China built 2000 meter long solar highway with transparent concrete over solar panels

[Rhiannon12866]

Qilu Transportation Development Group, a state-owned transport firm operating in Shandong, is completing a 2000 meter solar highway in China.

The road’s composition is made of three distinct layers, with transparent concrete on top protecting the solar panels beneath. The bottom layer is a strip of insulation that will protect the panels from the earth’s elements. Chinese solar inverter firm Growatt has supplied its string inverters for the project.

The Jinan South Ring Expressway creeps into the city and will not only plug into the grid but will also serve as a research prototype, with engineers from Tongji University – who developed the core technology for the project – stressing that in the future this solar-powered stretch of road could actually charge electric vehicles as they drive along it.

Tongji University professor of transportation engineering Zhang Hongchao said that he hopes the solar highway can kickstart the development of a national network of smart roads that would become “mobile solar charging treasures” able to not only power vehicles but also provide pre-emptive technical support, manage driverless fleets and harvest big data to smooth traffic flows.

This project follows on from a 660-square meter solar-powered pavement developed in Jinan earlier this year to test the university’s solar-powered concrete slabs, which boast anti-skid performance and the ability to use some of the electricity gleaned to heat up and thus melt snow and ice before it forms.

The panels cover 5,875 square meters (63,238 square feet).

According to the report from Quartz, the road cost around 3,000 yuan ($458) per sq m, higher than regular streets.

No more at link: https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/01/china-built-2000-meter-long-solar-highway-with-transparent-concrete-over-solar-panels.html

[msongs]

1. republicans are wrecking the country. dems better lead the way forward on these issues! for example

"the jobs of the future are here NOW with solar and wind." etc

[Rhiannon12866]

2. Exactly. They want to drag us back to the bad old days

Where people died in mines and many died young of illness that we know how to prevent today.

Clean power is our future and it's already become more economical.

[Sophia4]

3. China is leading. We are allowing ourselves to lag behind.

This is not good for us in the U.S.

[TwistOneUp]

4. Transparent Concrete?

What is *that*? Sounds futuristic, like the "transparent aluminum" envisioned in Star Trek...

[Rhiannon12866]

5. That's why I made a point of including the photo

[TreasonousBastard]

6. Do a search-- it's interesting stuff that's been around for a while...

Basically, you mix fiberoptic threads in with the concrete and it's not actually transparent, but does allow light to pass thorough.

This is the kind of stuff we used to do here, until research budgets were slashed.

[B Stieg]

7. Meanwhile, back in the USA, Trump is trying to "save" coal

Make America what again?

[marble falls]

8. Gasp for air. Make America Gasp for Air Again. It just didn't fit on the caps.

[beachbum bob]

9. US Corporations and our govt allowing America to become a 2nd rate technology entity....

I remember when America LED the world. Time to make America, America again


thats the motto we should us...MAKE AMERICA AMERICA AGAIN, toss the conservatives out with the garbage

[hunter]

10. I still don't get it.

How does this make sense?

This kind of solar is expensive, the longevity is likely to be very poor, and the photovoltaic panels would be much more efficient and longer lasting up above the ground.

What problem does this technology solve?

[NNadir]

11. I'm sure the grease and rubber will be less noxious than ash and dust in California...

...and of course, China already bears most of the toxicology burden of so called "renewable energy" and is experienced in handling electronic waste, so it will all end up pretty much unchanged.

It gets to mix two of the most odious forms of "distributed energy," the automobile and the solar industry, so it should work just great for future people seeking grants to study toxicology.

[gristy]

12. Translucent concrete. Not transparent

They put up to 5% optical fibers by volume in the concrete. So you'll get at best 5% optical transmission. Probably less. So the net efficiency of your solar panel on the other side of this "transparent" concrete just dropped from 35% to less than a percent.

Here's a paper I found that wasn't behind a paywall: http://www.internationaljournalssrg.org/IJCE/2016/Volume3-Issue3/IJCE-V3I3P113.pdf

[TexasTowelie]

13. China's heralded 'solar highway' closed after thieves stole one of the panels

It was supposed to be China’s grand “photovoltaic highway” — a solar energy-collecting, 0.6-mile stretch of road that symbolized the country’s extraordinary clean energy ambitions.

But that was last month. Five days after the road opened in the industrial city of Jinan for testing on Dec. 28, inspectors found that one six-foot panel was missing — allegedly plundered by thieves, according to the Qilu Evening News, a local newspaper. The purported thieves had also damaged seven surrounding panels. The road has since been closed.

“We can speculate the damage was not done by hand, nor does it appear it was done by a big vehicle,” Xu Dehao, a construction worker at Shandong Pavenergy, the company overseeing the project, told the newspaper. “It was more likely done by a professional team.”

Affected parts of the road appeared to be “corroded by liquid,” Xu said, adding that a nearby fence was damaged.

http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-china-solar-theft-20180109-story.html

[Rhiannon12866]

14. Well, so much for that! Geez...

I was thinking of this as a prototype - since I did the math and it's not very long, hardly a "highway." That's really too bad.