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Cycle path that generates energy from sunlight opens in Netherlands (+ video)

SolaRoad pilot scheme generates enough power for three homes - and could eventually appear on roads

A Dutch company that has pioneered technology enabling a road that converts sunlight into electricity has completed its first pilot route – a bike path in the town of Krommenie, 25 kilometres from Amsterdam.

It’s the second major innovation in road surfaces that we’ve seen from the Netherlands this week, the other being glow-in-the-dark road markings we reported on here.

Called SolaRoad, the pilot installation is 70 metres in length – by 2016, it will have been extended to 100 metres – and comprises modules measuring 2.5 metres by 3.5 metres.

Those in one direction of travel have solar panels beneath a 1 centimetre thick layer of tempered glass, said to be able to withstand the weight of a lorry.

The modules in the other direction don’t have the solar panels, and are being used to test a variety of surfaces.

SolaRoad has been developed by TNO, the Province of North Holland, Ooms Civiel and Imtech Traffic&Infra. It went live last Friday, and will be officially opened by the Dutch transport minister on 12 November.

The provincial government met half of the €3 million cost of the project, which in its current form can supply enough electricity to meet the requirements of three homes.

Eventually, SolaRoad could power street lighting and traffic systems, electric bikes and, and once deployed on roads used by motor traffic, electric cars.

During the three-year pilot of the technology, tests will be carried out to assess its performance and enable it to be developed further.

Those tests are aimed at addressing issues such as its performance in a live situation, the amount of energy it produces, and how cyclists experience riding on the surface.

Prior to its deployment, it was tested in a laboratory to ensure it meets relevant safety requirements for road surfaces.

The developers have posted a video to Vimeo in Dutch which gives an overview of their work.

SolaRoad from JM Duurzame Communicatie on Vimeo.

While SolaRoad claims on its website that the technology is a world first, and it certainly seems to be the first live use, others have been drawing up similar plans elsewhere.

Husband-and-wife inventor team Julie and Scott Brusaw secured $2 million in crowdfunding on Indiegogo earlier this year to put their Solar Roadways project into production.

They say that if every road in the United States used the technology they have been working on, the country would generate three times as much energy as it currently consumes.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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14 comments

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noether | 9 years ago
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The efficiency of electricity generation by photovoltaic solar panels is still extremely low. To make a real contribution to energy demand in the UK, 1/3 of the country should be covered in solar panels. Not only tree huggers would wince. So why not start by covering the roads with them (and warehouse/ industrial park roofs)? I admit the maths are still far-fetched at today's level of technology. But the search for a fossil fuel free economic model will need a plethora of (unconventional) approaches and trillions of investments in R&D and new infrastructure. Still peanuts compared to the devastation global warming (CO2 emissions) is starting to inflict on land and in the seas. Curiously, the humble (electric powered) bike could make a measurable, intantaneous contribution with an immediate and almost infinite ROI, were it not for the opposition by the car and oil lobbies.

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nowasps | 9 years ago
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If there's one thing us readers of Roadcc are agreed on, it's that innovation and experimentation should be banned.

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teaboy | 9 years ago
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The $3m cost of this shouldn't be simply extrapolated. This project is essentially a 'proof of concept' to see if it can work, how well it works and whether rolling it out is viable. You need to test and refine new things in real-world settings like this. It might not work, but at least this will find that out with a fairly small outlay. Or it might be brilliant and appear everywhere in 25 years time, allowing solar power to provide a much larger slice of the energy market. Wait and see.

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earth | 9 years ago
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The financial cost is less important.

I don't think this will generate enough energy recoup the energy required to make it.

Are they going to have people cleaning the leaves off it every day in autumn and snow in winter so it can get a few hours of weak sunlight?

But the big problem is that roads and solar panels fundamentally don't mix because roads must carry vehicles and vehicles cast shadows on the road.

If public money must spend money on solar panels then give people grants to put them on their roofs first where they will get unobstructed light.  35

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KnutdeIJsbeer replied to earth | 9 years ago
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Actually the bigger thought behind the project is that one day it might be possible to power the electric cars driving over the solarpowered road in this way  1

And snow/leaves? It rarely snows and the paths are regulary cleaned anyway.

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earth replied to KnutdeIJsbeer | 9 years ago
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KnutdeIJsbeer wrote:

Actually the bigger thought behind the project is that one day it might be possible to power the electric cars driving over the solarpowered road in this way  1

And snow/leaves? It rarely snows and the paths are regulary cleaned anyway.

Hopefully the solar roads wont be so popular that the cars on them block out the sun or they will run out of juice and get stuck on them.

What's the point of putting them under roads where the vehicles block the sunlight and cover them with dirt when there are empty roofs?

Wear and tear?

Won't just be pot holes it will be cracked glass and cracked solar panels. These things take a lot of energy to produce. Solar panels have to last for decades before the energy they generate equals the amount required to make them. If they do not make that energy back then they are not sustainable.

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RobD | 9 years ago
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As others have said, it might not be a perfect solution, but at least it's a new way of looking at it. If something like this really can become refined enough and cheap enough to be used widely it might stop some of the complaining about wind turbines and solar panels etc. The roads make up a pretty huge surface area, if they started paying the way by generating electricity then why not.

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carytb | 9 years ago
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Unless things like this are tried and sometimes fail no progress would be made in anything. I wonder how much the very first mobile phone cost? Good luck to them

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Jeroen0110 | 9 years ago
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In full agreement with other posters, a million anything is a lot to supply one home. The clear overuse of the word "duurzaam" in the video (which may be better off subtitled for those not speaking Dutch, which I imagine are a lot of road.ccers) is also rather tree-huggerish. Nothing wrong with Eco-friendly solutions but the ROI just isn't there. What is the carbon cost of all this, let alone the financial cost?

Is this really better than a solar panel, windmill or other existing source of "duurzame" energy?

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HarrogateSpa | 9 years ago
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I don't know whether this will or won't work in the long term, but it's daft to dismiss it on the basis of current costs.

Of course it's expensive, but that's the nature of new technology. It needs to be tested and refined, and if it's thought to be practical, rolled out on a larger scale. Costs then come down.

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Lumen | 9 years ago
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"the €3 million cost of the project, which in its current form can supply enough electricity to meet the requirements of three homes."

At a million euros per home I forsee some issues in taking this to scale.

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Initialised | 9 years ago
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While I see this is a great idea and could be part of the eventual transition to renewable energy. Can someone who's ridden on it confirm that it behaves like road, not like glass or ice, especially when wet. Or could someone who understands Dutch translate?

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KnutdeIJsbeer replied to Initialised | 9 years ago
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I'm going to try this road on one of my next rides, allthough i don't believe it will be that spectacular. If it was unsafe it wouldn't be there.

What do u need translated?

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Mart | 9 years ago
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I have grave concerns about this.
€3 million to power 3 homes, not very cost effective.
Riding on wet glass, no thanks.
€3 million for 100 meters of bike path, it would be better to build more bike paths.
Just by pitting/roughening up the surface you are affecting the efficiency of the solar panel, add to the that the thickness of the glass and the efficiency drops dramatically.

The "solar freakin roadways" project has already been debunked as pure lunacy.

Thunderf00t and EEVblog have both proved them to be financial white elephants.

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