,000 kwh only and less of 4 kwh in 2019.
In China occurred something similar in 2017, but even though were used more resistant materials, unfortunately the panels were stolen.
Nowadays, United States has a one solar functional section in Peachtree corners, Georgia.
Main problems
The main problem that solar highways face is robbery of photovoltaic panels, their breaking and even the same geography.
For a highway of this class to be functional need enough access to solar light, in some cases, isn’t probable due curve and localization of roads.
Likewise, when we mentioned that could be functional at long term, we refer when they solve previous problems and their placement is more expensive than an asphalt highway. For example, the project solar roadways estimated to replace all the highways of United States would cost 56 trillions of dollars, while Stanford university calculates to change interstate roads would cost 7,35 tod.
Solar highways, the dream
All the previous seems as a pretty devastating landscape. However, have been presented projects such as Netherlands where was constructed a solar bike way, the one that demonstrated to be pretty functional. Of course, this has to withstand less weight than cars, but their concept is the same.
Even when it seems a pretty far dream, we have to consider that world is made for motorized vehicles. For that, in later years when exists a greater presence of non-motorized and sustainable transport, the changes to solar highways and bike lanes might be gradual and functional.
