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1. INTRODUCTION
Reducing the distance between people, markets, services and knowledge – or simply
‘getting people connected’ – is a great part of what economic growth is all about.
Although virtual connectivity has become increasingly important today with the
emergence of new communication avenues, a good and reliable transport network remains
vital. There is a very strong positive correlation between a country's economic
development and the quality of its road network.
Another basic need that affects the growth of society is the sources of energy. For most of
the last 200 years, the steady growth in energy consumption has been closely tied to rising
levels of prosperity and economic opportunity in much of the world. However, humanity
now finds itself confronting an enormous energy challenge. This challenge has at least two
critical dimensions. It has become clear that current patterns of energy use are
environmentally unsustainable. The overwhelming reliance on fossil fuels, in particular,
threatens to alter the Earth’s climate to an extent that could have grave consequences for
the integrity of both natural systems and vital human systems. Globally, a large fraction of
the world’s population—more than two billion people by some estimates—still lacks
access to one or several types of basic energy services, including electricity, clean cooking
fuel and an adequate means of transportation.
A solar roadways is a series of structurally engineered solar panels that are drive on. The
idea is to replace current petroleum based asphalt roads, parking lots and driveways with
solar road panel that collect energy to be used by homes and businesses, and ultimately to
be able to store excess energy in or alongside the solar roadways. Thus renewable energy
replaces the need for the current fossil fuels used for the generation of electricity, which
cut greenhouse gasses and helps in sustainable development.
Structurally solar roads are divided into three basic layers. They are road surface layer,
electronics layer and base plate layer and are shown in Fig. 2.1
2.1. Road Surface Layer: As this is the top most layers of the assembly & also from this
layer the solar rays will reach up-to the photovoltaic cells; they should be translucent and
high-strength. Also this is made in such a fashion that it is rough enough to provide great
traction to avoid the skidding of vehicles. As the material is made rough but the material
used is translucent, it still passes sunlight through it to the solar collector photovoltaic
cells embedded within it, along with LEDs and a heating element. And it is tough enough
for handling today's heaviest loads under the worst conditions and it is made waterproof so
that it can protect electronics layer beneath it.
Fig. 2.2 shows a tempered glass used as a transparent layer. Acrylic, polycarbonate, and
tempered glass are the typical materials used in transparent structural applications. The
mechanical properties of these materials are shown in the table 2.1.
These materials all demonstrate higher compressive strengths than typical concrete
pavements, which indicate that they should all be able to operate as a transparent layer
within a solar road panel through diligent design. The large structural difference comes
through the Young’s Modulus of the materials, as tempered glass is far more rigid under
loading than concrete while acrylic and polycarbonate will be nearly as flexible as an
asphalt pavement is currently. This could cause issues in designing the transparent layer
for the polymer materials as they are cantilevered over the solar cells and large deflections
should be avoided as they may cause damage to the solar cells.
Another large difference between these materials is the way in which they are most likely
to fail under loading. Polymer materials under vehicle loading typically demonstrate
plastic deformation through rutting and shoving of the top layers of the cast material. Also,
the optical grade versions of these polymers, which are required in order to maximize the
Department of Civil Engineering 3 SSET
Solar Roadways Seminar Report 2016
solar energy that is able to reach the photovoltaic cells, are typically specified for
temperatures above 0°C, meaning that they should not perform as well as expected under
winter conditions.
The tempered glass, on the other hand, does not fail through plastic deformation like the
polymer. In order to safely design a tempered glass panel it must conform to typical glass
flooring standards, so the structure must use multiple redundant panes of tempered glass
which are laminated together, so that if any one layer fail the others would still be able to
support the design load for the structure. The tempering process also means that if a pane
catastrophically fails it would break into very small shards instead of large sheets of glass
while the lamination also helps bind these broken shards to the other layers of glass in the
panel instead of spreading into the rest of the environment.
The last set of important differences between these materials is in cost and texturing. The
tempered glass is substantially more expensive than the cast polymers. Also, all of these
materials can have surface textures applied to them through a number of processes during
casting or in post-processing through etching.
