Dutch bike path tests solar panels

KROMMENIE, Netherlands – A project dubbed “SolaRoad” gets underway in the Netherlands this week, testing roadways as a potential canvas to collect solar energy. Fittingly for the cycle-crazy Dutch, the first SolaRoad is a bike path near Amsterdam.

The path is built of massive, Lego-like modules of solar panels embedded in concrete, each with heavy-duty glass on top protecting them from wear. An additional rough, translucent plastic coating ensures cyclists don’t slip.

Sten de Wit of engineering firm TNO said Tuesday each square yard of road generates 50-70 kilowatt hours of energy per year. That’s about enough for the initial strip of 70 yards to supply power to one or two Dutch households.

The test in the town of Krommenie is slated to run three years and will cost $3.7 million, funded equally by the province of North Holland and a consortium of Dutch companies eager to commercialize solar roads.

Although using roads for solar power may seem inconvenient and costly, De Wit said it enjoys significant advantages. Most obviously, the potential generating area is all but unlimited: in the Netherlands there are 22,000 miles of designated bike path alone.

Unlike power plants, solar roads can be located near where people live, and they still wouldn’t take up land needed for other purposes.

De Wit said despite the high costs of designing, building, installing and measuring performance of the first SolaRoad, successor projects may be profitable within a decade.