Sci/Tech
Make Way For These Environment-friendly Roads Made of Recycled Plastic and Solar Panels
Say hello to these futuristic eco-friendly roads: an electricity-generating road, and a road made of recycled plastic!
Global warming and climate change are really serious issues that plague us. From the overload of non-biodegradable plastic wastes and the threat of depleting fuel, we must always look for innovative ways to solve these impending problems.
Good thing these issues are being tackled by some independent startups in the Netherlands. Two different groups are revolutionizing the ways that we will build our roads in the future. Introducing the SolaRoad of Krommenie, Netherlands and the Plastic Roads of Rotterdam. Read on and be inspired by these awesome Dutch innovations. Way to go Netherlands!
The Electricity-generating Road: SolaRoad
Come to think of it, all the roads and highways in the face of the earth surely stretch a thousand miles and imagine these perpetually exposed to the sun during daytime. Even if let’s say that there is a traffic jam and cars overshadow the roads, there is still a considerable amount of time that these roads catch sunlight. Now what if all that sunlight is converted to usable solar energy? That is exactly what the makers of SolaRoad were inspired to do.
A project of companies like TNO, Imtech, Provence and OOMS, the SolaRoad consists of your regular asphalt concrete roads but with a glass top layer. Beneath the glass are solar cells that catches the sunlight and converts it to electricity. The electricity can then be fed to a module back to the common electric supply for the residence area, or to power lampposts and many more. A prototype road measuring 100 meters is already built in a town in Krommenie, Netherlands. On November 10, 2015 they have reported that the road has produced 9800 kwh of electricity during its one year of operation. The said electricity generated is enough to power 3 houses all year round. And that’s using only a 100 meters of road!
Aerial view of the SolaRoad in Krommenie. As of now it is only open for walking and biking purposes.
Further research is being conducted to make the SolaRoads more efficient in catching and converting sunlight for electricity as well as making it sturdier to withstand the weight of heavier vehicles. But the advancements in this is truly great news for all environmentalists out there!
Here’s a video explaining the SolaRoad
Read one more revolutionary road of the future on the next page
The Recycled Road of Rotterdam
We sure have a big problem with our plastic wastes. Although efforts on recycling and reducing these wastes have been pushed, somehow using plastic products is an inevitable reality. As for building roads, we have depleting supplies of the materials used for road-building and repairs. Not to mention that concrete and asphalt degrade over the years and needs to be reconstructed, refilled or renovated every 5 years or so.
Good thing that Anne Koudstaal and Simon Jorritsma of KWS Netherlands, the largest road-builder company in the country thought of an innovative way to replace asphalt blacktop roads with plastic. With this proposed recycled road made of plastic, the problem of plastic garbage and perpetual repairs are eliminated.
Koudstaal and Jorritsma of KWS Netherlands with their prototype concept of the Plastic Road.
The many good poins of having a recycled plastic road is that it is far more lighter than asphalt. Plastic can also be reinforced to withstand greater weights of cars and trucks. The plastic roads will also be waterproof and a hollow water reservoir or drainage underneath it is incorporated in the design to eliminate flooded roads. And one of the best parts is that we minimize our plastic wastes, and at the same time save on repairs. Since plastics don’t degrade at all that much, plastic roads can withstand for as much as 50 years without any repairs at all. The aesthetic quality of having colored roads other than the boring black asphalt is just an added bonus in my opinion.
A closer look at the concept of building the plastic road, with support beams underneath and flood reservoir.
As of now, the plastic road model is still being put into reality. A prototype is being built right now and the site will be in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The team is looking at completing a prototype within 2 to 3 years time.
The full concept of how the plastic road is supposed to look like
Amazing isn’t it? We sure hope both the SolaRoad and Plastic Road can pave the way for more eco-friendly roads and contribute to the solution of some of our most pressing and pertinent environmental issues. Visit this site for more info on the SolaRoad.
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