From all these observations normally tempered glass is used as the transparent layer for a
solar road. Another property of glass is its hardness. The table 2.2 shows object ranked
according Mohs’ Scale of Hardness.
By comparison, it is asphalt that is soft. But Solar Road Panels are made of tempered glass
and tempered glass is 4-5 times stronger than non-tempered glass. Further testing has
revealed that the surface of the panel road is less slippery than a normal road. And they are
easy to maintain. During winter, they melt the snow off them, making it safe for
drivingbut also possible to collect sunlight. Fig 2.3 shows a solar road surface of tempered
glass.
The key parameter in designing the transparent layer is determining the thickness of glass
required on the surface. Cantilevered glass panes in floors are very common, and are
heavily overdesigned to typically reduce the anxiety of people walking over them,
however they also span much greater gaps than the glass in this solar road panel will need
to. One of the main elements of their design is that they consist of multiple glass layers so
that if any one layer fail the others would still be able to support the design load for the
structure. Through calculations it is possible to determine the stress development and
induced deflection in the glass over the cell compartments, which must be kept under a
threshold defined by the glass used and is a function of the glass thickness, shape of the
cantilevered section, and load applied over the unsupported glass.
Optical layer and base layer together constitutes the structural layers of the solar road.
Material Selection: The best materials for use in the structural layers of the solar road
panel are steel, aluminium, and fibreglass. Aluminium is one of the most popular materials
for use in landing mats, proving that structures made from the material are able to
withstand mission critical static and dynamic tire loads. Due to the relative material
properties of aluminium and steel it is known that steel should do a better job of
withstanding the loading from vehicle tires at a lower cost though also at a higher weight.
Lastly, it was found that multiply fibreglass panels are able to withstand repetitive loading
on poor sub-bases without failing. In addition to being low cost and light weight it is also
the easiest to build a research prototype for as either the aluminium or steel options would
have required a custom casting operation, which is a very expensive and difficult process.
Since the base layer should be as thick a layer of fiberglass as possible, the optical layer
was designed first as it has more detailed design requirements. In order to accommodate
the solar cells within the panel, cut-outs need to be made from several of the fibreglass
layers in order to allow light to reach the cells embedded in the structure. With a
multiply fibreglass structure this is simple, as square sections can be cut from the
fibreglass sheet prior to adhering the layers together.
With the cells chosen, the next step is to connect them together to assemble the panel.
Typically strings of solar cells will be connected in series to increase the voltage generated
by the collector, as the current output is already reasonable (5 amperes) from each cell.
In order to connect these together, the routing as shown in Figure 2.5, where the squares
represent the solar cells, the two lines between represent the two power connection lines
between the cell bus bars, and the positive and negative signs indicate the input and output
lines from the solar road panel respectively.
2.2.2 Base Plate Layer: While the electronics layer collects energy from the sun, it is the
base plate layer that distributes power (collected from the electronics layer) and data
signals (phone, TV, internet, etc.) "down-line" to all homes and businesses connected to
the Solar Roadway. The base layer is made weatherproof so that it can provide the
electronic layer above it.
The base structure is straight forward while using multiply fibreglass as the bulk of the
structure is simply layers of fibreglass adhered together. While some accommodations will
need to be made for the cell compartments, interconnection routing, and panel
housing, the main challenge of this section is determining the thickness required in order
to withstand the desired loads. As the overall design of the solar road panel is a composite
material, between glass and fibreglass, it is important to make this thickness decision
while bearing in mind the performance of the glass layer. It is known that glass is a very
rigid material that, in compression, behaves very similarly to steel. As a result the design
incorporates a very rigid glass layer over a, comparatively, very elastic fibreglass
structure. Since the panel will be contained by a housing it is assumed that the glass'
performance will govern the deflections within the panel with the fibreglass layer
providing resistance to ensure the glass does not fail in tensile loading. To this end, the
multiply fibreglass panel that can resist traffic loading on sand consisted of 4-ply
fibreglass6. For this structure that will be the lower limit for the number of whole
fibreglass ply layers that must be in the design. While the appropriate upper limit is
unknown, the design requirements specify that the panel must be made from readily
available material, so the maximum available size of the housing will govern the number
of layers of fibreglass used in the design.
