World's first solar cycle lane opens in the Netherlands
The SolaRoad is around 100 metres long
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2014-11-13 21:33 GMT
A short stretch of the bike path connecting the city's suburbs of Krommenie and Wormerveer has been embedded with solar panels that could potentially produce enough electricity to power three houses. Henk Kamp, Netherlands' Minister of Economic Affairs, and Provincial-Executive Elisabeth Post cycled the first few metres of the path to mark the completion of the scheme, which is the world's first public road with embedded panels.
Constructed by the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) at a cost of some €3.5 million ($4.4 million), the SolaRoad is around 100 metres (328 feet) long, and comprises concrete modules of 2.5 by 3.5 metres (8 feet by 11.5 feet), with solar cells laid under a glass top in one direction. In the other direction, different kinds of top layers have been added.The path is not adjustable — that might knock a few commuters off their bikes — so it doesn't have the production power of rooftop panels, and produces around 30% less energy.
However, if successful, the scheme could be adapted for around 20% of the Netherlands' 140,000-km (87,000-mile) road network, according to the Guardian. Here's whats happening:
@John_OCal Solar bike path, so very #healthycity @UKHCN 'health + environment' http://t.co/sWy1Di7DS8 @SolaRoadNL pic.twitter.com/CO0xmRB4O0
— Marcus Grant (@MarcusxGrant) October 21, 2014Persbericht: SolaRoad geopend door minister Kamp - http://t.co/1rqBrlWhJj pic.twitter.com/AnOIZmrMjC
— SolaRoad (@SolaRoadNL) November 12, 2014A lot of kids in action on SolaRoad today. On Nov 12th we'll tell why. pic.twitter.com/7SUPkcV1SJ
— SolaRoad (@SolaRoadNL) November 2, 2014