China driving toward innovation with solar highway
JINAN, CHINA — On a smoggy afternoon, huge log carriers and oil tankers thundered down a highway and hurtled around a curve at the bottom of a hill. Only a single guardrail that hadn’t been reinforced stood between the traffic and a ravine.
The route could make for tough driving under any conditions. But experts are watching it for one feature in particular: The highway curve is paved with solar panels.
“If it can pass this test, it can fit all conditions,” said Li Wu, chair of Shandong Pavenergy, the company that made the plastic-covered solar panels that carpet the road. If his product fares well, it could have a major impact on the renewable energy sector, and on the driving experience, too.
The experiment is the latest sign of China’s desire to innovate in, and dominate, the market for renewable energy. The country already produces three-quarters of the solar panels sold globally, and its wind-turbine manufacturing industry is also among the world’s largest.
The potential appeal of solar roads — modified solar panels that are installed in place of asphalt — is clear. Generating electricity from highways and streets, rather than in fields and deserts packed with solar panels, could conserve a lot of land.
Because roads run through and around cities, the electricity could be used practically next door to where it is generated. That means virtually no power would be lost in transmission, as can happen with projects in outlying locations. And the land is essentially free because roads are needed anyway.
China’s leaders in solar road development are Pavenergy and Qilu Transportation. The two companies are working together here in Jinan, in Shandong province, with Pavenergy making panels for Qilu, a large, stateowned highway construction and management company that operates the highway.
Still, a litany of outstanding challenges means the wide deployment of solar roads is a long way off. For one, they are less efficient than rooftop solar panels at converting the sun’s light into electricity.
Solar roads are also more expensive than asphalt. It costs about US$120 a square metre, or about $11 a square foot, to resurface and repair an asphalt road each decade.