SolaRoad

The SolaRoad is the world's first bike path made from solar panels, and is a prototype project testing the feasibility of various proposal for smart highways. The 72-metre (236 ft) path opened in the week of 21 October 2014, and was designed by a consortium of organizations, which built the pathway in Krommenie, Netherlands.

The path was formally opened in November 2014 by the Dutch Minister of Energy Henk Kamp.

The technology was developed by a consortium consisting of Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), Imtech (Dynniq) and Ooms Civiel, with a grant of €1.5 million from the province (county) North Holland as owner of the path. The total cost of the pilot project was €3.5 million. In addition to the €1.5 million from the province North Holland were that contributions from TNO, Ooms Civil, Imtech (Dynniq) and the European PV-Sin project (partly subsidized by the Dutch government).

The road surface consists of prefabricated panels with a surface of 1 centimetre (0.39 in) thick hardened glass. Beneath the glass solar cells are installed. TNO states that this energy can be used for lighting of the road, traffic lights and road signs. The energy is also delivered to local dwellings. TNO thinks in future electrical vehicles might be driven by the road itself. This prototype will be studied over the next three years.

In the first month, the path delivered enough energy to sustain one family.

On 26 December 2014, a 1-square-metre (11 sq ft) section of the top-layer coating detached from the glass layer, and that portion of the bike path had to be repaired.

In October 2015 the top-layer coating was in such poor condition that it was replaced.

Critics of the technology see several problems:

After a six-month test engineers report results are "better than expected". "If we translate this to an annual yield, we expect more than the 70kWh per square metre per year," Sten de Wit, spokesman for SolaRoad, the company that put it in.

The EEVblog compared the 6 and 12 months trial results from SolaRoad with data from 3 rooftop solar systems within a few kilometers of the prototype road. The data showed that rooftop solar systems produced twice the output of the SolaRoad per square meter over the same period.

...
Wikipedia