China’s Solar Highway
A new solar highway in China perfectly captures its clean-energy ambitions
Echo Huang, December 28, 2018 (Quartz)
“…[Solar roads have been called impractical but in Jinan, the capital of China’s] northeastern Shandong province, traffic is now rolling over a stretch of expressway that’s also generating electricity from the sun…Extending for 1 km (0.6 miles), the stretch is made of three layers: transparent concrete on the top, photovoltaic panels in the middle, and insulation on the bottom…[Its cost was 3,000 yuan ($458) per sq m, significantly higher than regular streets and China calls it] the world’s first photovoltaic highway [though there is a solar road in France and a solar bike path in the Netherlands]…The Jinan stretch includes two lanes and an emergency lane and is designed for both electricity generation and public transport…[It] could handle 10 times more pressure than the normal asphalt variety and in a year generate 1 million kWH of electricity, which will be used to power street lights and a snow-melting system…It’s also designed to supply power to charging stations for electric vehicles, should those be added in the future…” click here for more
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