The street that can produce electrical energy seems like a
dream come true. Indeed we already have hydroelectricity, wind power or solar
power, and all of them are renewable. However they require vast land to build
all the infrastructures.
Therefore, the idea to make a street that can also serve as
the power plant is very interesting. In theory, we don't need to provide a vast
land, but the existing street which is passed by people and vehicles every day.
To realize this dream then SolaRoad was made. SolaRoad is a
project from Netherland which is undergoing a test phase for three years,
starting from November 2014 ago.
It's not difficult to understand the SolaRoad concept. The
developer only needs to dredge the ground and put the components that are commonly required
to make solar panel system in a concrete container, then close it with a
tempered glass layer about 1 cm thick.
The obtained electrical energy is then channeled to the
local electricity network, supplying power for street lights, traffic lights,
the houses around, and hopefully in the future, the electric cars can also get
advantage from it.
At the first test, SolaRoad used the 70 meters bike path in
the small town of Krommenie, Netherland. For about 6 months of operation, there
were 150,000 cyclists who had passed the street. But the most important was the
SolaRoad effectiveness in producing electric power. In a period of about half a
year, the 70 meters bike path managed to produce more than 3,000 kWh of
electrical energy, surpassed the expectations of its developer.
If calculated, this energy can supply electricity to a
household for a year, or supplying power to the electric scooter so that it's
able to travel around the world for 2.5 times.
SolaRoad certainly has a competitor. In the United States,
there is a similar project called Solar Roadways that started its debut through
crowdfunding platform Indiegogo. Although both are still in the early stages,
at least SolaRoad has published a report that their technology is quite
effective in generating electrical energy.
However in its development, SolaRoad also encountered some
obstacles. During the testing period, there were some damages at the SolaRoad
outer layer. This was caused by the changes of weather and fairly drastic
temperature fluctuations. Nevertheless, SolaRoad will still continue several
tests and even will be expanded to other regions later.