Netherlands Becomes 1st Country To Use Solar Panel Roads
In the suburbs of Amsterdam, a 70-meter stretch of solar-powered roadway opened for the public on November 12th, 2014. The roadway is “made up of rows of crystalline silicon solar cells, which were embedded into the concrete of the path and covered with a translucent layer of tempered glass.” The new solar road, which costs €3m (AUD$4.3m), was created as the first step in a project that the local government hopes will see the path being extended to 100 metres by 2016. More complimentary plans are also on the table as the country intends to power everything from traffic lights to electric cars using solar panels. School children and commuters see the bike road as very useful and a cool part of their daily commute, with approximately 2,000 cyclists expected to use it on an average day. The road, which is named by the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) as SolaRoad, is set to open in the next week. It is made up of rows of crystalline silicon solar