The so-called solar roadway is a new type of highway researched by a U.S. green energy company called Solar Road, and they claim that once it is successfully established, it will not only greatly alleviate the problem of global warming, but also completely solve the U.S. energy problem. The solar roadway program can be said to be high hopes, the solar road has made what promises, its current situation and how?
The Solar roadway consists of three layers, the top layer is a translucent protective layer, the middle layer is like a floor with solar panels, and the bottom layer is used for moisture in the soil to prevent it from interfering with the circuitry. So, what are the benefits of solar highways in publicity?
1. Safer roads. There is no need to install electric lights on a solar highway, there are LED lights on the solar panels. The lit lights can be used as traffic signs as well as advance warning. Not only that, the solar panels are combined together to form a heater. Don’t worry about snow and ice on the ground in the winter, they can be melted away at any time. No more shoveling snow in winter.
2. Electric cars can be charged at any time. Solar highways can be inductively charged, which means that electric cars can receive a constant supply of electricity as long as they are traveling on the solar highway. Without a doubt, this is enough to drive all electric car owners crazy. The reason why electric cars have a hard time outperforming traditional cars is that they take a long time to charge and have fewer charging piles.
3. Wide availability. Solar panels don’t have to be installed only on highways; in fact, with sidewalks, bike paths, and playgrounds, the options are almost endless.
4. Huge capacity. Each 3.7 * 3.7m solar panels can produce 8wh of electricity per day, according to the company propaganda, if all the U.S. interstate highways are replaced with solar highway, the output of electricity is the U.S. energy needs more than 3 times.
5. Long lifespan. According to the company’s claim, the service life of the solar highway is up to 20 years, which is twice as long as the service life of the asphalt road. Not only that, it is also waterproof.
Solar highway has so many advantages, naturally attracted countless people to rush to it. There have been donations from all walks of life, including celebrities and even a number of government grants, and to date, more than $6 million has been invested in the project. So, what are the results?
The truth is, despite all the hype, the Solar Roads company seemed to have a bright future ahead of them. But in reality, for a number of reasons, Solar Roads has failed to build even one large, functioning solar highway.
The company tried to build a solar highway on Route 66 in Missouri, but gave up for unknown reasons.
Not only that, but they also built a 150 square foot sidewalk in Idaho. But, unfortunately, it ended up on fire due to an electrical system failure, and it didn’t melt the snow on the road.
The only solar highway still in operation is a very small highway in Georgia that was built in 2020 with WattWay panels installed. Because the data for that highway has never been published, we don’t know exactly how efficient it is
how, and whether it will be able to meet expected levels. But judging by the company’s refusal to share the data, I think the odds are in the negative.
In fact, the solar highway this bold and full of temptation plan not only attracted the Americans, but all the countries in the world but have the ability to actively practice, a variety of solar energy road like spring up, for example, solar energy sidewalks, solar energy bike paths and so on. But the vast majority of them are only small projects, the largest of which are implemented in France and China.
France in 2016 in Normandy built the world’s first solar energy highway Wattway, a total length of 1 kilometer, costing 5.2 million U.S. dollars, the cost of the same length of asphalt road hundreds of times. For this highway French departments can be said to have high hopes, once publicized that this highway can generate up to 150,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, and vowed to guarantee that in the next five years can be realized in the country every 1,000 kilometers there are 2 kilometers of solar energy road. So what happened? Unfortunately, this section of the solar highway did not perform well, and although the staff claimed that it could carry large trucks, in reality, it could not even withstand a small car and could not carry normal traffic. The amount of electricity generated was also not as good as expected, only about half as much as expected.
China built a 1.12-kilometer-long solar-powered highway in Shandong Province. A similar problem arose after the official opening of the road, which staff said had more than ten times the carrying capacity of a normal highway, but the fact is that after only six days of operation, a large number of solar panels were lost and damaged.
All the plans related to the solar highway almost all failed, and even if by some chance it could be maintained for a period of time, in the end, it was found that the revenue was far less than expected, and it was even more difficult to get back to the capital. So, what went wrong with the solar highway that caused this seemingly promising program to become a bottomless pit of money.
1. High cost. The cost of solar highway is not generally high, France only built 1 kilometer cost 5.2 million U.S. dollars, the same cost is enough to build more than 500 kilometers of asphalt road in France. Maintenance costs, not to mention the complexity of the solar panels and maintenance difficulties are much higher than ordinary highways, the corresponding maintenance costs are also higher. Want to rely on solar energy highway back to the capital is more remote.
2. Poor carrying capacity. This can be seen from the French and Chinese solar highway. The purpose of building highways is to facilitate transportation, but the result is that the solar highway can not carry vehicles. Want to really realize the solar energy highway, at least until the engineers can carry enough pressure, and have a certain degree of transparency of the road after the board.
3. Low power generation of solar panels. The exact same solar panels on a solar highway generate only 1/3 of the power generated in a solar power plant, due to a number of factors, including the fact that the solar panels are laid flat on the ground and do not have the optimal tilt angle. Accumulated dust on the highway and passing cars block the sun’s rays. As well as reduced power due to overheating of the solar panels. All these resulted in the solar panels generating far less power than expected.
Judging by today’s results, the solar highway program was a complete failure. Although the blueprint was very tempting, without solving the key problems, the solar highway is just a dream.
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