solaroad – Meanderthals https://internetbrothers.org A Hiking Blog Mon, 11 May 2015 22:29:41 +0000 en-US hourly 1 21607891 The World’s First Solar Road Is Producing More Energy Than Expected https://internetbrothers.org/2015/05/12/the-worlds-first-solar-road-is-producing-more-energy-than-expected/ https://internetbrothers.org/2015/05/12/the-worlds-first-solar-road-is-producing-more-energy-than-expected/#respond Tue, 12 May 2015 10:26:42 +0000 http://internetbrothers.org/?p=15328 In its first six months of existence, the world’s first solar road is performing even better than developers thought.

The road, which opened in the Netherlands in November of last year, has produced more than 3,000 kilowatt-hours of energy — enough to power a single household for one year.

“If we translate this to an annual yield, we expect more than the 70kwh per square meter per year,” Sten de Wit, a spokesman for the project — dubbed SolaRoad — said. “We predicted [this] as an upper limit in the laboratory stage. We can therefore conclude that it was a successful first half year.” De Wit said in a statement that he didn’t “expect a yield as high as this so quickly.”

The 230-foot stretch of road, which is embedded with solar cells that are protected by two layers of safety glass, is built for bike traffic, a use that reflects the road’s environmentally-friendly message and the cycling-heavy culture of the Netherlands. However, the road could withstand heavier traffic if needed, according to one of the project’s developers.

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