Zon-e-weg: sunny road

The Dutch Organization for Applied Scientific Research ( TNO ) some time ago presented the concept of "Solar Road" ("Zon-e-weg").
The TNO brochure (PDF, 1 MB, niderl.) States:

At 135,470 km of Dutch roads, the amount of sunlight falling is more than enough to provide with energy the entire transport that runs along them. The use of this energy can provide huge environmental benefits. As a first step, TNO plans together with Rijkswaterstaat (a division of the Ministry of Transport responsible for road and water communications) and several enterprises to launch a pilot project of a road with built-in solar cells — zon-e-weg.


The press also reported that the United States has already launched the first prototype of such a road. The Netherlands, which has enormous “environmental ambitions” and constantly claims to be the country most actively developing renewable energy sources, is not going to lag behind.
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TNO plans to develop the idea of ​​American colleagues.

Firstly, since the road coverage should be transparent, it will give a new impetus to the development of technologies and materials for construction.

Secondly, such technologies will significantly simplify the addition of new features to the road. Thus, the possibility of embedding in it sensors and LEDs that implement “electronic marking” or lighting is being considered.

Lyrical digression. As far as I know, the Dutch roads are still quite innovative.
For example, the vast majority of intersections use intelligent traffic control systems that use sensors under the road to determine the presence of cars and motorcycles waiting to travel / turn.
Almost all along the highways, radars are installed to track the flow velocity and displays that warn of traffic jams in advance.
On especially dangerous curves in the roads, LED “tracks” are installed.

In the first implementations of the road, the received energy will be transferred to cars, apparently, at the charging points. Also in the plans of TNO - the development of wireless energy transfer technologies, but here, as I understand it, we are talking about a more distant future.

The implementation of the "pilot" is expected in a period of two to three years. It also considers the possibility of using sidewalks and bicycle lanes (of which there are a great many in the Netherlands) as “sunny roads”.

It is curious: in the comments to the article , municipal workers offer their roads for a pilot project.

By the way

Already, the roofs of private houses in Amsterdam and some other cities are rented from their owners for the placement of solar panels. Here is an example : it is stated that for 15 years you earn 30 thousand euro (€ 2 thousand / year) on this, and after that the panels generally become your property.

The total share of green energy in the country is about 4%. Of these, about 1% is obtained from wind turbines. Another 2% comes from biofuel plants (compost, food waste, etc.).

By 2020, it is planned to increase the share of such energy to 20%.