As the solar road panel being designed is made of several different materials it is
important to ensure that they will be held together firmly during testing and operation. One
of the key design requirements was that the panel should allow easy maintenance, so the
housing used must be removable so that the inside of the structure can be maintained
during operation and instrumented during testing. In order to accomplish this it was
determined that a metal enclosure was required. In order to contain the layers it would
need to overlap the transparent and structural layers, on the top and bottom of the panel
respectively, while also covering the sides of the panel to stop layers from slipping at the
interface. To accomplish this, the most logical option is to customize a stock aluminium
channel to fit around the layers and use coated bolts and nuts to hold the housing to the
fibreglass structure.
The housing of the panel is constructed out of aluminium C-channeland various weather-
stripping and edge sealing componentsas shown in Fig 3.1. The first step in fabricating the
housing is to take the aluminium frame members are trim and angle the ends to a 45°
profile. The next step involved cutting and applying a plastic edge trim to the edges of the
aluminium frame members. This was completed to protect the structural materials of the
solar road panel prototypes from contact with the frame members. The last step involved
cutting and applying weather-resistant foam to selective internal portions of the aluminium
frame. This was done to create a flexible buffer between the structural materials and the
frame so that hard contact would be minimized. The foam inserts also helped make-up
gaps between the frame members and the structural materials.
The final panel assembly was accomplished by stacking all of the structural layers in
order. This resulted in a composite structure which, from the bottom up, consisted of the
base layer, two optical layers, and the acquired tempered glass structure as shown in fig
3.2. The frame members were then positioned around the edges of the panel and held in
place with tie-straps while the corners were taped to hold together.
3.3 Panel Weatherproofing: The design of the housing, and how the other layers are
integrated with it, is limited by the design of the weatherproofing system for the panel. In
an optimal solar module this would be done using an epoxy, however this is not possible
due to the maintenance requirements on a solar road panel. To accommodate this then,
various edge sealing and rubber interfaces need to be used to stop water transport into the
panel
3.4 Water collection and treatment: The rain or snow water can flow off of the road and
through the grates to a filtration area. The water is gravity fed through filtration socks (or
other treatment options that customers may wish to add) and into a storage tank below the
frost line. The water can be discharged into an existing drainage system or it can be
pumped from the storage tank in either direction along the road. Destinations may include
a bigger filtration facility, an aquifer, or an agricultural centre. Fig 3.3 represents the water
collection in solar road.
3.5 Base of solar road: In the field these panels would be installed on a structured base,
be it compacted granular materials or a paved asphalt or concrete structure, which
provides greater support to the panel and must be taken into account during material
selection. Figure 3.4 shows a solar road installed on existing asphalt road and Fig 3.5
shows a solar road installed on compacted granular material.
4. ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY
Construction costs per mile of road depend on location, terrain, type of construction,
number of lanes, lane width, durability, number of bridges, etc. With respect to asphalt, it
costs more to build a new road than to rehabilitate a road or add lanes. Roads cost more to
build in urban areas than in rural areas. Roads in mountainous terrain are more expensive
to build than roads on flat land
Costs of installation are an interesting one. Arguably, costs can be reduced by mass
production, but it is worthwhile to remember that solar panels and LEDs etc. are already
mass produced.
The solar roadway alternative could be made at less cost with an energy return while
phasing out the old system. As old roads are scheduled to be under maintenance, the
process of solar roadway placement could occur seamlessly. The alternatives of airports
and parking lots are under varying timelines. Whenever fiscal dilemmas become the
primary motivating factor for a state or municipal budget, the option of solar roadways
should be presented and defended.
The Solar Roadway is an intelligent road system that provides clean renewable energy,
while providing safer driving conditions, along with power and data delivery. The Solar
Roadway will pay for itself through the generation of electricity along with other forms of
revenue. The same money that is being used to build and resurface current roads can be
used to build the Solar Roadways. Then, since coal-fired and nuclear power plants will no
longer be needed, the costs of all electricity generation plants can also be rolled back into
the Solar Roadways.
