‘Clean Energy’ on the go: China set to unveil its majestic ‘Solar Highway’

NewsBharati    25-Dec-2017
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Beijing, December 25: While every nation is thriving hard to cut down carbon emissions, China is ahead of all. China set to unveil the majestic ‘Solar Highway’. As part of their larger goals to reduce carbon emission, Chinese officials recently released the first images of their new 'solar highway.'

This solar roadway project is part of one of China's most highly-trafficked areas, the Jinan City Expressway. In total, the solar roadways stretch 1.2 miles.

In order to both preserve the photovoltaic panels from pressure while optimizing its exposure to the sun, engineers developed a special transparent concrete to go on top of the solar panels.

"The photovoltaic panels, which look like pieces of glass, pave Jinan's city ring expressway and can hold middle size vans with strong friction.”

"With the capability of generating electricity under sunlight, photovoltaic roads can release power to electric vehicles passing on them. They are also able to instantly melt winter snow covering on the road."

What does the road consists of?

The top layer of the Jinan City solar highway is the aforementioned transparent concrete. The material contains nearly identical structural properties with standard grade asphalt. The middle layer is where the PV panels can be found. Several reports from officials use the words "weight bearing" to describe the solar panels -- an impressive feat given the technology's early struggles with being easily breakable. The bottom layer is an additional separative layer meant to keep the panels completely dry and away from the damp soil.

While the solar panels are "weight bearing," they might not be able to easily handle the load of large transport trucks. The road can safely handle vehicles as large as medium-sized trucks.

This isn't the country's first solar roadway. In fact, this new solar roadway will mark the second solar strip for the city of Jinan. The Quilu Transportation Development Group opened up the first roadway last September. It took 10 months to build and includes 790 square yards of solar paneling.