The image shows a highway with a row of solar panels traveling down the median, and underneath them, a protected bike lane. Protecting and encouraging bike travel while gathering clean energy at the same time? Sounds like a win for everybody.
In 2022, South Korea announced plans for a clean energy future that involve converting its current usage of renewable energy sources from 15%, where usage stands now, to 40% by 2034.
Although coal power accounts for 40% of the country’s total energy usage (as of August 2022), the South Korean government has undertaken several initiatives to bring that number down, including introducing a carbon tax, stopping financing of overseas coal plants, and building charging stations for electric vehicles.
As far back as eight years ago, in 2015, South Korea and the Netherlands both incorporated solar panels in road construction. In particular, both countries have built solar bicycle lanes where dedicated roads for cyclists are lined with solar panels. In the case of Korea, the panels went on top. But in the Netherlands, the panels went to the bottom.
In South Korea, the panels work as a solar-powered roof that shelter cyclists from the sun and rain. At the same time, they generate electricity to power lighting and vehicle charging stations along a 32-kilometer highway with three lanes on each side. The bicycle lane is at the center island of the highway, protected by steel crash barriers. Cyclists use underground tunnels to enter and exit the bike lane.
The Netherlands, on the other hand, opted to use the solar panels as the bike lane itself, rather than its roof. Website Science Alert refers to the lane as the “energy-harvesting bike path.” It reports, “engineers say the system is working even better than expected, with the 70-meter test bike path generating 3,000 kWh, or enough electricity to power a small household for a year.”
Science Alert notes that the Netherlands was the first country to put the solar road idea into “practice” with the bike path in Krommenie, a town north of Amsterdam. “The solar panels used on the Dutch bike path are sandwiched between glass, silicon rubber, and concrete, and are strong enough to support 12-ton fire trucks without any damage. Each individual panel connects to smart meters, which optimize their output and feed their electricity straight into street lighting, or the grid,” Science Alert reports.
But the project took a lot of work, with engineers reportedly spending five years “creating the system to be durable.” And then more than 150,000 cyclists were asked to test the solar panels by riding ride over them. The panels were said to have been designed to take in as much sunlight as possible, and to also match the life of rooftop solar panels.
And while the Koreans and the Dutch have taken the lead, the Chinese are not far behind. China has constructed a one-kilometer “solar” road in the Shandong province capital city of Jinan. Website Solar.com reports that the road spans 5,875 square meters and covers it with “a top clear concrete layer, a middle solar panel, and a bottom layer of insulation.”
German Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing visited the first PV system to cover Autobahn 81 at the Hegau-Ost service area in Germany in June 2023, as the pilot project is nearing completion.
The installation is a collaborative research effort between Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, supported by participating research institutes including Fraunhofer ISE, Forster FF, and the Austrian Institute of Technology. While the original plan was to directly cover the motorway, the adjacent through lane was chosen instead.
The PV roof area, consisting of solar modules on a steel structure, was supplied by Solarwatt. It has a total output of 33 kW. Completion of the PV system is scheduled for July 2023.