"Security concerns" includes terrorism. We've all seen the news reports about suicide
bombers boarding crowded buses and detonating themselves. Vehicles such as fuel trucks
are also potential targets. Currently, it's difficult to track these vehicles, other than by
radio. The Solar Roadways form a wide area network, with each individual Solar Road
Panel containing a microprocessor board with its own address. Think of the Solar
Roadways as the internet, with each individual Solar Road Panel acting as an online
computer. If we placeRFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags on high risk vehicles
that we want to track, the Solar Roadways would track them in real time and we'd always
know exactly where they were at all times. Fig 5.1 shows intelligent highway.
Accidents drastically reduced unlike the dark roads we drive on by night today, the Solar
Roadways will have LEDs which will "paint" the lanes, and can be instantly customized as
needed.
A recent study shows that the solar-road studs to light-up the lines of roads during night
time in an area of England, which has reduced night time accidents by 70%.There is no
need to expend energy lighting desolate roads when no cars are traveling, so the intelligent
roadways will tell the LEDs to light up only when it senses cars on its surface - say 1/2
mile ahead and 1/4 mile behind the vehicle as it travels. This way, drivers will know an
oncoming car is ahead when they see the lights on the other side of the road begin to light
up ahead
The LEDs can also be programmed to move along with cars at the speed limit and it gives
warning to the drivers instantly when they are driving too fast or the speed of the car
increases beyond the speed limit. The LEDs will also be used to paint words right into the
road; it gives warning to drivers if an animal arrives on the road, a detour ahead, an
accident, or construction work. Central control stations will be able to instantly customize
the lines and words in real time, alleviating traffic congestion and making the roads more
efficient as well as safer. Fig 5.2 shows illuminated roads.
Electric cars have actually been around for a long time. They've just never been very
practical, due to the fact that they have to be recharged and there has never been an
infrastructure for that. The Solar Roadways allow electric cars to recharge at any rest stop
or business places that have a parking lots made up of Solar Road Panels. Fig 5.3 shows
an electric vehicle charging from a point in solar road.
Our current power grid is based on centralized power stations. Distribution of power is
handled through transmission lines (overhead and underground), relay stations, and
transformers. When a line goes down (ice, lighting, wind, tress, utility pole hit by car,
etc.), everyone on the wrong end of the line loses power until the damage is repaired. If a
power station goes down, an entire section of the country goes dark. The Solar Roadways
on the other hand, replaces all current centralized power stations including coal and
nuclear-powered electricity generation plants. With the Solar Roadway, the road becomes
the power grid, eliminating the need for unsightly utility poles and relay stations. Power is
generated everywhere - every road, parking lot, and driveway. No more power outages,
roaming or otherwise. The Solar Roadways generates "secure" energy; it can't be
deliberately shut down. Not by terrorists, not by power companies, it simply can't be shut
down.
The panels contain low power heating elements intended to keep the temperature above
32°F (0 °C) to prevent snow and ice from accumulating. The power going to the heaters is
generated by the panels themselves. A "Cable Corridor" running along the road can
deposit snowmelt or storm water below the frost line, bring it to a treatment facility, or
deposit the liquid into existing drainage systems.
Among a city or municipality’s largest financial burdens is the cost of lighting its streets.
Any town or metropolitan city is well lit throughout the night at the expense of the
taxpayers. Current technology uses old low-pressure sodium light bulbs which are of
another era. Induction light bulbs have been shown to be up to forty percent more efficient
whereby saving both money and energy. This, coupled with the understanding that the
solar roadway would also have LED lighting encased within itself, would provide the most
efficiently well-lit roadways, to date. Perhaps the new lighting system could be partially
powered by the solar roadway, saving cities and states a huge financial burden.
ASPHALT ROAD:
SOLAR ROAD:
The world’s first solar bike lane ‘Solaroad’ is available for use in the Netherlands. The
bike path that connects the Amsterdam suburbs of Krommenie and Wormerveer is a 70-
meter stretch of solar-powered roadway. Fig 7 shows the solar road in Netherland.
