Written by: People's Daily
Posted on: May 31, 2018 | 
| 中文
Inauguration of China's first photovoltaic highway in Jinan, Shangdong Province
“Solar photovoltaics” and “highway” are not unfamiliar concepts. What “chemical reaction” would the combination of both create? A case in point, “China’s first photovoltaic highway,” stretching 1.12 kilometers long, does catch people’s attention, as it takes shape in Jinan, capital of Shandong Province.
The trial stretch of the photovoltaic highway is part of Jinan's southern ring road, paved for 1.08 kilometers and covering a surface area of nearly 5,900 square meters. Equipped with distributed grid-connected generators, the trial highway has a peak power capacity of over 800 kilowatts, and when fully powered it is expected to generate 1 million kilowatt hours of electricity each year, which means it will undoubtedly yield enormous revenues.
The core technology applied on this photovoltaic highway is called, “technology of weight-bearing photovoltaic pavements,” designed and developed by Zhang Hongchao’s team, from the School of Transportation Engineering, Tongji University of Shanghai. The technology is designed to solve the problem of, “weight bearing” for the solar panels, i.e. to pave the road on the top, with a material which must be perfectly transparent, to guarantee a steady high level of the photoelectric conversion efficiency on the one hand, and capable of producing friction strong enough to meet the transportation safety requirements and durability to handle vans of different sizes and loads on the other hand.
As such, Zhang Hongchao’s team has designed a weight-bearing pavement structure with three layers. The top layer is a transparent concrete, characterized by high strength and light transmittance. The central layer is the solar panels, i.e. the solar-powered batteries to generate electricity, and the bottom layer is an insulation which provides physical protection to the solar panels and prevents dampness.
A mini-bus driver participant in the test said, “Driving on this road is just the same as driving on any other kind of road. It’s really good.”
The “photovoltaic highway” means that roadway transportation can become a new means of energy, indicating that where the road leads, there will be plenty of clean power resources, with power supplied not only for the road infrastructure like the road sign system but also for electric vehicles. In fact, the trial highway has already realized grid-connected power generation and installed wireless charging stations, providing charging service for electric vehicles. More than this, the trial stretch has also reserved electromagnetic coils, in case electric vehicle wireless charging technology becomes mature, which helps the electric vehicles to charge while moving on this highway. This indicates that the “photovoltaic highway” is paving the way for quashing the “range anxiety,” currently looming over electric vehicles, and providing electricity with the road infrastructure including charging stations extensively built, as well as dynamic charging service for electric vehicles through wireless charging technology.
With clean energy being at hand, the “photovoltaic highway” has made the conditions more realistic for smart transportation. The trial highway has reserved road ports, allowing future access to information collecting devices. The information concerning vehicles and traffic congestion will offer data, which will be summarized and analyzed with the data concerning other aspects, to offer support for the construction of smart transportation and intelligent city.
Internationally, the pioneers of this combination are a scientist couple in America. In 2006, this couple raised the concept of constructing “solar roads,” by replacing traditional asphalt roads, with solar panels and developing a kind of solar battery called “Solar Roadways.” This solar transportation system was later put to test. In December 2016, a single-lane “solar roadway,” 1000 meters long and 2 meters wide, was open to traffic at Tourouvre-au-Perche, Normandy, France.
The media reports on the “solar road” designed and developed by Chinese scientists, have appeared since September 2017. With the support of Professor Zhang Hongchao’s team, the photovoltaic road pilot zone covering 660 square meters, invested and constructed by Qilu Transportation Development Group has been completed, and grid-connected to generate electricity. The zone has also been equipped with electric vehicle charging stations, smart transportation guiding lines and other derived public facilities.
The scientific breakthrough achieved by China’s “photovoltaic highway” and the construction of the trial zone, have impressed people by painting a bright future for its development and application. From the viewpoint of Qu Shengchun, a researcher at Institute of semi-conductors CAS, “the large-scale promotion of the photovoltaic highway, technology depends in a great measure on the construction and maintenance costs. In fact, it is due to the limitation of high costs, that the projects of photovoltaic roadways in America and France are still at the trial stage, and are not able to be further developed.”
Translated by Lu Qingmei
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