We live in the electronic era, a time when every device we touch and use on a daily basis is electrically or battery powered. We even began to produce electric vehicles and replace fuel or any other resource with electricity wherever possible. This contributes to using huge amounts of electric power on a global scale.
A lot of countries, especially the fast-growing and more populated ones, try to resolve this issue or decrease power usage by a larger factor. One of the pioneers of overcoming electrical usage, of course, is China. The country already produces three-quarters of the world’s supply of solar panels. In addition, China is one of the biggest manufacturers of wind turbines in the world as well.
Aiming for low electricity usage, China is now developing a new solution: a solar-paneled highway. Although solar roads are not the newest of ideas, China has a different approach to the modification of the solar panels that are installed replacing the asphalt. This way, they don’t just produce free electricity, but also conserve a lot of land, instead of packing the desert and fields with solar panels — and for a high-populated country like China, this is a huge success.
The second great use of the panels is improving the driving experience on a few levels. The panels can be used to heat the roads during winter, so no road will ever be frozen again. In addition, using a complex polymer that resembles plastic as a surface of these panels gives friction resulting in tire grip similar to that of asphalt. Using the panels and the grip, China plans to use these roads to power the electric cars driving on them, which will be of great help to drivers.
One of the biggest pros of building solar roads, of course, is the renewable-energy factor and the decrease in pollution of the environment, using more environmentally friendly materials than asphalt.
For now, this type of road is being built in Shandong Province, in Jinan, by the two solar-leading companies Pavenergy and Qilu Transportation, mostly for testing purposes. The tests are mainly to see how much energy will be renewed, what the actual maintenance costs are, what the driving experience will be like, and to reach a conclusion about the usefulness and profitability of the solar roads.
In conclusion, after running the tests, the companies gathered a lot of data that can be used to improve and modify the solar roads for greater efficiency and profitability. With this type of road, the cost of the panels is high and the energy produced is low, because vehicles stop the panels from absorbing solar energy and the position of the panels is not 100% effective along the whole road. However, China will save a lot of money on maintenance, because the roads don’t need to be repaired as often as asphalt roads, and they do produce energy. One other concern is that a lot of these panels started “disappearing” once installed, showing that the panels need to be installed more securely to prevent theft. Although the results are not what the companies hoped for, they remain hopeful that, with further modification, they can build more efficient solar roads in the future.