The road was constructed by the company Solaroad and opened to public on November
2014.Dutch economics minister Henk Kamp cycled the first 70-metre pilot stretch of bike
path on a busy provincial bicycle route north of Amsterdam.
The payback from energy generated is better than what was expected. The company has
revealed that its road has generated 3,000kWh of electricity over six months, or enough to
power a single person's home for a year.
The path only covers a 230-foot stretch in a Dutch village and provides a prototype for
getting more energy from longer, wider roads.The project aims to harvest the sun's energy
using an approach that could eventually also be used on roads.
Features:
Solar road was built over concrete layer as modules each measuring 2.5 by 3.5
metres, embedded with solar panels covered in tempered glass.
The modules are interconnected end-to-end to form the cycle path surface in a way
that ensures no height differences at the transitions for ease of riding.
The road construction is also designed to avoid damage from in the soil
underneath, or from expansion and contraction due to temperature changes.
According to TNO (Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research), the total
electricity consumption in the Netherlands is around 110,000 GWh and increases annually
by about three percent. But all suitable roofs in the Netherlands -- if equipped with solar
panels -- could only supply approximately 25 percent of the Dutch electricity demand.
However, the approximately 140,000 km of roads in the Netherlands cover a total area of
about 400-500 km2, which is significantly larger than the total suitable roof surface area.
With the integration of solar cells in road infrastructure, there is a greater potential for
creating a complementary market for solar panels. The Netherlands is a bike-friendly
country, home to around 18 million bicycles and 21,748 miles of bike lanes
The aim was to have the solar road commercially available on Dutch roads within the next
five years as the number of electrically-powered cars and bicycles grows. Electric bikes
and cars will one day be able to refuel using contactless charging directly from the road or
bike path.
In November 2015 it was announced that the path has produced 9800 kWh of electricity
in one year. . The GPS coordinates for the Solaroad are: 52.493875, 4.767134
8. CONCLUSION
The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP21 was held in Paris, France,
from November 30 to December 12, 2015. The Paris Agreement sets a goal of keeping
global warming well below 2°C and also for the first time agrees to pursue efforts to limit
the increase in temperature to 1.5°C. India’s Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and
French President Mr François Hollande launched the International Solar Alliance (ISA) at
the COP21 Climate Conference in Paris on November 30, 2015 as a special platform for
mutual cooperation among 121 solar resource rich countries lying fully or partially
between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
In December Colas (Civil Engineering firm in France) presented Wattway (solar road
panels by Colas) at COP21 and a 20 m² section of the solar road was installed at the
entrance of the Parc des Expositions Paris-Le Bourget. As a part of reducing global
warming and finding new energy resources France is paving solar road for 1000 kms.
In India 60% of energy is produced from fossil fuels and the CO2 emission in India is
2406 million (3rd inCO2 emission). In order to keep the global warming within limits
renewable sources of energy are in need. India is densely populated and has high solar
insolation, an ideal combination for using solar power in India. The soar road installed in
Netherland, a country nearer to polar region, produces 9800 kWh energy per year. India
being nearer to equator is expected to produce much more solar power.
The solar road and the smart roads that come with them can make a major environmental
as well as social difference. They can offer new major source of clean energy which on its
own will greatly impact the climate in a positive way. But smart roads can also optimize
our traffic so that work productivity is not lost, fuel is preserved and many accidents are
avoided. These panels may be a big investment at first but they will, without a doubt, pay
off in the long term, not only financially but environmentally as well.
“Everyone has power. No more power shortages, no more roaming power outages, no
more need to burn coal (50% of greenhouse gases). Less need for fossil fuels and less
dependency upon foreign oil. Much less pollution. How about this for a long term
advantage: an electric road allows all-electric vehicles to recharge anywhere: rest stops,
parking lots, etc. They would then have the same range as a gasoline-powered vehicle.
Internal combustion engines would become obsolete. Our dependency on oil would come
to an abrupt end.”
It's time to upgrade our infrastructure - roads and power grid - to the 21st century.
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