Smart highways

Smart highway and smart road are terms for a number of different proposals to incorporate technologies into roads for generating solar energy, for improving the operation of autonomous cars, for lighting, and for monitoring the condition of the road. The world's first photovoltaic road was under construction in Tourouvre, Orne, France in November-December 2016.

Intelligent transportation systems usually refers to the use of information and communication technologies (rather than innovations in the construction of the roadway) in the field of road transport, including infrastructure, vehicles and users, and in traffic management and mobility management, as well as for interfaces with other modes of transport.

Photovoltaic pavement is a form of pavement that generates electricity by collecting solar power with photovoltaics. Parking lots, foot paths, driveways, streets and highways are all candidate locations where this material could be used.

In 2013 Students at the Solar Institute at George Washington University installed a solar panel walking path designed by Onyx Solar, something they call solar pavement.

SolaRoad is a system being developed by the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), the Ooms Groep, Imtech and the Netherlands province of North Holland. They plan to install their panels on 100 m of cycle path in Krommenie, Netherlands in November 2014. A variant concept of a "solar road" installed in Avenhorn, by Ooms Avenhorn Holding AV, uses asphalt and tarmac to absorb the sun’s rays and heat water for use in domestic heating.

The Solar Roadways company of Idaho, USA, is developing a prototype system to replace current roads, parking lots, and driveways with photovoltaic solar road panels that generate electricity.

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Wikipedia