Readers often complain that I do not know what I am talking about, and they must be right. After all, when I first wrote about the SolaRoad, a bike lane with embedded solar panels, I noted that “I still find it hard to think of a worse place to put solar panels than in the road, except perhaps in my basement floor.”

Then I covered how Dutch solar bicycle lane generating more power than expected and clearly still didn’t get it, writing “it still makes absolutely no sense at all.”

Then in my last post, Solar bicycle lane's first year is "a great success" I still clearly didn’t know what I was talking about, saying that it defies logic, and concluded “OK, they have proven that they can do it. They still have not proven that it makes any sense.”

Now Rogier van Rooij writing in CleanTechnica, tells us that the Dutch Solar Bike Path SolaRoad is successful and expanding. According to a press release, they have added 20 meters (66 feet) with new panels "better tailored to application in pavements. The elements no longer have a glass top layer. Two of the elements have thin-film solar cells embedded." This is promising. Rogier writes (and may be referring to the press release I quoted in my earlier post)

Despite the difficulties paired with embedding solar panels in a road, such as the flat angle in which the modules are positioned, the thick layer of protection glass covering them, and the high numbers of travellers passing over and blocking the sun, the amount of power generated quickly defied expectations. Already half a year after the cycle lane was inaugurated, SolaRoad sent out a press release stating that, with 3000 kWh generated, the solar panels were outperforming the 70 kWh annual per square meter expected threshold set in the lab. In its first year, the SolaRoad produced 9,800 kWh, roughly equivalent to the annual average consumption of three Dutch households.

Article from treehugger.com

by Lloyd Alter