Solar Bike Lane Produces Enough Power For Three Homes

The world's first solar bike lane has been installed in The Netherlands and it is capable of producing an impressive amount of power. In fact, the bike lane produces enough green electricity to power three homes and it's the world's first bike lane capable of doing so. Krommenie, a city about 25 kilometers from Amsterdam, is where the bike lane was installed.

The bike path is 70 meters long and will be extended to 100 meters by 2016. Rectangular concrete models are used in the construction for the path and those modules contain the solar cells encased in a one-inch thick layer of glass that is strong enough to withstand a truck.

While the solar bike path is capable of producing enough power for three homes, the nature of the path design is 30% less efficient than roof mounted solar panels. This is because the panels in the bike path can't be oriented to the sun.

The bike path is set to launch on November 12 and the project to create and install the path has cost €1.5 euros. Once the project is complete, the price will soar to €3 million euros. The consortium behind the project, called SolaRoad, believes that eventually roads of this sort could be used to power electric vehicles that use them.

SOURCE: BBC.com